The Winter Solstice Altars At Hano Pueblo Part 2

There are two kivas in Hano, one of which, called _Tewakiva_, is situated at the head of the trail to the pueblo. The other, called the _Monkiva_, is built in the eastern part of the plaza, and, as its name implies, is the "chief" Hano kiva. Both these semi-subterranean rooms are rectangular[22] in shape, and in structural details resemble the kivas of Walpi. Each has a hatchway entrance in the middle of the roof, and is entered by means of a ladder which rests on the floor near a central fireplace. Neither of the Hano kivas has a window, but each has a raised platform for spectators east of the fireplace.[23]

ALTAR IN THE MOnKIVA AT HANO

Anote,[24] the chief of the _Monkiva_, constructed his altar (plate XVIII) on the day above mentioned as _Paic-tala_. He antic.i.p.ated the others in making it, and began operations, about 10 A.M., by carefully sweeping the floor. His fetishes and other altar paraphernalia were in a bag on the floor at the western end of his kiva, but there was no _tiponi_, or chieftain's badge, even on the completed altar.

Shortly after Anote had finished sweeping the floor of the kiva, Satele entered, followed a few minutes later by Patuntupi.[25] These three men, with Kalakwai, who was weaving a blanket, were the only persons in the kiva while the altar was being made. Immediately after the other chiefs came in, Anote began the making of prayer-sticks.

Four of these were made, each of characteristic Tewa form.

Each of these prayer-sticks was double the length of the middle finger, and was painted black with green pigment at the blunt end. On one of the two sticks which compose this prayer offering, there was cut a facet which was painted green with black dots representing eyes and mouth. The stick without the facet was called the male, and upon it a ferrule was incised.

The two sticks were bound together with two cotton strings in two places, but no packet of prayer-meal was appended as in Hopi prayer-sticks (_pahos_).[26] A string with a terminal feather was attached to that which bound the two sticks together. Anote likewise made many feathered strings called _nakwakwocis_, and Satele fas.h.i.+oned two prayer-sticks; all of these were laid in a basket-tray on the floor.

After these prayer offerings had been completed, Anote placed on the floor a blanketful of moist clay which he further moistened and kneaded, fas.h.i.+oning a part of it into a cylinder about a foot and a half long, and two inches in diameter. This object was made blunt at one end and pointed at the other. The image represents _Avaiyo_, the Tewa name of _Palulukon_, the Great Serpent. He added to the blunt end, or head, a small clay horn,[27] and inserted a minute feather in the tip of the tail. He fas.h.i.+oned into a ball the clay that remained after making the effigy of the serpent, patting it into a spherical compact ma.s.s about the size of a baseball. This, called the _natci_, later served as the pedestal to hold two eagle-wing feathers, and was placed at the kiva hatch each day to inform the uninitiated that ceremonies were in progress.

Having finished the effigy of the Great Serpent and formed the clay cylinder to his liking, Anote made on the western side of the floor of the kiva a ridge of sand, a few inches high and about two feet long, parallel with the western wall. While making this ridge he sat between it and the kiva wall. Having patted this sand ridge to the proper height, he removed from their wrapping of coa.r.s.e cloth, four sticks, each about two feet long. These sticks, dingy with age, were tied in pairs, and were called _ponya-saka_, "altar ladders." They were inserted in the ridge in pairs, one on each side, and between them was placed in the sand a row of eagle feathers. As these were being put in position by Satele, Anote sang in a low tone, the song continuing as the other parts of the altar were arranged.[28] Anote was frequently obliged to prompt his a.s.sociate regarding the proper arrangement of the objects on the altar.

Satele next drew a line of prayer-meal before the ridge of sand, and from it, as a base line, made three deep semicircles representing rain-clouds. These were drawn as simple, elongated outlines, but immediately the chief sprinkled meal on the floor over the s.p.a.ce enclosed by them. The curved edges of the three rain-cloud symbols were then rimmed with black sand or powdered coal. About twenty short, parallel lines, representing falling rain, were next drawn on the floor with cornmeal, and alternating with them the same number of black lines. Satele then placed upon the rain-cloud symbols, skeleton puma paws, two for each rain-cloud. At the apex of each symbolic cloud a stone fetish of a bear was deposited, and by the side of each an arrow-point or other stone object was laid.

The clay effigy of the Great Snake was next placed back of the rain-cloud symbols, with the head pointing southward. As this effigy lay on the floor, Anote made on it, with meal, representations of eyes and teeth, then drew two lines of meal about the neck for a necklace, and two other parallel lines about the tail. Black powder was then evenly sprinkled along the back of the effigy.

Both Anote and Satele procured a few ears of differently colored corn and sh.e.l.led them upon the rain-cloud picture, sprinkling the grains evenly over the meal design, and adding a few to the back of the Great Snake. Squash and melon seeds were likewise distributed in the same way. The vase from which the stone effigies and other images were taken was then placed near the base of the middle rain-cloud picture, and a large quartz crystal was added on the left. A conch, which the author presented to the chief, was placed on the right of this vase.

Anote then swept the floor north of the fireplace, and as he sang in a low tone Satele drew a straight line of meal from near the right pole of the ladder across the floor to the middle of the altar. He placed along this line, at intervals, four feathers, and near where it joined the altar he stretched a string, with an attached feather, called the _putabi_.[29] He then sprinkled a line of pollen along this trail of meal.

Anote's medicine-bowl was set just in front of the middle rain-cloud figure; the clay pedestal with inserted upright feathers stood before the left, and a basket-tray with prayer-meal before the right rain-cloud figure.

ALTAR IN THE TEWAKIVA AT HANO

The altar (plate XIX) in the _Tewakiva_ was begun about 10 A.M. on the a.s.sembly day, and was made by Pocine,[30] a.s.sisted by his uncle, Punsauwi, both members of the _Nan-towa_, or Sand clan.

The preparations began with the manufacture of a clay effigy of the Great Snake similar to but larger than that made by Anote in the _Monkiva_. The clay was moistened and kneaded on the floor, and then rolled into a cylinder about three feet long, blunt at one end and pointed at the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST No. 8., Vol. 1, PL. XIX Drawn by MARY M. LEIGHTER ALTAR IN THE TEWAKIVA AT HANO]

Four clay b.a.l.l.s were made at the same time. One of these later served as the base of a standard (_natci_) which was subsequently placed each morning on the kiva hatch to warn the uninitiated not to enter. The other three were placed back of the altar and supported the sticks called the altar-ladders, which will be considered later.

Pocine outlined with meal on the floor a square figure which he divided into two rectangular parts by a line parallel with the northern side. He used meal of two colors--white for one rectangle, and light brown or pinkish for the other. Having made the outlines of the rectangle with great care, he carelessly sprinkled the enclosed s.p.a.ces with the meal, hardly covering the sand base upon which the figures were drawn. He then added four triangular figures in meal on the south or front side of the rectangular symbols. These images represented rain-clouds, and were alternately white and brown.[31] To the tips of these triangular rain-cloud figures he appended zigzag continuations with lozenge-shaped tips representing the lightning of the four cardinal points. A stone spearpoint or arrowhead was laid on each lozenge-like tip of the zigzag lightning.[32]

The two men, Pocine and Punsauwi, next raised the snake effigy and bore it to a position back of the rectangular meal figures on the floor. They deposited it in such a way that its head pointed southward. Having set the snake effigy in the position which it was to retain throughout the ceremony, Pocine sprinkled a black powder along the back of the image, while his uncle inserted several kernels of corn in the blunt end to represent sent the teeth of an upper jaw.

Two kernels of corn were then stuck into the head to indicate eyes, and an imitation necklace, also of grains of corn, was made around the neck of the idol. A double encircling row of corn grains was inserted in the tail or pointed end of the effigy, and Pocine added a small feather at the tip.

After the effigy had been put in position and adorned in the manner described, both Pocine and his uncle again sh.e.l.led 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 _Monkiva_ altar. There were twelve of these feathers, and they were placed at equal intervals from the neck to the tail of the effigy. Punsauwi then placed the three b.a.l.l.s of clay, previously mentioned, back of the image, and in each of these b.a.l.l.s he inserted two sticks, called _pahos_, similar to those used on the altar of the _Monkiva_. 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 _ponya-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 pa.s.s 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 sc.r.a.ped 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 gla.s.s, 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; _koyona_, turkey; and _pociwu_. 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 _Tuntai_ and deposited in a shrine near Sikyaowatcomo, the site of the early settlement of the Tewa. The _ponya-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]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST No. 8., Vol. 1, PL. XIX Drawn by J. L. RIDGWAY MINIATURE IMITATION OF THE TAWA-SAKA OR SUN-LADDER (About one-half size)]

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 _Tuntai_ altars.

No _tiponi_ 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 wors.h.i.+p of Palulukon. Among the Hopi the _Patki_ people claim to have introduced this cult[41] in comparatively recent times. There is a Tewa clan called _Okuwun_ (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 _Okuwun_ clan that their ancestors, like those of the _Patki_, came from the south, and that the _Nan-towa_ bears a like relations.h.i.+p to the _Okuwun_ 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 _Okuwun_ and _Nan-towa_ into Tusayan from the same place as that of Palulukon.

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 _monkohus_, 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.

CONCLUSIONS

The special interest attached to the Winter Solstice altars at Hano is in the fact that they are made by Tewa priests whose ancestors came to Tusayan about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The makers claim that their forefathers brought a knowledge of them from Tcewadi, in the upper valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and that their relatives in the Tewa pueblos in the east still use like altars in their celebration at the _Tuntai_.

Nothing, so far as known, has yet been published on the _Tuntai_ altars of the eastern Tanoan people, but ethnographers may yet find in the kivas of those villages material which will render the above descriptions of comparative interest. The resemblance of the _Tuntai_ altars to that of the _Patki_ and related families in the Walpi _Monkiva_ at the Winter Solstice, is a very distant one. Both have snake effigies, but there is practically little else in common between them, or with the altar erected at the same time by the _Pakab_ people in the _Tcivatokiva_. The _Tuntai_ altars are characteristically Tewan, and, while h.o.m.ologous with each other, are different from any yet known from the Hopi pueblos.

The purport of the _Tuntai_ rites at Hano seems to be similar to that of the Hopi _Soyaluna_, namely, to draw back the sun in its southern declination, and to fertilize the corn and other seeds and increase all worldly possessions. As at Walpi, strings with attached feathers are made and given to men and women with wishes that the G.o.ds may bring them blessings. These strings are also attached to beams of houses, placed in springs of water, tied to the tails of horses, burros, sheep, dogs, chickens, and indeed every possession which the Indian has and wishes to increase. The presence of the idol of the snake means snake wors.h.i.+p.

The survival of the Tanoan _Tuntai_ altars at Hano is typical of the way in which the Tusayan ritual has grown to its present complicated form. They are instances of an intrusive element which has not yet been amalgamated, as the knowledge of them is still limited to una.s.similated people and clans.

Similar conditions have existed from time to time during the history of the Hopi, when new clans were added to those already existing. For many years incoming clans maintained a strict taboo, and each family held the secrets of its own religion; but as time went on and a.s.similation resulted by intermarriage, the religious society arose, composed of men and women of different clans. The family to which a majority of the members.h.i.+p belonged continued to hold the chieftaincy, and owned the altar and its paraphernalia, cheris.h.i.+ng the legends of the society. But when men of other clans were admitted to members.h.i.+p, a mutual reaction of one society on another naturally resulted. This tended to modifications which have obscured the original character of distinctive family wors.h.i.+p.

The problem of the Hopi ritual, by which is meant the sum of all great ceremonies in the Hopi calendar, deals largely with a composite system. It implies, as elsewhere pointed out, an investigation of the characteristic religious observances of several large families which formerly lived apart in different pueblos. It necessitates a knowledge of the social composition of Walpi and of the history of the different phratries which make up the population of the village.

There is a corollary to the above conclusions. No pueblo in the southwest, outside of Tusayan, has the same ceremonial calendar as Walpi, because the population of none is made up of the same clans united in the same relative proportions. Hence the old remark that what is true of one pueblo is true of all, does not apply to their ritual. Some ceremonies at Jemez, Acoma, Sia, and Zuni, for instance, are like some ceremonies at Walpi; but the old ceremonial calendar in any one of these pueblos was different from that of the other, because the component families were not the same. In the same way the ceremonies at Hano and Walpi have certain things in common, due no doubt to the a.s.similation in the latter of certain Tanoan clans, but their calendars are very different. The _Tuntai_ at Hano differs more widely from the Winter Solstice ceremony at Walpi, a gunshot away, than the Walpi observance differs from that at Oraibi, twenty miles distant. So we might also predict that if we knew the character of Winter Solstice altars in the Rio Grande Tewa villages, they would be found to resemble those of Hano more closely than the altars of Hano resemble those of Walpi.

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

FOOTNOTES: