The Motion Reminds One Much Of
That Required Over The Washing Board.
While thus at work, the Pueblo women
sing some of their sweetest songs.
Hair Dressing. Occasionally when a Hopi mother, whose daughter has reached
maidenhood, is located in the Hopi House, one may chance to find her
engaged in turning the heavy black hair of her "mana" into the big whorls
on the side of her head which are the Hopi emblem of maidenhood and purity.
The mother herself wears her hair in two pendant rolls. These are the
symbols of fruitfulness and chastity.
It is interesting also to see them make piki, a process elsewhere fully
described.
Various Baskets. In the various rooms on the ground floor, the observing
and curious will find quite a number of quaint architectural devices. The
chief attractions to most visitors are the various Indian goods. There are
baskets made by every Indian tribe in North America, Navaho wedding baskets
made by Paiutes and used also by Apaches as medicine baskets; Havasupai,
Pima, Hopi, and Katchina plaques; Hupa and Poma carrying baskets; Haida,
Makah, Mescalero, Apache, Mission, Chimehuevi, Washoe, and a score of
others. Here are pinion covered water-bottles of Navaho (tusjeh), Havasupai
(esuwa), and Apache (tis-ii-lah-hah). Note the vast difference in the
native names for practically the same thing.
Hopi Katchinas. The Hopi Ethnologic Collection (on second floor) is the
best in the world, with the exception of the collection in the Field
Columbian Museum, Chicago. In this collection are a large number of
katchina dolls. Of these katchinas much might be written. They are ancient
ancestral representatives of certain Hopi clans who, as spirits of the
dead, are endowed with powers to aid the living members of the clan in
material ways. The clans, therefore, pray to them that these material
blessings may be given. "It is an almost universal idea of primitive man,"
says Fewkes, "that prayers should be addressed to personations of the
beings worshipped. In the carrying out of this conception men personate the
katchinas, wearing masks, and dressing in the costumes characteristic of
these beings. These personations represent to the Hopi mind their idea of
the appearance of these katchinas or clan ancients. The spirit beings
represented in these personations appear at certain times in the pueblo,
dancing before spectators, receiving prayer for needed blessings, as rain
and good crops."
Powamu and Niman: The katchinas are supposed to come to the earth from the
underworld in February and remain until July, when they say farewell. Hence
there are two specific times which dramatically celebrate the arrival and
departure of the katchinas. The former of these times is called by the Hopi
Powamu, and the latter Niman. At these festivals, or merry dances, certain
members of the participating clans wear masks representing the katchinas,
hence katchina masks are often to be found in Hopi houses when one is
privileged to see the treasures stored away. In order to instruct the
children in the many katchinas of the Hopi pantheon, tihus, or dolls, are
made in imitation of the ancestral supernal beings, and these quaint and
curious toys are eagerly sought after by those interested in Indian life
and thought.
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