BY J. WALTER FEWKES Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1926, PAGES 469-486 (WITH 3 PLATES) ( Publication 2904 ) UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON 1927 Plate 1 Walpi Six Directions Altar By J. Walter Fewkes , Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology [With 3 plates]...

The present article is the fifth of a series published in the annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution on the composition of Hopi worship. The Hopi, the name meaning peaceful, belong to the Pueblo stock and are agricultural Indians. They are descendants of the Arizona cliff dwellers and have preserved to the present many survivals of their ancient worship. The object of the series of five papers above referred to is to record a few of their rites in sun, fire, and ancestor ceremonies that h

Cipaulovi, the smallest of all the Hopi pueblos, is situated on the Middle Mesa, and its Katcina altar is the poorest in paraphernalia, as shown by a comparison with the altar at Oraibi, the most complicated in Tusayan. Fig. 1. —Cipaulovi Niman Katcina altar Omitting the medicine bowl, rattles, sacred meal, and pahos, the Cipaulovi Niman altar consists of a figure of seven rain clouds, with parallel lines representing falling rain, drawn on the floor with sacred meal, and a row of five vertical

The Walpi Katcina is next in simplicity to that of Cipaulovi. It has instead of a meal picture, however, a reredos upon which are depicted rain and rain cloud symbols, and the two supplementary uprights, with pictures of Tunwup referred to in the Oraibi altar. There are zigzag slats, symbols of lightning, and rounded sticks with emblematic corn designs, neither of which, however, is as complicated as at Oraibi. The Katcina tiponi is prominent, but there are no images on the altar, no basket with

The Katcina altar in this, the most populous village at the Middle Mesa, is simpler than at Oraibi, but more complicated than the Walpi representative. It has, in addition to the objects found on the Walpi altar, two idols or images, one on each side. The zigzag sticks are lacking, but stone implements similar to those on the far simpler Cipaulovi altar are present. There are two emblems of maize, as at Walpi, and numerous sticks, representing growing corn, recalling the same symbols of the Cipa

A sand picture of the great paternal deity, Tawa, the Sun, has never been reported from any Tusayan altar except Oraibi. Such a picture is made in Powalawu, the opening ceremony of Powamu and described by Mr. Voth. The altar is made on the floor of the kiva, and is placed on a layer of valley sand on which are made four concentric zones of different colored sands surrounding a middle circle of white sand on which is drawn a stellate figure of the sun. These different concentric zones are yellow,

We are justified in regarding the Katcinas as spirits of the dead, or divinized ancestors, shades or breath-bodies of those who once lived, as mortuary prayers clearly indicate. The theory of ancestor worship gives us a ready explanation for the fact that ancestral spirits are represented by masked persons, and as a corollary, a suggestion regarding the significance of the different symbolism of those masks. The Hopi, like many people, look back to mythic times when they believe their ancestors