Many other but widely divergent legends exist regarding the Alosaka, a number of which are associated with the pueblo of Awatobi, which was formerly one of the most populous Hopi towns. At one time this village experienced drought and famine, and Alosaka, from his home in the San Francisco Mountains, observed the trouble of the people. Disguised as a youth he visited Awatobi and became enamored with a maiden of that town. Several times he visited her, but no one knew whence he came or whither he went, for his trail no one could follow. The parents of the girl at last discovered that he came on the rainbow, and recognized him as a divine being. The children of this maid were horned beings, or Alosakas, but their identity was not at first recognized.
Like all the cultus heroes, Alosaka is said, in legends, to have been miraculously born of a virgin. His father was the Sun, his mother an Earth-goddess, sometimes called a maiden. Like many gods, he traveled on the rainbow; he lived at Tawaki, the house of his father, the Sun, or the San Francisco Mountains.[14]
[14] The Alosaka Cult of the Hopi Indians, by J. Walter Fewkes; American Anthropologist (N. S.), Vol. I, July, 1899, pp. 535-539.
There is another tradition of the clans that moved from the southward collected by the late A. M. Stephen from no less a personage than Anowita (p. [208]), who was chief of the Cloud people. The tradition is as follows:
We did not come direct to this region [Tusayan],—we had no fixed intention as to where we should go. We are the Patki nyumu, and we dwelt at Palatkwabi [Red land] where the agave grows high and plentiful; perhaps it was in the region the Americans call Gila valley, but of that I am not certain. It was far south of here, and a large river flowed past our village, which was large, and the houses were high, and a strange thing happened there.
Our people were not living peaceably at that time, we were quarreling among ourselves, over huts and other things, I have heard, but who can tell what caused their quarrels? There was a famous hunter of our people, and he cut off the tips from the antlers of the deer which he killed and [wore them for a necklace] he always carried them. He lay down in a hollow in the court of the village, as if he had died, but our people doubted this; they thought he was only shamming death, yet they covered him up with earth. Next day his extended hand protruded, the four fingers erect, and the first day after that one finger disappeared [was doubled up?]; each day a finger disappeared, until on the fourth day his hand was no longer visible and the old people thought that he dug down to the underworld with the horn tips.
On the fifth day water spouted up from the hole where his hand had been and it spread over everywhere. On the sixth day, Palulukona [the Serpent Deity] protruded from this hole and looked around in every direction. All the lower ground was covered and many were drowned, but most of our people had fled to some knolls not far from the village and which were not yet submerged.
When the old men saw Palulukona they asked him what he wanted, because they knew he had caused this flood; and Palulukona said, “I want you to give me a youth and a maiden.” The elders consulted and then selected the handsomest youth and fairest maid and arrayed them in their finest apparel, the youth with a white kilt and paroquet plume, and the maid with a fine blue tunic and white mantle. These children wept and besought their parents not to send them to Palulukona, but an old chief said, “You must go; do not be afraid: I will guide you.” And he led them toward the village court and stood at the edge of the water, but sent the children wading in toward Palulukona, and when they had reached the center of the court where Palulukona was the deity, the children disappeared. The water then rushed down after them, through a great cavity, and the earth quaked and many houses tumbled down, and from this cavity a great mound of dark rock protruded. This rock mound was glossy and of all colors; it was beautiful, and, as I have been told, it still remains there.
The White Mountain Apache have told me that they know a place in the south where the old houses surround a great rock, and the land in the vicinity is wet and boggy.
We traveled northward from Palatkwabi and continued to travel just as long as any strength was left in the people,—as long as they had breath. During these journeys we would halt only for one day at a time. Then our chief planted corn in the morning and the dragonfly came and hovered over the stalks and by noon the corn was ripe; before sunset it was quite dry and the stalks, fell over, and in whichever way they pointed, in that direction we traveled.
When anyone became ill, or when children fretted and cried, or the young people became homesick the Coiyal Katcina (a youth and a maiden) came and danced before them; then the sick got well, children laughed, and sad ones became cheerful. We would continue to travel until everyone was thoroughly worn out, then we would halt and build houses and plant, remaining perhaps many years. One of these places where we lived is not far from San Carlos, in a valley, and another is on a mesa near a spring called Coyote Water by the Apache.
When we came to the valley of the Little Colorado, south of where Winslow now is, we built houses and lived there; then we crossed to the northern side of the valley and built houses at Homolobi. This was a good place for a time, but a plague of flies came and bit the suckling children, causing many of them to die, so we left there and traveled to Cipa (near Kuma spring). Finally we found the Hopi, some going to each of the villages except Awatobi; none went there.[15]
[15] Cosmos Mindeleff, 13th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 188-189.
The figure of a hand with extended fingers is very common, in the vicinity of ruins, as a rock etching, and also is frequently seen daubed on the rocks with colored pigments or white clay. These are vestiges of a test formerly practiced by the young men who aspired for admission to the fraternity of the Calako. The Calako is a trinity of two women and a man from whom the Hopi obtained the first corn, and of whom the following legend is told:
There was neither springs nor streams, although water was so near the surface that it could be found by pulling up a tuft of grass. The people had but little food, however, and they besought Masauwuh to help them, but he could not.
There came a little old man, a dwarf, who said that he had two sisters who were the wives of Calako, and it might be well to petition them. So they prepared an altar, every man making a paho, and these were set in the ground so as to encircle a sand hillock, for this occurred before houses were known.
Masauwuh’s brother came and told them that when Calako came to the earth’s surface wherever he placed his foot a deep chasm was made, then they brought to the altar a huge rock, on which Calako might stand, and they set it between the two pahos placed for his wives. Then the people got their rattles and stood around the altar, each man in front of his own paho; but they stood in silence, for they knew no song with which to invoke this strange god. They stood there for a long while, for they were afraid to begin the ceremonies, until a young lad, selecting the largest rattle, began to shake it and sing. Presently a sound like rushing water was heard, but no water was seen; a sound also like great winds, but the air was perfectly still, and it was seen that the rock was pierced with a great hole through the center. The people were frightened and ran away, all save the young lad who had sung the invocation.
The lad soon afterward rejoined them, and they saw that his back was cut and bleeding, and covered with splinters of yucca and willow. The flagellation, he told them, had been administered by Calako, who told him that he must endure this laceration before he could look upon the beings he had invoked; that only to those who passed through his ordeals could Calako become visible; and as the lad had braved the test so well, he should henceforth be chief of the Calako altar. The lad could not describe Calako, but said that his two wives were exceedingly beautiful and arrayed with all manner of fine garments. They wore great headdresses of clouds and every kind of corn which they were to give to the Hopi to plant for food. These were white, red, yellow, blue, black, blue and white speckled, and red and yellow speckled corn, and a seeded grass (kwapi).
The lad returned to the altar and shook his rattle over the hole in the rock and from its interior Calako conversed with him and gave him instructions. In accordance with these he gathered all the Hopi youths and brought them to the rock, that Calako might select certain of them to be his priests. The first test was that of putting their hands in the mud and impressing them upon the rock. Only those were chosen as novices the imprints of whose hands had dried on the instant. The selected youths then moved within the altar and underwent the test of flagellation. Calako lashed them with yucca and willow. Those who made no outcry were told to remain in the altar, to abstain from salt and flesh for ten days, when Calako would return and instruct them concerning the rites to be performed when they sought his aid.
Calako and his two wives appeared at the appointed time, and after many ceremonials gave to each of the initiated five grains of each of the different kinds of corn. The Hopi women had been instructed to place baskets woven of grass at the foot of the rock, and in these Calako’s wives placed the seeds of squashes, melons, beans, and all the other vegetables which the Hopi have since possessed. Calako and his wives, after announcing that they would again return, took off their masks and garments, and laying them on the rock disappeared within it.
Some time after this, when the initiated were assembled in the altar, the Great Plumed Snake appeared to them and said that Calako could not return unless one of them was brave enough to take the mask and garments down into the hole and give it to him. They were all afraid, but the oldest man of the Hopi took them down and was deputed to return and represent Calako.
Shortly afterward Masauwuh stole the paraphernalia and with his two brothers masqueraded as Calako and his wives. This led the Hopi into great trouble, and they incurred the wrath of Muiyinwuh, who withered all their grain and corn. One of the Hopi finally discovered that the supposed Calako carried a cedar bough in his hand, when it should have been willow; then they knew it was Masauwuh who had been misleading them. The boy hero one day found Masauwuh asleep, and so regained possession of the mask, Muiyinwuh then withdrew his punishments and sent Palulukon (The Plumed Snake) to tell the Hopi that Calako would never return to them, but that the boy hero should wear his mask and represent him, and his festival should be celebrated when they had a proper number of novices to be initiated.
The celebration occurs in the modern Hopi pueblos in the Powamu ceremony, where the representative of Calako flogs the children. Calako’s picture is found on the Powamu altars of several of the villages of the Hopi.[16]