The Katcina altars in Hopi worship

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Fig. 2.—Miconinovi Niman Katcina altar

A somewhat more detailed statement of this point is perhaps desirable. In the Hopi ritual three methods of representing supernatural personages are adopted. First, personifications by men, women, and children. Second, representations by images or idols. Third, representations by pictures, conventionalized objects, or symbols. These three methods may coexist; they are interchangeable, and may be phylogenetically connected in the development of rituals. In the public ceremonials the first method is almost invariably adopted, but in secret rites all three are employed.[13] The representations on the Katcina altars at Cipaulovi and Walpi are limited to the third method; those at Miconinovi and Oraibi include likewise the second.

There is no need of going into detail regarding the meanings of the symbols of the third method of representation as used on Katcina altars. The simplicity of this method, here applied, is apparent, and the symbols are those of rain clouds, lightning, and corn in various stages of growth.

A discussion of the second method, or representation by images and what they mean when used on Katcina altars, will bring out several points of interest. These images, commonly called idols,[14] occur on the Katcina altars of Oraibi and Miconinovi and represent the same conceptions as the symbols. The idol with the raincloud coronet is a representation of a corn-rain supernatural personage who has many names and appears in ceremonials both public and secret of many different priesthoods. In the ceremony called the Lalakontu she is either personated by women in the public dance or represented by images on the altar and is called Lakonemana (Lakone Maid). In the October ceremony, called Mamzrauti, she is likewise represented by the first and second methods,[15] and is called Mamzraumana.[16] The same is true of the Owakulti, still performed at Oraibi, although extinct at Walpi, where she is known as Owakulmana.

During the dramatization in the Antelope kiva of the Snake Ceremonials at Walpi she is personated by a maid called the Tcuamana[17] (Snake Maid) and no effigy of her is employed in this archaic ceremony. The Flute Society represent her in their rites in both the first and second ways, with two girls in the public dance, and images on the altars in the secret observances, where she is called Lenyamana (Flute Maid).[18] In Palülükonti[19] she is personated by the first method, and is called Calakomana. The most elaborate images of this being, also called Calakomanas, are secular in character, and are used as dolls. All her different names, and some others which might be mentioned, are aliases, sacerdotal society names of the same mythological conception, which may more accurately be called Muiyinwu, the Germ Goddess, who is likewise associated with rain.

The symbolism of images on the left side of the Katcina altars of Miconinovi and of Oraibi is highly conventionalized, but clearly enough developed to show that the images represent the same Rain-Germ Goddess who, in some ceremonials, is personified by a girl; in others by a similar image. This image is called the Rain-Germ (Corn)[20] Maid because in the most elaborate representations of her this bifid nature is strongly indicated by symbolism. Her idol on the Miconinovi Flute altar has four symbols of corn on the body, and bears three rain cloud tablets on the head. In numerous dolls[21] she has a symbol of an ear of corn on the forehead and an elaborate raincloud tablet with a rainbow on the head.

The other idol, likewise known in various ceremonials by tutelary sacerdotal aliases, is the male cultus hero, the fructifying principle symbolized by lightning and personified according to the society, by such supernaturals as Cotokinungwu, Puukonhoya, Tcuatiyo, Lentiyo, and the like.

In this totem-pole-like doll we have Hehea, the male, with two Calakos, females, as their symbolism clearly indicates. The Hopi have a legend that the Calako maids brought the first corn to their ancestors, and in that legend it is said that Calakotaka, or the male Calako, a sun god, initiated the youth into the Katcinas by flogging them, as Tunwup still functions in Powamu.

The etymology of the word Calako is unknown to me, and it may have been derived from the same source as the Zuñi word. A corn husk, and by derivation a cigarette paper, is called by the Hopi a calakabu.