Germinative Element in the Alósaka Cult
The germinative element of the Alósaka cult, which we may regard as an ancient phase, was introduced into Awatobi and the other Hopi pueblos by a group of clans from the far south. These clans, called the Patuñ, or Squash, founded the pueblo of Micoñinovi,[5] where the Alósaka cult is now vigorous, and were prominent in Awatobi where it was important. There is one episode of the elaborated New-fire ceremony which is traced to these southern clans; this concerns a figurine, called Talatumsi, kept in a shrine under the cliffs of Walpi and especially reverenced by the Aaltû or Alósaka priests.
In the elaborated New-fire rites, called the Naácnaiya, just after the fire has been kindled by frictional methods in the Moñkiva before a man personating the Fire-god, one of the Aaltû brought into the pueblo, from the shrine in which it is kept, the image of Talatumsi wrapped in a white blanket with prayer-sticks in its girdle. This was set on the kiva hatches, one after another, where it remained several days; rites were performed about it, during which it was sprinkled with meal in prayer, and later reverentially carried by the Aaltû back to its shrine, where it was set in position to remain until the next quadrennial ceremony. This image is supposed to represent, not Alósaka, but the bride of Alósaka, the maternal parent of the Aaltû society about whom cluster so many folktales. She is the cultus heroine of that society,—one of their ancestors,—and her effigy is brought into the pueblo in November, every four years, by one of their number, just as we may suppose the images of Alósaka were brought into old Awatobi when the New-fire ceremony was celebrated in that ill-fated pueblo.
The Hopi have another shrine at which they worship in the New-fire ceremony, but instead of an image this contains a log of silicified wood called Tuwapontumsi, “Earth-altar-woman.” Exactly who this personage is, the author has not yet discovered, but it is instructive to know that among the Hopi totems which he obtained, one of the men gave as his signature a figure of a lizard, a circle representing the earth, and a horned human figure which was called Tuwapontumsi. As this figure recalls that of Alósaka, and as the shrine of the being it represents is visited at the same time as that of Talatumsi by priests guided by Alósaka, it is not impossible that Tuwapontumsi is connected with the Alósaka cult.
A visit to this shrine was made by the two phallic societies, Tataukyamû and Wüwütcimtû, directly after the kindling of the new fire in the chief kiva at Walpi. They were led by a man personating Alósaka, and after praying at the shrine they marched in single file to the site of Old Walpi, on the terrace below the present pueblo, and encircled the mounds of this old habitation four times, sprinkling prayer-meal as their leader, Alósaka, directed. This place is called a sípapû, and below it are thought to dwell the ancients. The prayers were addressed to the old men who have died. “Down below us they dwell,” said an old priest. “There the ancients dwell,” said he, patting the ground with his foot. “We are now praying to them.” There are many facts which show the existence of ancestor worship among the Hopi, but the author never heard it stated more clearly by the priests than the night he accompanied the phallic societies[6] to the ancient site of Walpi in the celebration of the New-fire ceremonies in November, 1898.
The Bird-man in the Soyáluña
One of the most striking features of the rites of the Winter Solstice ceremony in the chief kiva is the personation, before an altar, of a Bird-man who is thought to represent a solar god. This episode at Walpi has been elsewhere described,[7] but as at Oraibi it immediately precedes certain rites directly related to the Alósaka cult, a few notes on the personation of the Bird-man in the latter pueblo will be introduced.
About 10 P.M. on the day called Tótokya, the chief day of all great ceremonies, this man, preceded by two others, passed into the kiva, his entrance being announced by balls of meal thrown through the hatchway upon the floor, falling near the fireplace. The two men seated themselves, one on each side of the ladder, which was grasped in one arm. The Bird-man who followed had his face painted white, and in his mouth was a whistle with which he continually imitated the call of a bird, probably the eagle. He first stood on the upraise in the floor, called the spectators’ part, then squatted on the floor near the right pole of the ladder. He carried feathers in his hands,[8] and, moving his arms up and down, imitated the motion of wings, as if flapping them like a bird.
While he was performing these avian movements, the spectators sang a stirring song and the Bird-man slowly advanced to the middle of the room, imitating the gait of a bird and crouching in a squatting attitude. The motion of the wings and the bird-cries continued, the personator now and then raising his arms and letting them fall with a quivering motion. Once in the middle of the room he laid the feathers on the floor and remained there for a short time without moving. He then arose and danced for a long time, accompanied by a woman who held in one hand an ear of corn which she gracefully waved back and forth. She followed the Bird-man as he moved from place to place, and at the close of the dance took her seat near the right wall of the kiva where she sat before the Bird-man entered the room.
After the woman had taken her seat, the Bird-man continued the wing movements with his arms, stretching them at full length and then drawing them back to his body. He then proceeded to a pile of sand in a corner near the upraise; taking pointed sticks or reeds in his hand and halting before this mound of sand, he threw first one, then another, of the sticks into the sand, all the time imitating a bird in the movements of his body and simulating the bird-calls with a whistle. He then went to the Soyáluña woman who had danced with him; squatting before her, he uttered the strange bird-calls, and, making a pass, raised the small sticks which he carried from her feet to her head several times. He then returned to the mound of sand and again shot the sticks into it, after which he returned to the woman. This was repeated several times. The bird personator then returned to the middle of the kiva, before the altar, and, taking a bow and some arrows, danced for some time, while all the assembled priests sang in chorus. As the Bird-man danced, he raised the bow, fitted an arrow to it, faced the north, and drew the bowstring as if to shoot. This was repeated six times, the performer pointing the arrow to the cardinal directions in prescribed sinistral sequence.