While one of the two figures shown in [plate cxxix], e, is valuable as affording additional and corroborative evidence of the character of the ancient coiffure of the women, its main interest is of a somewhat different kind. Two figures are rudely drawn on the inside of the basin, one of which represents a woman, the other, judging from the character of the posterior extremity of the body, a reptilian conception in which a single foreleg is depicted, and the tail is articulated at the end, recalling a rattlesnake. Upon the head is a single feather;[128] the two eyes are represented on one side of the head, and the line of the alimentary tract is roughly drawn. The figure is represented as standing before that of the woman.
With these few lines the potter no doubt intended to depict one of those many legends, still current, of the cultus hero and heroine of her particular family or priesthood. Supposing the reptilian figure to be a totemic one, our minds naturally recall the legend of the Snake-hero and the Corn-mist-maid[129] whom he brought from a mythic land to dwell with his people.
The peculiar hairdress is likewise represented in the figures on the food basin illustrated in [plate cxxix], c, which represent a man and a woman. Although the figures are partly obliterated, it can easily be deciphered that the latter figure wears a garment similar to the kwaca or dark-blue blanket for which Tusayan is still famous, and that this blanket was bound by a girdle, the ends of which hang from the woman's left hip. While the figure of the man is likewise indistinct (the vessel evidently having been long in use), the nature of the act in which he is engaged is not left in doubt.[130]
Among the numerous deities of the modern Hopi Olympus there is one called Kokopeli,[131] often represented in wooden dolls and clay images. From the obscurity of the symbolism, these dolls are never figured in works on Tusayan images. The figure in [plate cxxix], d, bears a resemblance to Kokopeli. It represents a man with arms raised in the act of dancing, and the head is destitute of hair as if covered by one of the peculiar helmets, used by the clowns in modern ceremonials. As many of the acts of these priests may be regarded as obscene from our point of view, it is not improbable that this figure may represent an ancient member of this archaic priesthood.
The three human figures on the food basin illustrated in [plate cxxix], f, are highly instructive as showing the antiquity of a curious and revolting practice almost extinct in Tusayan.
As an accompaniment of certain religious ceremonials among the Pueblo and the Navaho Indians, it was customary for certain priests to insert sticks into the esophagus. These sticks are still used to some extent and may be obtained by the collector. The ceremony of stick-swallowing has led to serious results, so that now in the decline of this cult a deceptive method is often adopted.
In Tusayan the stick-swallowing ceremony has been practically abandoned at the East Mesa, but I have been informed by reliable persons that it has not wholly been given up at Oraibi. The illustration above referred to indicates its former existence in Sikyatki. The middle figure represents the stick-swallower forcing the stick down his esophagus, while a second figure holds before him an unknown object. The principal performer is held by a third figure, an attendant, who stands behind him. This instructive pictograph thus illustrates the antiquity of this custom in Tusayan, and would seem to indicate that it was once a part of the Pueblo ritual.[132] It is possible that the Navaho, who have a similar practice, derived it from the Pueblos, but there are not enough data at hand to demonstrate this beyond question.
Regarding the pose of the three figures in this picture, I have been reminded by Dr Walter Hough of the performers who carry the wad of cornstalks in the Antelope dance. In this interpretation we have the "carrier," "hugger," and possibly an Antelope priest with the unknown object in his hand. This interpretation appears more likely to be a correct one than that which I have suggested; and yet Kopeli, the Snake chief, declares that the Snake family was not represented at Sikyatki. Possibly a dance similar to the Antelope performance on the eighth day of the Snake dance may have been celebrated at that pueblo, and the discovery of a rattlesnake's rattle in a Sikyatki grave is yet to be explained.
One of the most prominent of all the deities in the modern Tusayan Olympus is the cultus-hero called Püükoñhoya, the Little War God. Hopi mythology teems with legends of this god and his deeds in killing monsters and aiding the people in many ways. He is reputed to have been one of twins, children of the Sun and a maid by parthenogenetic conception. His adventures are told with many variants and he reappears with many aliases.