In former times two wooden idols, called the Alosaka, were kept in this crypt, in much the same manner as the Dawn Maid is now sealed up by the Walpians, when not used in the New-fire ceremony, as I have described in my account of Naacnaiya.[79] Mr Thomas V. Keam, not knowing that the Awatobi idols were still used in the Mishoñinovi ritual, had removed them to his residence, but when this was known a large number of priests begged him to return them, saying that they were still used in religious exercises. With that consideration which he has always shown to the Indians, Mr Keam allowed the priests to take the images of Alosaka. The figurines were this time carried to Mishoñinovi, the priests sprinkling a line of meal along the trail over which they carried them. The two idols[80] have not been seen by white people since that time, and are now, no doubt, in some hidden crypt near the Mishoñinovi village.
There is a shrine of simple character, near the ruins of smaller Awatobi, which bears evidence of antiquity ([figure 258]). It consisted, in 1892, of a circle of small stones in which were two large water-worn stones and a fragment of petrified wood. There was no evidence that it had lately been used.
Fig. 257—Alosaka shrine at Awatobi
On the extreme western point of the mesa, at the very edge of the cliff, there was also a simple shrine ([figure 259]). Judging from its general appearance, this, likewise, had not been used in modern times, but there were several old prayer-sticks not far away.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXII
PAINT POTS, BOWL, AND DIPPER FROM AWATOBI
At the foot of the mesa, below the point last mentioned, however, there is a shrine ([figure 260]), the earth of which contained hundreds of prayer-sticks, in all stages of decay, while some of them had been placed there only a few days before my visit. This shrine, I was told, is still used by the Mishoñinovi priests in their sacred observances. Among other forms of prayer offerings there were many small wooden cylinders with radiating sticks connected with yarn, the symbolic prayer offering for squashes.[81] In former times Antelope valley was the garden spot of Tusayan, and from what we know of the antiquity of the cultivation of squashes in the Southwest, there is little doubt that they were cultivated by the Awatobians, and that similar offerings were made by the ancient farmers for a good crop of these vegetables.