| AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST | No. 8., VOL. 1, PL. XX |
Drawn by J. L. Ridgway
The reason these prayer-sticks are termed "ladders" is because they have the form of an ancient type of ladder made by notching a log of wood. They are symbols of the ladders by which the Sun is supposed to emerge from his house at sunrise. In the Hopi and Tewa conception the Sun is weary as he withdraws to the south in winter and these ladders are made to aid him in rising, and thus in returning to bless them. More light will doubtless be shed on the significance of the sun-ladder prayer-offerings when we know more of the ceremonies about the Tûñtai altars.
No típoni or badge of office was placed on this altar on the day it was made, and my abrupt departure from the East Mesa made it impossible for me to see the rites which are later performed about it.
It is evident, from the preceding description, that the priests of Hano have a knowledge of the Great Serpent cult corresponding to the worship of Palülükoñ. Among the Hopi the Patki people claim to have introduced this cult[41] in comparatively recent times. There is a Tewa clan called Okuwuñ (Cloud) which corresponds, so far as meaning goes, with the Patki clan of the Hopi. Whether this clan brought with it a knowledge of the Great Snake is not clear, as traditions are silent on that point.
There is a tradition in the Okuwuñ clan that their ancestors, like those of the Patki, came from the south, and that the Nañ-towa bears a like relationship to the Okuwuñ that the Hopi Tuwa clan does to the Patki.[42] If this tradition is well founded, a knowledge of the Great Snake fetish of the two Hano kivas may have been brought by the Okuwuñ and Nañ-towa into Tusayan from the same place as that of Palülükoñ.
The Kwakwantu society of the Patki clans among the Hopi are intimately connected with this Great Plumed or Horned Snake cult. In some parts of the New-fire ceremony, in which this society takes a prominent part, each member of the society carries in his hand a small wooden image of a horned snake. These images are called moñkohus, some of the typical forms of which are figured in an article on the Naacnaiya.[43] The head of the snake and its horn are well represented in several of these wooden effigies.