Conclusions

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGISTNo. 8., VOL. 1, PL.XXDrawn byJ. L. RidgwayMINIATURE IMITATION OF THE TAWA-SAKA OR SUN-LADDER(About one half size)

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGISTNo. 8., VOL. 1, PL.XX

Drawn byJ. L. Ridgway

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 theTûñtaialtars.

Notíponior 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 thePatkipeople claim to have introduced this cult[41]in comparatively recent times. There is a Tewa clan calledOkuwuñ(Cloud) which corresponds, so far as meaning goes, with thePatkiclan 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 theOkuwuñclan that their ancestors, like those of thePatki, came from the south, and that theNañ-towabears a like relationship to theOkuwuñthat the HopiTuwaclan does to thePatki.[42]If this tradition is well founded, a knowledge of the Great Snake fetish of the two Hano kivas may have been brought by theOkuwuñandNañ-towainto Tusayan from the same place as that of Palülükoñ.

The Kwakwantu society of thePatkiclans 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 calledmoñkohus, some of the typical forms of which are figured in an article on theNaacnaiya.[43]The head of the snake and its horn are well represented in several of these wooden effigies.

The special interest attached to the Winter Solstice altars at Hano is in the fact that they are made by Tewa priests whose ancestors came to Tusayan about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The makers claim that their forefathers brought a knowledge of them from Tcewadi, in the upper valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and that their relatives in the Tewa pueblos in the east still use like altars in their celebration at theTûñtai.

Nothing, so far as known, has yet been published on theTûñtaialtars of the eastern Tanoan people, but ethnographers may yet find in the kivas of those villages material which will render the above descriptions of comparative interest. The resemblance of theTûñtaialtars to that of thePatkiand related families in the WalpiMoñkivaat the Winter Solstice, is a very distant one. Both have snake effigies, but there is practically little else in common between them, or with the altar erected at the same time by thePakabpeople in theTcivatokiva. TheTûñtaialtars are characteristically Tewan, and, while homologous with each other, are different from any yet known from the Hopi pueblos.

The purport of theTûñtairites at Hano seems to be similar to that of the HopiSoyaluña, namely, to draw back the sun in its southern declination, and to fertilize the corn and other seeds and increase all worldly possessions. As at Walpi, strings with attached feathers are made and given to men and women with wishes that the gods may bring them blessings. These strings are also attached to beams of houses, placed in springs of water, tied to the tails of horses, burros, sheep, dogs, chickens, and indeed every possession which the Indian has and wishes to increase. The presence of the idol of the snake means snake worship.

The survival of the TanoanTûñtaialtars at Hano is typical of the way in which the Tusayan ritual has grown to its present complicated form. They are instances of an intrusive element which has not yet been amalgamated, as the knowledge of them is still limited to unassimilated people and clans.

Similar conditions have existed from time to time during the history of the Hopi, when new clans were added to those already existing. For many years incoming clans maintained a strict taboo, and each family held the secrets of its own religion; but as time went on and assimilation resulted by intermarriage, the religious society arose, composed of men and women of different clans. The family to which a majority of the membership belonged continued to hold the chieftaincy, and owned the altar and its paraphernalia, cherishing the legends of the society. But when men of other clans were admitted to membership, a mutual reaction of one society on another naturally resulted. This tended to modifications which have obscured the original character of distinctive family worship.

The problem of the Hopi ritual, by which is meant the sum of all great ceremonies in the Hopi calendar, deals largely with a composite system. It implies, as elsewhere pointed out, an investigation of the characteristic religious observances of several large families which formerly lived apart in different pueblos. Itnecessitates a knowledge of the social composition of Walpi and of the history of the different phratries which make up the population of the village.

There is a corollary to the above conclusions. No pueblo in the southwest, outside of Tusayan, has the same ceremonial calendar as Walpi, because the population of none is made up of the same clans united in the same relative proportions. Hence the old remark that what is true of one pueblo is true of all, does not apply to their ritual. Some ceremonies at Jemez, Acoma, Sia, and Zuñi, for instance, are like some ceremonies at Walpi; but the old ceremonial calendar in any one of these pueblos was different from that of the other, because the component families were not the same. In the same way the ceremonies at Hano and Walpi have certain things in common, due no doubt to the assimilation in the latter of certain Tanoan clans, but their calendars are very different. TheTûñtaiat Hano differs more widely from the Winter Solstice ceremony at Walpi, a gunshot away, than the Walpi observance differs from that at Oraibi, twenty miles distant. So we might also predict that if we knew the character of Winter Solstice altars in the Rio Grande Tewa villages, they would be found to resemble those of Hano more closely than the altars of Hano resemble those of Walpi.

[1]The Winter Solstice Ceremony at Walpi(American Anthropologist, vol.XI).

[2]These studies were made under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[3]Most of the people of Sitcomovi are of theAsaandHonaniclans, of Tanoan ancestry, but they long ago lost the Tewa language and their Tanoan identity.

[4]The site of this last settlement of thePatkipeople, before they joined those of Walpi, is in the plain about four miles south of the East Mesa. The ruins of the pueblo are still visible, and the foundation walls can readily be traced.

[5]The Hano names of these pueblos are—San Juan, ——; Santa Clara,Kap'a; San Ildefonso,Pocuñwe; Pojoaque,P'okwode; Nambe,Nûme; Tesuque,Tetsogi. They also claim Taos (Tawile) and Picuris (Ohke), but say that another speech is mixed with theirs in these pueblos.

[6]The Tewa of Hano call the HopiKoso, and the Hopi speak of the Hano people as theTowaor theHanum-nyûmû. The word "Moki," so constantly used by white people to designate the Hopi, is never applied by the Hopi to themselves, and they strongly object to it. The dead are said to bemoki, which enters into the formation of verbs, astconmoki, to starve;tcinmoki, to be very lonesome, etc. The nameHanoorHanokiis, I believe, simply a combination of the wordsHanoandki, "eastern pueblo." The elementhanoappears also in the designation for American,Pahano, "eastern water";pahanoki, "American house." Both the Asa and the Tewa peoples are calledHanumclans.

[7]Remains of old reservoirs, elaborately walled, from which water was drawn by means of a gourd tied to a long pole, are still pointed out near Tukinovi and are said to have belonged to thePe-towa. Old Tcasra claims that they were in use in his mother's grandmother's time.

[8]The troubles following the great rebellion of 1680 drove many Tewa from the Rio Grande valley to Tusayan.

[9]It is impossible to make this enumeration accurate, hence these numbers must be regarded as approximations.

[10]It is not unusual to find several names applied to the same person. Thus, Hani, the chief of thePibaclans at Walpi, is called Lesma in the Snake kiva. The Walpi call the author Nakwipi, but the Flute chief at Cipaulovi insists that his name is Yoyowaiamû, which appellation was given when the author was inducted into the Flute rites at that pueblo in 1891.

[11]The gap in the East Mesa just at the head of the trail before one enters Hano. The pueblo of Walpi derived its name from this gap.

[12]Their nomadic enemies raided so near the pueblo of the East Mesa that the priests were unable to visit their shrines without danger. The idol ofTalatumsi, used in the New-fire ceremony, was removed from its shrine north of Wala on that account.

[13]Later, as the outcome of a petty quarrel near the middle of the eighteenth century, theAsawomen moved to Sitcomovi which they founded. At present there is only one woman of this clan in Walpi, and no women of theHonani, both of which clans are strong in Sitcomovi.

[14]Ten Broeck in 1852 seems to have been the first writer to adopt the true name, Hano, of the Tewa pueblo on the East Mesa.

[15]One of the differences in custom between Hopi and Tewa women is the method of making their coiffures. Unmarried girls of Walpi and Hano dress their hair in the same manner, with whorls above the ears. Married women have different ways of wearing their hair in the two pueblos. During the wedding ceremonies at Hano the mother of the bride, in the presence of guests, combs her daughter's hair, or that part of it on the front of the scalp, over the face, so that it hangs down like a veil. She ties the hair on the back of the head in two coils, one of which hangs on either side, but the hair before the face she cuts on a level with the chin, beginning at the top of the ears. The hair which remains is too short to be done up in coils, and is simply brushed to one side or the other. Among Hopi married women all the hair is included in the two coils, and the "bang" is absent.

[16]The names of many Tewa women end inpobi, corresponding with the Hopisi, a contracted form ofsihû, in women's names, as Hoñsi, Nasiumsi, etc.

[17]Among the Hopi the moon (Tewap'o) is calledmüiyaûh; new moon,müiyakatci; first quarter,müiyachaunacapti; full moon,müiyanacapti. An eclipse of the moon is spoken of asmüiyaûh moki, "dead moon." There was a total eclipse of the moon visible at Walpi near the end of December, 1898, when the full moon arose partially obscured. This, said Sikyatala, was bad for the Americans who dwell in the far east, but not for the Hopi. A "dead moon," when in the meridian of the Hopi pueblos, is consideredkalolamai, "bad."

[18]The Winter Solstice Ceremony at Walpi, op. cit.

[19]TheAsapeople are also called theTcakwainaclans. The ruins of their old village, near the western point of Awatobi mesa, are called Tcakwaina-ki. Its walls do not appear above the surface.

[20]The particular ceremony of thePakabpeoples is theMomtcita, a single day's rite which occurs just after theSoyaluña, under direction of Pautiwa. Connected with this ceremony are the performances of the "stick swallowers" orNocotopriests who were thought to be extinct at Walpi, but Eewa is chief of theNocotanapriests, and the society includes Wikyatiwa, Talahoya, Sikyaventima, and others. They still practice stick-swallowing. Pautiwa is chief of theKalektaka, a warrior priesthood. He belongs to the Eagle clan of thePakabphratry, which may be related to theAwataor Bow clan of the former pueblo of Awatobi.

[21]Tcoshoniwa is generally called by a nickname, Tcino, "Bald-head," or "Curly-hair," a sobriquet to which he strongly objects. He is one of the oldest men of Sitcomovi, belongs to thePatkiclan, and was formerly thekimoñwior governor of Sitcomovi. Hani, of thePiba(Tobacco) clan, is political chief of Walpi; and Anote, also of thePibaclan, is chief of Hano. All the pueblos havekimoñwisor governors, and the office dates from early times; but these pueblo chiefs have no authority over pueblos other than their own.

[22]The orientation of the Hano kivas is not far from that of the other East Mesa kivas, or about north 44º west.

[23]The chief kiva had a small stove, an innovation which was greatly appreciated by the writer.

[24]So named by the Hopi; the Tewa call him Tem[)e], At Hano almost everyone has a Hopi and a Tewa name.

[25]Son of Kutcve and Kotcampa of theKolon-towa, or Corn clan; commonly called "Esquash" by Americans.

[26]The corn-husk packet of meal seems to be wanting in Zuñian, Keresan, and Tanoan prayer-sticks, but it is almost universally present in those of the Hopi. The Tanoan prayer-stick is calledo'dope.

[27]A cephalic horn is an essential organ of the Great Snake, and is always represented in pictography and on graven or other images of this being. Note the similarity of his Tewa name to the Spanish wordabajo, "below."

[28]This is the first time songs have been noted while an altar was being put in place.

[29]This was a four-stranded string of cotton, as long as the outstretched arm, measured from over the heart to the tip of the longest finger. It is supposed to be a roadway of blessings, and the trail of meal is the pathway along which, in their belief, the benign influences of the altar pass from it to the kiva entrance and to the pueblo.

[30]Pocine is a youth not far from seventeen years of age. His marriage ceremony was studied by the writer a week before theTûñtai.

[31]The triangle among the Hopi is almost as common a symbol of the rain-cloud as the semicircle. It is a very old symbol, and is frequently found with the same meaning in cliff-houses and in ancient pictography.

[32]It was found in studying the four lightning symbols on this Tewa altar that sex is associated with cardinal points as in the Walpi Antelope altar. The lightning of the north is male, that of the west female, the south male, and the east female. The same holds with many objects in Hopi altars; thus the stone objects,tcamahia, of the Antelope altar follow this rule. In the same way plants and herbs have sex (not in the Linnean meaning), and are likewise associated with the cardinal points.

[33]This sprinkling of corn seeds upon the meal picture of a Hopi altar is mentioned in an account of the Oraibi Flute ceremony. The evident purpose of this act is to vitalize the seeds by the accompanying rites about the altar.

[34]Calledomowûh-saka, "rain-cloud ladders."

[35]Smithsonian Report, 1895, pl. lvii.

[36]The American Anthropologist, vol.XI, page 1.

[37]The Tewa, like the Hopi, recognize six ceremonial directions—north, west, south, east, above, and below. The sinistral circuit is one in which the center is on the left hand, while the dextral circuit has its center to the right. The older term, "sunwise," for the latter circuit, etymologically means one ceremonial circuit in the northern hemisphere and an opposite in the southern. On this and other accounts the author has ceased to use it in designating circuits.

[38]For the increase of rabbits.

[39]This zigzag framework had appended to one end a carved imitation of a snake's head, and as it represents the lightning this association was not incongruous. Similar frameworks are carried in the dance by a man impersonating Püükoñ, the War god, and at certain other times when lightning is symbolized.

[40]In asking why albino Hopi are found at the Middle Mesa and not on the East Mesa, it was unexpectedly learned that in some ceremonies a white prayer-stick is made at the former mesa, and that albinism was due to want of care by the father in making these offerings while his wife was pregnant. The author has never seen the whitepahoof the Middle Mesa, and does not know when it is made nor its shape and use.

[41]All Hopi priests are very solicitous that sketches of thePatkialtar in theSoyaluñashould not be shown to Tewa men or women, and the Tewa men begged me to keep silent regarding their altars while conversing with the Walpi chiefs. There is a very strict taboo between the two peoples at the time of the Winter Solstice ceremony, which is more rigid than at other times.

[42]TheTuwa(Sand) orKükütce(Lizard) clan lived at Pakatcomo with thePatkipeople, according to their legends.

[43]Journal of American Folk-lore, 1892, pl.II, figs. 1-4. Thesemoñkohusof the Kwakwantu society, representing horned snakes, should not be confounded with those carried by other societies, typical forms of which are shown in figures 5-8. In the article quoted it was not stated that the effigies with heads representPalülükoñs. The effigy on the massive club borne by the chief of the Kwakwantu also represents the Great Snake.

Transcriber's Note:Hyphenation for the most part has been standardised.Reference to the scale on caption to Plate XX should be ignored.

Hyphenation for the most part has been standardised.

Reference to the scale on caption to Plate XX should be ignored.

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