The symbolism of the male Calako is identical with that of Tunwup and resembles that of the Zuñi Shalako. The Hopi celebrate their sun-prayer-stick making in July, the Zuñi in December, or at different solstices. The Hopi say that they derived their celebration from the Zuñi (see Fifteenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.). When this interesting ceremonial is performed at Sitcomovi the Calako maids do not appear, and the four giants with avian symbolism apparently personate a sun drama, but as a derivative from Zuñi we must await an interpretation of the original for conclusive evidence of its meaning.
The images of the altars as well as symbolic designs depicted upon them show us that fructification, growth and maturing of corn, and rain clouds are predominant in representations on Niman Katcina altars.
I have not offered a suggestion in regard to the identity of the strange being, Tunwup, nor am I quite sure that he can be interpreted, but I strongly suspect that he is none other than the Sun, a worship of whom pervades the whole Katcina ritual.[22]
The element which predominates in the worship at the Powamu ceremony is the fructification of germs; and as beans figure so conspicuously in it as symbols, it’s popularly called the “Bean Planting,” while a ceremony following it is Palülükonti,[23] in which corn is sprouted, is called the “Corn Planting.” As in Hopi conceptions the Sun is father of all life, a ceremony called the Powalawu, appropriate to the object or aim of Powamu, precedes the planting of beans in the kivas. The ceremony is strictly a part of Powamu, showing it is a form of direct sun worship. In it a special sun altar is made of a sand mosaic upon which, during ceremonial songs, a tray of meal composed of all kinds of seeds used by the Hopi is copiously sprinkled on the picture of the sun; medicine water is then thrown upon the same to typify the rains which under the sun’s action causes these seeds to germinate and grow.
My comparative study of the Hopi Katcina altars has therefore led me to the following conclusions: Their symbolism, whether in pictures, rites, or of images, refer to two elements, or supernaturals, which control rain and growth of corn. The latter are male and female, representing the sky god and the earth goddess, the father and the mother, the lightning and the earth, the two sexes without whose union life is impossible.[24]
The ceremonials performed about the Katcina altars admit of the same interpretation, and it remains for me to indicate their nature and bearing on the above conclusions.
ALTAR OF ORAIBI POWALAWU
A sand picture of the great paternal deity, Tawa, the Sun, has never been reported from any Tusayan altar except Oraibi. Such a picture is made in Powalawu, the opening ceremony of Powamu and described by Mr. Voth.
The altar is made on the floor of the kiva, and is placed on a layer of valley sand on which are made four concentric zones of different colored sands surrounding a middle circle of white sand on which is drawn a stellate figure of the sun. These different concentric zones are yellow, green, red, and white, beginning with the smallest, and ending with a peripheral in white. They are separated by black lines, and a quartz crystal[25] to which a string, with attached feather, is tied, is placed in the middle of the picture of the sun. A quadrant apart on the periphery of the picture, beyond the white zone, there are four arrow-shaped projections, colored yellow, green, red, and white, following a circuit with the center of the whole sand painting on the left hand. These, like the zones, are made of differently colored sands and are rimmed with black. Across the yellow arrow-headed figure extend several parallel red lines of sand; across the green, white; across the red, yellow; and across the white, green.
On the supposition that the inner figure represents the sun, the four peripheral arrow-shaped appendages are supposed to represent heads of the lightning snakes of the four cardinal points, north, west, south, and east, as their colors indicate.[26]