Myths of Alósaka
It will be seen from the preceding account that the Alósaka rites are well developed in the ceremonies of the New-fire and Winter Solstice, in which the clans from the south who joined the Hopi are well represented, or in which religious societies and ceremonial paraphernalia brought by the Patuñ, Píba, Pátki, and related clans have preeminence. Study of the Alósaka myths reveals an explanation of the meaning of this relationship.
During his valuable studies among the Hopi, the late A. M. Stephen obtained an Alósaka legend which is recorded in his notes on the Keam collection, and is here quoted with explanations obtained by the author since Mr Stephen’s death.
“At the Red House in the south[17] internecine wars prevailed, and the two branches of the Pátki[18] people separated from the other Hopi and determined to return to the fatherland in the north.[19] But these two branches were not on the best of terms, and they traveled northward by separate routes, the [later settlers of] Micoñinovi[20] holding to the east of the [later settlers of] Walpi.
“The Pátki traveled north until they came to Little Colorado river, and built houses on both its banks.[21] After living there many years the factional dissensions, which seem to have ever haunted these people, again broke out, and the greater portion of them withdrew still farther north and built villages the ruins[22] of which are still discernible not far from the site of the villages their descendants inhabit at present.
“The Squash [Micoñinovi] also trended slowly northward, occupying, like all their legendary movements, a protracted period of indefinite length—years during which they planted and built homes alternating with years of devious travel. They grew lax in the observance of festivals, and Muinwû inflicted punishment upon them. He caused the water to turn red, and the color of the people also turned red; he then changed the water to blue, and the people changed to a similar color. The Snow katcina appeared and urged them to return to their religion, but they gave no heed to him, so he left them and took away corn. Muinwû then sent Palülükoñ,[23] who killed rabbits and poured their blood in the springs and streams, and all the water was changed to blood and the people were stricken with a plague. They now returned to their religious observances, and danced and sang, but none of the deities would listen to them.
“A horned katcina[24] appeared to the oldest woman and told her that on the following morning the oldest man should go out and procure a root, and that she and a young virgin of her clan should eat it. After a time she (the old woman) would give birth to a son who would marry the virgin, and their offspring would redeem the people. The old woman and the virgin obeyed the katcina, and the former gave birth to a son who had two horns upon his head. The people would not believe that the child was of divine origin; they called it a monster and killed it.
“After this all manner of distressing punishments were inflicted upon them, and wherever they halted the grass immediately withered and dried. Their wanderings brought them to the foot of the San Francisco mountains, where they dwelt for a long time, and at that place the virgin gave birth to a daughter who had a little knob on each side of her forehead. They preserved this child, and when she had grown to be a woman, the horned katcina[25] appeared and announced to her that she would give birth to horned twins, who would bring rain and remove the punishment from their people. This woman was married, and the twins, a boy and a girl, were born; but she concealed their divine origin, fearing they would be destroyed.
“The Patuñ [Squash][26] now moved to the Little Colorado where they built houses and met some of the Pátki people to whom they related their distresses. A wise man of the Pátki came over to them, and on seeing the twins at once pronounced them to be the Alósaka. They had no horns up to this time, but as soon as this announcement was made, their horns became visible and the twins then spoke to the people and said that it had been ordained that they were to be unable to help their people until the people themselves discovered who they were. The Patuñ were so enraged to think that the Alósaka had been with them, unknown so many years, that they killed them, and still greater sufferings ensued.
“They again repented, and carved two stone images of the Alósaka which they painted and decked with feathers and sought to propitiate the mother. She was full of pity for her people, and prayed to the Sky-god[27] to relieve them. A period elapsed in which their sufferings were in great measure abated.
“The Patuñ then sought to join the Pátki clans, but the Pátki would not permit this, and compelled them to keep east of Awatobi.
“Many ruins of phratry and family houses of the Patuñ people exist on the small watercourses north of the Puerco at various distances eastward from the present village of Walpi. The nearest are almost fifteen miles, the farthest about fifty miles.[28]
“Their wandering course was now stayed. When they essayed to move farther eastward, a nomadic hunting race who occupied that region besought them not to advance farther. Their evil notoriety had preceded them, and the nomads feared the malificent influence of their neighborhood. It would seem, however, that instead of hostile demonstrations the nomads entered into a treaty with them, offering to pay tribute of venison, roots, and grass-seeds, if they would abstain from traversing and blighting their land, to which the Patuñ agreed.
“But these unfortunate wretches were soon again embroiled in factional warfare which finally involved all the Hopi, and the stone images of the Alósaka were lost or destroyed. Famine and pestilence again decimated them, until finally the Alósaka katcina appeared to them and instructed them to carve[29] two wooden images, but threatening them that if these should be lost or destroyed all the people would die.”
Many other but widely divergent legends exist regarding Alósaka, a number of which are associated with the pueblo of Awatobi, which was formerly one of the most populous Hopi towns. At one time this village experienced drouth and famine, and Alósaka, from his home in the San Francisco mountains, observed the trouble of the people. Disguised as a youth he visited Awatobi and became enamored with a maiden of that town. Several times he visited her, but no one knew whence he came or whither he went, for his trail no one could follow. The parents of the girl at last discovered that he came on the rainbow, and recognized him as a divine being. The children of this maid were horned beings, or Alósakas, but their identity was not at first recognized.
Like all the cultus heroes, Alósaka is said, in legends, to have been miraculously born of a virgin. His father was the Sun, his mother an Earth-goddess, sometimes called a maiden. Like many gods, he traveled on the rainbow; he lived at Tawaki, the house of his father, the Sun, or the San Francisco mountains.
It would seem from all these stories that the Alósaka cult was vigorous in Awatobi, the ill-fated pueblo where the zealous Padre Porras lost his life in 1633, and that it was of southern origin, having been introduced into Awatobi by one of the phratries from the south which lived in the now ruined pueblos on the Little Colorado. The most complicated survival of the Alósaka cultus is to be expected in the Middle Mesa pueblos, because the phratry which introduced it founded some of these pueblos[30] and still survives there. The result of an examination of many Alósaka myths would seem to be a conclusion that he is a cultus hero of clans which came from the south.