TOBACCO PIPES
I have elsewhere mentioned that every modern Tusayan ceremony opens and closes with a ceremonial smoke, and it is apparent that pipes were highly prized by the ancient Sikyatkians.
The form of pipe used in most ceremonials today has a bowl with its axis at right angles to the stem, but so far as I have studied ancient Pueblo pipes this form appears to be a modern innovation.[158] To determine the probable ancient form of pipe, as indicated by the ritual, I will invite attention to one of the most archaic portions of the ceremonies about the altar of the Antelope priesthood, at the time of the Snake dance at Walpi:[159]
"The songs then ceased, and Wí-ki sent Ká-tci to bring him a light. Ká-tci went out, and soon returned with a burning corncob, while all sat silently awaiting Wí-ki's preparation for the great Ó-mow-ûh smoke, which was one of the most sacred acts performed by the Antelope priests in these ceremonials.
"The wu-kó-tco-ño is a huge, stemless pipe, which has a large opening in the blunt end, and a smaller one in the pointed. It is five inches long, one inch in diameter at the large aperture, and its greatest circumference is seven and a half inches. The pipe is made of some black material, possibly stone, and as far as could be seen was not ornamented. The bowl had previously been filled with leaves carefully gathered from such places as are designated by tradition. In the subsequent smokes the ashes, "dottle," were saved, being placed in a small depression in the floor, but were not again put in the pipe.
"Wí-ki took the live ember from Ká-tci and placed it in the large opening of the pipe, on the leaves which filled its cavity. He then knelt down and placed the pipe between the two tí-po-nis, so that the pointed end rested on the head of the large fetish, between the ears. Every one remained silent, and Wí-ki blew several dense clouds of smoke upon the sand altar, one after another, so that the picture was concealed. The smoke was made by blowing through the pipe, the fire being placed in the bowl next the mouth, and the whole larger end of the pipe was taken into the mouth at each exhalation.
"At the San Juan pueblo, near Santa Fé, where I stopped on my way to Tusayan, I purchased a ceremonial headdress upon which several spruce twigs were tied. Wí-ki received some fragments of these with gratitude, and they formed one of the ingredients which were smoked in the great ó-mow-ûh pipe. The scent of the mixture was very fragrant, and filled the room, like incense. The production of this great smoke-cloud, which is supposed to rise to the sky, and later bring the rain, ended the first series of eight songs.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXII
PAINT GRINDER, FETISH, KAOLIN DISKS, AND LIGNITE FROM SIKYATKI