Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/324

 fewkks] WINTER SOLSTICE AL TARS A T HANO 2J$

The reason these prayer-sticks are termed " ladders " is be- cause 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 with- draws 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 corre- sponding to the worship of Paluliikoft. Among the Hopi the Patki people claim to have introduced this cult ' in compara- tively 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 relationship to the Okuwun that the Hopi Tuwa clan does to the Patki? If this tradition is well founded, a knowl- edge of the Great Snake fetish of the two Hano kivas may have been brought by the Okuwun and Nah-towa into Tusayan from the same place as that of Paluliikofl.

1 All Hopi priests are very solicitous that sketches of the Patki altar in the Soy- aluiia should not be shown to Tewa men or women, and the Tewa men begged me to keep silent regarding their altars while conversing with the Walpi chiefs. There is a very strict taboo between the^wo peoples at the time of the Winter Solstice ceremony, which is more rigid than at other times.

• The Tuwa (Sand) or Kiikuici (Lizard) clan lived at Pakatcomo with the Patki people, according to their legends.

AM. ANTH. N. S. f I— 18

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