The Winter Solstice Altars at Hano Pueblo

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

After the effigy had been put in position and adorned in the manner described, both Pocine and his uncle again shelled ears of corn on the rectangles of meal,[33] to which were added squash, melon, and other seeds. These were regularly distributed, some being dropped along the back of the image.

A row of eagle feathers was now inserted along the back of the effigy, instead of in a ridge of sand as in the Moñkiva altar. There were twelve of these feathers, and they were placed at equal intervals from the neck to the tail of the effigy. Puñsauwi then placed the three balls of clay, previously mentioned, back of the image, and in each of these balls he inserted two sticks, called pahos, similar to those used on the altar of the Moñkiva. These are ancient objects, being reputed to have descended from a remote past. One stick in each pair was called the male, the other the female, as is true of all double prayer-sticks used by the Hopi Indians. They are called poñya-saka, "altar-ladders," and imitations[34] of them in miniature are made and placed in shrines on the final day of the ceremony.

The insertion of the row of eagle-feathers along the back of the clay effigy of the serpent recalls an instructive reptilian figure on one of the bowls from Sikyatki.[35] In this ancient pictograph we find a row of triangles drawn along the medial line from the head to the tail of a lizard-like figure. The use of the triangle in ancient Pueblo pictography as a symbol of a wing-feather, has been pointed out in an article on the feather as a decorative design in ancient Hopi pottery.[36] The medial line of triangles, representing feathers, on the Sikyatki food-bowl, is paralleled in the Hano kiva by eagle-wing feathers inserted along the middle of the image of a snake.

A small vase was next placed just in advance of the effigy of the Great Snake, and into this vase Pocine poured water from an earthenware canteen, making a pass as he did so to the four Pueblo cardinal points—north, west, south, and east—in sinistral ceremonial circuit.[37] A stone arrow-point was then laid on the lozenge-shaped extremity of each lightning figure.

Pocine now scraped into the vase some powder from a soft white stone, saying, as he did so, that the process was called sowiyauma, "rabbits emerge,"[38] and that he wished he had stones of other colors, corresponding to the cardinal points, for the same purpose. After this was finished he emptied on the floor, from a cloth bag, a miscellaneous collection of botryoidal stones (many of which were waterworn), a few fetishes, and other objects, one of the most conspicuous among the latter being a large green stone. All were at first distributed on the meal picture without any special order, but later were given a definite arrangement.

Pocine next went up the kiva ladder, and standing on the upper rung in the sunlight, sought, by means of an angular piece of glass, to reflect a ray of sunlight on the altar, but more especially into the vase of medicine. Four turkey-feathers were then inserted at equal intervals along the base of the serpent effigy, as shown in plate XIX.

After the stone objects had been arranged on the meal picture, a line of meal was drawn along the floor, from the right pole of the ladder to the altar. This line was drawn with great care, particular pains being taken to make it as straight as possible. There was no singing while this occurred, thus differing from the ceremony performed in the other Hano kiva. Four small feathers were placed at intervals along the line of meal. These, in sequence, beginning with the one nearest the ladder, were sikyatci, yellow-bird; kwahu, eagle or hawk; koyoña, turkey; and pociwû. Pocine sprinkled pollen along this line or meal trail.

There was then emptied from a canvas bag upon the rectangular meal figures a heterogeneous collection of objects, among which may be mentioned a bundle of gaming reeds, the humerus of a turkey, a whistle made of a turkey bone, and a zigzag wooden framework such as is used by the Hopi to represent lightning.[39]

Back of the altar, leaning against the wall of the kiva, was set upright a wooden slat, notched on both edges and called tawa-saka, "sun-ladder." Miniature imitations (plate XX) of this are made in this kiva on the last day of the Tûñtai and deposited in a shrine near Sikyaowatcomo, the site of the early settlement of the Tewa. The poñya-saka or tawa-saka mentioned has not before been seen in any Hopi ceremony, and it may be characteristic of Tewa altars. A notched prayer-stick, called the rain-cloud ladder, is placed in the same shrine at this time. This is characteristic of the Tewa of Tusayan, but is not found in the Hopi pahos, with which I am familiar.[40]