Read Ebook: The Katcina altars in Hopi worship by Fewkes Jesse Walter

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The accessories used in the celebration of the Powalawu are arranged on the floor radially about this sand picture, and fall into two groups, one on lines in continuation of the rays of the central figure, the others on intermediary lines. There are, therefore, four sets of both groups alternating with each other.

The objects which form a single group of the former in this quaternary arrangement are as follows: A yellow reed, a paho-stand, and a ball made of powdered pikumi. Intermediate between these, also with a quaternary arrangement, there is a ball made of clay painted black in which a feather is attached, a blackened reed, and a stone arrow point. The paho-stand with these objects consists of a cubical block in which the following objects are inserted in line: A small crook, a green double paho, several sticks , a black eagle feather with four nakwakwocis tied to it and a ring with netted cord, and finally a paho of a color corresponding to the cardinal direction in which the paho-stand is placed.

The details of the Powalawu ceremony have been described by Voth, from whose account I will mention a few generalities.

The celebrants gathered at the altar at about noon and sang many songs with accompanying events which were performed by Siima, the chief, now dead.

While the above events were transpiring songs were sung by the assembled priests, and at the close the quartz crystal on the Sun picture was raised from the stand and handled by each priest, who sucked it, and pressed it to his heart.

The aim of the ceremony appears clear. Meal of all kinds of seed sprinkled on the Sun typifies fructification of all Hopi food plants. Water is poured on the meal as symbolic of the rains which the celebrants hope will increase their crops.

The details of the nine days' ceremonials of the Powamu at Oraibi need not be described here, but it may be well to indicate their general character.

Beans were planted in boxes in all the kivas on the day after Powalawu and were forced to germinate in the heated rooms, where they grew for 16 days. From February 13 until the 17th, Siima, the chief, visited all these kivas, and when not so employed passed his time in one of the rooms fasting, or making prayer objects.

I am indebted to Mr. Voth for my knowledge of the secret rites of the Powamu at Oraibi. They supplement that which I have published elsewhere on the Walpi representation, from which, however, it differs very considerably.

The Powamu altar was erected on February 17, and from that day until the ninth daily songs of interesting character were sung about it.

Many dolls, bows and arrows for children are likewise made in the kivas, and the chiefs prepared prayer emblems and other ceremonial objects.

The culmination of Powamu, when we should expect the acme of the series of rites, occurred on the afternoon of the ninth day , when the sprouting beans were pulled up, and distributed with dolls and other presents, and when certain personages of supernatural character brought significant gifts to the priests. It is the last event to which I wish especially to call the reader's attention.

This episode, which seems to me to bring out clearly the aim of the Powamu ceremony, may be called the advent and departure of Hahaiwuqti followed by the Eototo and other supernaturals. The main events of this episode were as follows: The man who personified the "Old Woman" having masked and otherwise arrayed himself at a shrine outside the pueblo, began to howl vigorously. Siima the chief of Powamu, made offerings at this shrine and drew on the ground, with sacred meal, several figures of rain clouds about 20 yards nearer the village. Hahaiwuqti, as if tolled along by this mystic sign, moved to it and again began to howl. Siima made another set of rain cloud figures, again about 20 yards nearer the village, and the howling Hahaiwuqti advanced to the second meal figures. Halting thus at intervals, and howling as she went, the "Old Woman" at last stood in the public plaza of Oraibi, and in answer to her cries people came to her, sprinkled her with pinches of meal and took objects from the basket she bore.

She then sought the entrance to the kiva in which the priests were engaged in ceremonial smoking and singing. She stood like a statue at the hatch, howling as if to announce her coming to the priests within the room below. They soon responded, and came out of the kiva headed by Siima with a bowl of medicine and an aspergill, followed by a second priest with a reed cigarette and a coal of fire, and others with bags of sacred meal. Hahaiwuqti was asperged, smoked upon and sprinkled with meal, and presented with a paho accompanied with a prayer, after which the priests returned to their room and the "Old Woman" went away to the west. A few minutes later men disguised as Eototo and Ahul approached the kiva hatch near which some unknown Katcina had made in meal on the ground a cross and rain cloud. Eototo rubbed meal on each of the four sides of the kiva hatchway and poured water into the kiva entrance from the sides, as I have described in my accounts of the Walpi and Cipaulovi Niman Katcina. Ahul followed his example, whereupon the priests again emerged from the kiva and treated these two visitors in the same way they had used Hahaiwuqti. They received corn in return, after which the visitors retired, following the "Old Woman."

After their departure, two "mudheads" and three Katcinas, two men wearing Humis, Jemes, Katcina masks and one the maskette and apparel of the female Humis, approached the kiva entrance. Then came personifications of Ana, Hehea, and two Tacab Katcinas. Following these were three lame Howaik Katcinas, masked as their predecessors, and clearly designated by appropriate symbolism.

At each new arrival the priests in the kiva responded, emerged from their room, and treated these visitors as they had their leader, Hahaiwuqti.

As the masked personages left the village they passed westward.

When the priests had retired to their kiva for the last time they smoked on the presents left by their strange visitors, and the chief divided the gift Eototo had brought into 10 bundles, and gave one package to each Powamu priest. Then followed minor events, as taking down the altar, which do not now concern us. The departure of Hahaiwuqti and her band closed the main ceremony.

It certainly seems legitimate to conclude that this acme of the Powamu is a dramatic representation embodying the aim of the whole ceremony. It is a visit of Hahaiwuqti in her disguise as known to Katcinas, followed by her children bringing gifts and receiving prayers. What other prayers are more appropriate to Hahaiwuqti than petitions for abundant crops, or what gifts more desirable than those Eototo gave in a symbolic way, viz: water and sprouting vegetation? The rejuvenescence of nature is always to a primitive mind akin to sorcery, and believed to be brought about by the sorcerer's arts, and hence this ceremony takes place in the Powako-muyamuh, or Wizard Moon, which gives it its name by syncopation, Powamu.

CONCLUSIONS REGARDING THE PLACE OF KATCINAS IN TUSAYAN WORSHIP

We are justified in regarding the Katcinas as spirits of the dead, or divinized ancestors, shades or breath-bodies of those who once lived, as mortuary prayers clearly indicate. The theory of ancestor worship gives us a ready explanation for the fact that ancestral spirits are represented by masked persons, and as a corollary, a suggestion regarding the significance of the different symbolism of those masks.

The Hopi, like many people, look back to mythic times when they believe their ancestors lived in a "paradise," or state or place where food was plenty and rains abundant, a world of perpetual summer and flowers. Their legends recount how, when corn failed or rain ceased, cultus heroes have sought these imaginary or ideal ancestral homes to learn the "medicine," songs, prayers, fetishes, and charms efficacious to influence or control supernaturals, which blessed these happy lands. Each sacerdotal society tells the story of its own hero bringing from that land a bride, who transmitted to her son the knowledge of the altars, songs, and prayers, which forced the crops to grow and the rains to fall in her native country. To become thoroughly conversant with the rites he is said to marry the maid; otherwise at his death they would be lost, since knowledge of the "medicine" is believed to be transmitted, not through his clan, but that of his wife. So the Snake hero brought the Snake-Maid from the underworld; the Flute hero, her sister, the Flute-Maid; the Little War God, the Lakonemana and other supernaturals.

A Katcina hero in the old times, "on a rabbit hunt came to a region where there was no snow. There he saw other Katcina people dancing amidst beautiful gardens. He received melons from them and carrying them home told a strange story of the people who inhabited a country where there were flowering plants in midwinter. The hero and a comrade were sent back, and they stayed with their people, returning home loaded with fruit in February. They had learned the songs of those with whom they had lived, and taught them in the kiva of their own people."

In the ceremonies with unmasked personifications, or those celebrated yearly between July and January which are not Katcinas, an attempt is made to reproduce rites which legends declare the cultus or ancestral heroes saw in the lands they visited, which lands are reputed to be variously situated, but generally in the underworld, to augment the efficacy of the ceremonies. In the ceremonies between January and August, or those called Katcinas, the same feeling is dominant. Each performance is an endeavor to reproduce a traditional ancestral Katcina celebration. The performers are masked because, according to their stories, the participants in those ancient rites are reputed to have had zoomorphic, or at least only partially anthropomorphic forms. The symbolism of the mask portrays the totems of those legendary participants, and those of corn, rain, water-loving animals, lightning and the like, therefore predominate.

I have shown in preceding papers that both the symbols and figurines on Katcina altars refer to the sun, rain clouds, and the fertilization, growth and maturation of corn. It has likewise been made evident that the ceremonial acts of the priests are employed to affect the supernaturals who control these elements or produce these necessities.

The priests strive to reproduce traditional ceremonials without innovations, and are guided in their presentation by current legends. Masked personations of ancestral spirits are, therefore, introduced that the performance may be more realistic, or closer to the reputed ancestral ceremony. This feeling is at base the reason why the priests, unable to explain why they perform certain rites in certain ways, respond, "we make our altars, sing our songs, and say our prayers in this way because our old people did so, and surely they knew how to make the corn grow and the rains fall."

It appears from what is written above that the cosmic supernaturals which appear on the Hopi Katcina altars are the same as pointed out in the previous article, the Sun, the Sky, Earth, Fire, Ancestors, and that idols are likewise prominent. The Hopi, like all the pueblos, are commonly called sun worshippers, but the relations of the altars of the Katcina cult to Sky God worship is very instructive.

In conclusion it should be said that, although the ceremonial practices of the Hopi Katcinas appear very complicated, they are in reality simpler than the literature of them would seem to indicate. In the first place, we must bear in mind that in the Hopi religion the association of religion and ethics is very weak, the duty of the priest being to perform his part of the ceremony as nearly as possible in the traditional way it was inherited from his ancestors. Secondly, the rite and ceremony show that the main object desired is a material not a spiritual one, primarily to fertilize Indian corn, his national food, and incidentally to protect his own life and that of his family. The objects of his worship form together a complex composed of closely allied elements in which the supernatural powers that control the food are preemiment.

FOOTNOTES:

Journ. Amer. Ethnol. and Archaeol., Vol. II, No. 1. Sitcomovi and Hano have no Niman Katcina, nor do they celebrate the Tusayan ritual in its entirety. The word Katcina is used to designate both a dance and a participant in a dance. Between July and January there are no Katcina rites in Tusayan.

I have been interested to discover what proportion of the whole number of Hopi ceremonials have been described, and the results are such as to allay any conceit that we know much about the subject. Without considering the abbreviated ceremonials there are in the ritual 12 which are of nine days duration. There are five variants of this ritual, differing in altars, paraphernalia, and rites, so that we may say there are performed in Tusayan about 60 ceremonials, each nine days long, to be investigated. Of these there are 40 of which we know nothing, save their existence; 15, fragments of which have been described; and 5 which have been fairly well studied. There are about 30 Hopi altars which have never been figured or described, or as far as I know seen by ethnologists. It thus appears that there is plenty of material in this province to occupy the students of primitive ritual for some time to come. An adequate comprehension of the Hopi Katcina ritual requires a consideration of five different modifications of the same altars.

The image of Cotokinungwu in the Oraibi flute altar has zigzag figures down the legs, which would appear to associate this deity with lightning.

The Hopi, ancient and modern, were adepts in this craft of mosaic encrustations, using for that purpose turquoises, shells, and other substances.

The chief who flogs the children in the initiation, which occurs in Powamu, holds this object in his hand. This flogging at Walpi is performed by a man masked to represent Tunwup. Int. Archiv f?r Ethnog., Band viii, 1895. 15th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., pp. 283-284.

Amer. Anthrop., Vol. 5, No. 2, April, 1892.

A great many observations remain to be made before any one can claim to know the exact meaning of pueblo rites, but the material awaits investigation, and can be obtained by persistent work in the field. The time, however, is past when any compiler can write an account of the aboriginal religions of America and neglect the Hopi for want of published material.

For Niman altars of Cipaulovi, Miconinovi, and Walpi, see Journ. Amer. Ethnol. and Archaeol., Vol. II, No. 1.

The character of the public ceremonials of the Katcinas, even when abbreviated, as in the so-called rain dances, justifies the theory that their main objects are the two above mentioned. Even the clowns, a priesthood directly connected with Katcinas and absent in all other ceremonies, are concerned with the growth of seeds.

It may be borne in mind that the same altar is made in Powamu and Niman, and whether called by one or the other of these names it is the same thing--a Katcina altar.

In other secret rites, not considered in this article, the first method is employed as in Powamu. Personifications in public dances are ordinarily masked, and as a rule Katcinas doff their masks when they dance in kivas. In certain instances, however, the mask is worn in kiva ceremonials.

I regard them as complicated symbols, not intrinsically objects of worship.

In the public dance she is represented by a girl, but there is a beautiful instance in this ceremony where the third method is substituted for the first in the public dance. For some reason unknown to me, in the 1891 exhibit at Walpi no girl performed this part, but her place was taken by a participant in the dance who bore in her hands a flat board with a picture of the Germ Maid . The picture, not the bearer, represented the Germ Maid. It is a remarkable confirmation of my theory that Mamzraumana is the same personation as Calakomana; that this picture is identical in symbolism with pictures of the latter, and was so called by the priests. Comparing the picture Mamzraumana on the Mamzrau altar and of the same on this tablet we see differences in old and new Hopi art. The picture publicly exhibited conforms to modern conception of her symbolism, as shown in dolls, etc.; that on the altar, which the uninitiated can not see, is the older form, before innovations and modifications.

Amer. Anthrop., Vol. V, No. 3, 1892.

As maize is the most important food of the Pueblo Indians there is a tendency to make this name more specific, "Corn Maid." This appears to be the name of the doll Calakomana, "Corn Maid."

The range of variation of the dolls of the Calakomana may be seen by consultation of my memoir on Tusayan Dolls . One of the strangest of these represents two Germ Maids, one above the other, surmounted by a male figurine, Hehea Katcina, which has lightning emblems on the cheeks and phallic symbols on the body.

He is intimately connected with the "flogging" ceremony, when children are "introduced" to the Katcinas . The radiating crown of feathers and the two horns on the head, together with the symbol on the forehead, ally him with Calakotaka whose kinship with the Sun-bird is elsewhere referred to. Tunwup appears to be a local name of this worthy in Walpi kivas.

In the so-called "screen drama" of this ceremony, we have pictures of the Sun painted on disks. On the theory that Pal?l?konti is a fertilization ceremony, it would be explained as referring to corn, and the thrusting of the snake effigies through openings closed by Sun-disk symbols connected with this event.

In the same way that I have compared the Little War Gods and the Germ Maids of Katcina altars we might also compare the male and female figures of the flute altars which we know from variants. The same will be possible with the cultus hero and his female double of Lalakontu, Mamzrauti, etc. There is a striking morphological identity in many altars of different societies.

A quartz crystal is used to deflect the light of the sun into the medicine bowl in Niman Katcina. Journ. Amer. Ethnol. and Archaeol., Vol. II, No. 1.

Similar projections at intervals a quadrant apart are common on symbols of the sun, and I have found them on ancient pottery from Homolobi. The arrow-headed appendages are not, as far as I know, found in any other instance of palaeography.

Pikumi is a kind of hasty pudding, a favorite dish in ceremonial feasts. It is baked in small pits lined with corn husks, which have previously been heated by building fires within them. The coals are raked out, the mush put in, and a stone slab luted over the pit. Upon this a fire is maintained over night, and on the morning of the final day of a great ceremonial they are opened. The soft part is eaten immediately, but the mush which has caked to the corn husks is reground and made into other forms of food. The above-mentioned balls are made of the latter products.

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