A little over ten years ago an Indian living near Keam’s Canyon, Arizona, informed Mr T. V. Keam, who for several years had been making a collection of Hopi curiosities, that there were two idols in a cave near the ruins of the old pueblo of Awatobi. Mr Keam, supposing these images to be so ancient that they no longer were used in the Hopi ritual, especially as they were reported from a point ten miles from the nearest pueblo, visited the place, and brought the idols to his store, several miles

In the Flute and New-fire ceremonies the role of the personators of Alósaka is that of an escort who leads the columns of dancers or processions of priests. The personation of Alósaka in the Walpi Flute-dance was by a member of the Ása clan, who, on the fifth day of the ceremony, drew a line of ground corn and made rain-cloud symbols along the path by which altar objects were carried from one place to another. He made a line of meal across the trail by which one enters Walpi, in order to symboli

The germinative element of the Alósaka cult, which we may regard as an ancient phase, was introduced into Awatobi and the other Hopi pueblos by a group of clans from the far south. These clans, called the Patuñ , or Squash, founded the pueblo of Micoñinovi, [5] where the Alósaka cult is now vigorous, and were prominent in Awatobi where it was important. There is one episode of the elaborated New-fire ceremony which is traced to these southern clans; this concerns a figurine, called Talatumsi , k

One of the most striking features of the rites of the Winter Solstice ceremony in the chief kiva is the personation, before an altar, of a Bird-man who is thought to represent a solar god. This episode at Walpi has been elsewhere described, [7] but as at Oraibi it immediately precedes certain rites directly related to the Alósaka cult, a few notes on the personation of the Bird-man in the latter pueblo will be introduced. About 10 P.M. on the day called Tótokya , the chief day of all great cerem

After the bird personator had retired, a short interval elapsed, all the spectators of the previous rites remaining seated. A screen was then handed through the kiva hatchway and propped upright near the fireplace with blocks of clay and stones. This screen ( plate XXVI ) was estimated to be between four and five feet long, by about three feet wide, and was decorated on the side turned toward the fireplace and the raised floor of the kiva. The entire middle of the screen was occupied by a pictur

In the Walpi variant of the Soyáluña or Winter Solstice ceremony, we have not as yet observed a ceremony with the Alósaka figure comparable with that with the screen just described; but there is a shield upon which is painted an almost identical figure of Alósaka . [15] The nature of the rites in which this shield is used is imperfectly known, and the character of the Alósaka worship in the pueblos of the Middle Mesa is yet to be investigated....

The symbolism of Alósaka is shown in a rude drawing made by one of the Hopi to illustrate a legend, and it represents this being on a rainbow, on which he is said to have traveled from his home in the San Francisco mountains to meet an Awatobi maid. Above the figure of Alósaka is represented the sun, which is drawn also on the screen above described, for Alósaka is intimately associated with the sun, as are all the other horned gods, Ahole , Calako , Tuñwup , and the Natackas . An interesting de

It will be seen from the preceding account that the Alósaka rites are well developed in the ceremonies of the New-fire and Winter Solstice, in which the clans from the south who joined the Hopi are well represented, or in which religious societies and ceremonial paraphernalia brought by the Patuñ , Píba , Pátki , and related clans have preeminence. Study of the Alósaka myths reveals an explanation of the meaning of this relationship. During his valuable studies among the Hopi, the late A. M. Ste

The Alósaka cult may be regarded as another form of that totemic ancestor worship which appears in all Hopi mythology and ritual. The male and female Alósakas are supposed to be ancestors of a cult society called the Aaltû , and are represented symbolically in the ritual by graven images, pictures, or personations by men. The name Alósaka is simply a sacerdotal name used in this society, but it is applied to a similar conception found in the worship of other societies under other names. In the S

1. There survives in the Hopi ritual a worship of horned beings called Alósakas , which once existed at the now ruined pueblo of Awatobi. 2. The purpose of the rites performed in this cult is to cause seeds, especially corn, to germinate and grow, and to bring rain to water the farms. 3. The Aaltû priesthood at Walpi, who personate Alósakas , perform duties suggestive of those of warriors. 4. The intimate relationship of Alósaka rites with those of the Rain-cloud clans supports legends that they