The altar (plate XIX) in the _Tewakiva_ was begun about 10 A.M. on the
Assembly day, and was made by Pocine,[30] assisted by his uncle,
Puñsauwi, both members of the _Nañ-towa_, or Sand clan.
The preparations began with the manufacture of a clay effigy of the
Great Snake similar to but larger than that made by Anote in the
_Moñkiva_. The clay was moistened and kneaded on the floor, and then
rolled into a cylinder about three feet long, blunt at one end and
pointed at the other.
[Illustration: AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST No. 8., Vol. 1, PL. XIX
Drawn by MARY M. LEIGHTER
ALTAR IN THE TEWAKIVA AT HANO]
Four clay balls were made at the same time. One of these later served
as the base of a standard (_natci_) which was subsequently placed each
morning on the kiva hatch to warn the uninitiated not to enter. The
other three were placed back of the altar and supported the sticks
called the altar-ladders, which will be considered later.
Pocine outlined with meal on the floor a square figure which he
divided into two rectangular parts by a line parallel with the
northern side. He used meal of two colors--white for one rectangle,
and light brown or pinkish for the other. Having made the outlines of
the rectangle with great care, he carelessly sprinkled the enclosed
spaces with the meal, hardly covering the sand base upon which the
figures were drawn. He then added four triangular figures in meal on
the south or front side of the rectangular symbols. These images
represented rain-clouds, and were alternately white and brown.[31] To
the tips of these triangular rain-cloud figures he appended zigzag
continuations with lozenge-shaped tips representing the lightning of
the four cardinal points. A stone spearpoint or arrowhead was laid on
each lozenge-like tip of the zigzag lightning.[32]
The two men, Pocine and Puñsauwi, next raised the snake effigy and
bore it to a position back of the rectangular meal figures on the
floor. They deposited it in such a way that its head pointed
southward. Having set the snake effigy in the position which it was to
retain throughout the ceremony, Pocine sprinkled a black powder along
the back of the image, while his uncle inserted several kernels of
corn in the blunt end to represent sent the teeth of an upper jaw.
Two kernels of corn were then stuck into the head to indicate eyes,
and an imitation necklace, also of grains of corn, was made around the
neck of the idol. A double encircling row of corn grains was inserted
in the tail or pointed end of the effigy, and Pocine added a small
feather at the tip.
After the effigy had been put in position and adorned in the manner
described, both Pocine and his uncle again shelled ears of corn on the
rectangles of meal,[33] to which were added squash, melon, and other
seeds. These were regularly distributed, some being dropped along the
back of the image.
A row of eagle feathers was now inserted along the back of the effigy,
instead of in a ridge of sand as in the _Moñkiva_ altar. There were
twelve of these feathers, and they were placed at equal intervals from
the neck to the tail of the effigy. Puñsauwi then placed the three
balls of clay, previously mentioned, back of the image, and in each of
these balls he inserted two sticks, called _pahos_, similar to those
used on the altar of the _Moñkiva_. These are ancient objects, being
reputed to have descended from a remote past. One stick in each pair
was called the male, the other the female, as is true of all double
prayer-sticks used by the Hopi Indians. They are called _poñya-saka_,
"altar-ladders," and imitations[34] of them in miniature are made and
placed in shrines on the final day of the ceremony.
The insertion of the row of eagle-feathers along the back of the clay
effigy of the serpent recalls an instructive reptilian figure on one
of the bowls from Sikyatki.[35] In this ancient pictograph we find a
row of triangles drawn along the medial line from the head to the tail
of a lizard-like figure. The use of the triangle in ancient Pueblo
pictography as a symbol of a wing-feather, has been pointed out in an
article on the feather as a decorative design in ancient Hopi
pottery.[36] The medial line of triangles, representing feathers, on
the Sikyatki food-bowl, is paralleled in the Hano kiva by eagle-wing
feathers inserted along the middle of the image of a snake.
A small vase was next placed just in advance of the effigy of the
Great Snake, and into this vase Pocine poured water from an
earthenware canteen, making a pass as he did so to the four Pueblo
cardinal points--north, west, south, and east--in sinistral ceremonial
circuit.[37] A stone arrow-point was then laid on the lozenge-shaped
extremity of each lightning figure.
Pocine now scraped into the vase some powder from a soft white stone,
saying, as he did so, that the process was called _sowiyauma_,
"rabbits emerge,"[38] and that he wished he had stones of other
colors, corresponding to the cardinal points, for the same purpose.
After this was finished he emptied on the floor, from a cloth bag, a
miscellaneous collection of botryoidal stones (many of which were
waterworn), a few fetishes, and other objects, one of the most
conspicuous among the latter being a large green stone. All were at
first distributed on the meal picture without any special order, but
later were given a definite arrangement.
Pocine next went up the kiva ladder, and standing on the upper rung in
the sunlight, sought, by means of an angular piece of glass, to
reflect a ray of sunlight on the altar, but more especially into the
vase of medicine. Four turkey-feathers were then inserted at equal
intervals along the base of the serpent effigy, as shown in plate
XIX.
After the stone objects had been arranged on the meal picture, a line
of meal was drawn along the floor, from the right pole of the ladder
to the altar. This line was drawn with great care, particular pains
being taken to make it as straight as possible. There was no singing
while this occurred, thus differing from the ceremony performed in the
other Hano kiva. Four small feathers were placed at intervals along
the line of meal. These, in sequence, beginning with the one nearest
the ladder, were _sikyatci_, yellow-bird; _kwahu_, eagle or hawk;
_koyoña_, turkey; and _pociwû_. Pocine sprinkled pollen along this
line or meal trail.
There was then emptied from a canvas bag upon the rectangular meal
figures a heterogeneous collection of objects, among which may be
mentioned a bundle of gaming reeds, the humerus of a turkey, a whistle
made of a turkey bone, and a zigzag wooden framework such as is used
by the Hopi to represent lightning.[39]
Back of the altar, leaning against the wall of the kiva, was set
upright a wooden slat, notched on both edges and called _tawa-saka_,
"sun-ladder." Miniature imitations (plate XX) of this are made in this
kiva on the last day of the _Tûñtai_ and deposited in a shrine near
Sikyaowatcomo, the site of the early settlement of the Tewa. The
_poñya-saka_ or _tawa-saka_ mentioned has not before been seen in any
Hopi ceremony, and it may be characteristic of Tewa altars. A notched
prayer-stick, called the rain-cloud ladder, is placed in the same
shrine at this time. This is characteristic of the Tewa of Tusayan,
but is not found in the Hopi _pahos_, with which I am familiar.[40]
[Illustration: AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST No. 8., Vol. 1, PL. XIX
Drawn by J. L. RIDGWAY
MINIATURE IMITATION OF THE TAWA-SAKA OR SUN-LADDER
(About one-half size)]
The reason these prayer-sticks are termed "ladders" is because they
have the form of an ancient type of ladder made by notching a log of
wood. They are symbols of the ladders by which the Sun is supposed to
emerge from his house at sunrise. In the Hopi and Tewa conception the
Sun is weary as he withdraws to the south in winter and these ladders
are made to aid him in rising, and thus in returning to bless them.
More light will doubtless be shed on the significance of the
sun-ladder prayer-offerings when we know more of the ceremonies about
the _Tûñtai_ altars.
No _típoni_ or badge of office was placed on this altar on the day it
was made, and my abrupt departure from the East Mesa made it
impossible for me to see the rites which are later performed about it.
It is evident, from the preceding description, that the priests of
Hano have a knowledge of the Great Serpent cult corresponding to the
worship of Palülükoñ. Among the Hopi the _Patki_ people claim to have
introduced this cult[41] in comparatively recent times. There is a
Tewa clan called _Okuwuñ_ (Cloud) which corresponds, so far as meaning
goes, with the _Patki_ clan of the Hopi. Whether this clan brought
with it a knowledge of the Great Snake is not clear, as traditions are
silent on that point.
There is a tradition in the _Okuwuñ_ clan that their ancestors, like
those of the _Patki_, came from the south, and that the _Nañ-towa_
bears a like relationship to the _Okuwuñ_ that the Hopi _Tuwa_ clan
does to the _Patki_.[42] If this tradition is well founded, a
knowledge of the Great Snake fetish of the two Hano kivas may have
been brought by the _Okuwuñ_ and _Nañ-towa_ into Tusayan from the same
place as that of Palülükoñ.
The Kwakwantu society of the _Patki_ clans among the Hopi are
intimately connected with this Great Plumed or Horned Snake cult. In
some parts of the New-fire ceremony, in which this society takes a
prominent part, each member of the society carries in his hand a small
wooden image of a horned snake. These images are called _moñkohus_,
some of the typical forms of which are figured in an article on the
_Naacnaiya_.[43] The head of the snake and its horn are well
represented in several of these wooden effigies.