Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/92

 S4 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

PUBLIC LALAKONTI AT ORAIBI.

The celebration of the basket dance at Oraibi was one of the most interesting which has been yet witnessed. The performers at Oraibi were more numerous than in the other pueblos, and there were four basket throwers instead of two. Each of these women wore on her head a tablet representing rain-cloud symbols, as at Walpi, but the shape and decoration of the same were somewhat different in the two pueblos. There were about forty basket bearers, each of whom carried the characteristic Oraibi basket.

The headdress worn by the basket throwers was more like a tablet than a coronet, consisting of a flat or slightly curved vertical plate attached along one edge to the band about the head. Two incisions in the upper rim of this plate left three rounded promi- nences representing rain-clouds.

The band about the head was crossed by a number of parallel black lines, representing falling rain, and at the apex of each rain- cloud symbol was fastened a small round dish and a few twigs of seed grass.

The representation of a horn, which is so prominently attached to the head-band in the Walpi and Cipaulovi variants, and the artificial flower on the opposite side of the head, were not seen at Oraibi.

We have, therefore, three variations in the headdresses of known Hopi Lalakontis. At Cipaulovi a simple band about the head, with a split gourd representing a horn on one side and an artificial flower on the opposite; at Walpi three semicircular attachments to this encircling band, also with lateral horn and flower, and at Oraibi a vertical rectangular tablet with rain-cloud symbols indicated by depressions in the upper edge, and without lateral horn or flower. The last-mentioned form has in addition a small circular disk attached to the apex of each rain-cloud symbol.

As the four basket throwers came into the Oraibi plaza they formed a platoon, led by the priest, who walked a few feet in advance. He wore a bundle of feathers on his head and carried a tray of meal in his hands. About his waist was a white ceremonial blanket decorated with embroidered rain-cloud symbols and tied by a girdle from which depended a foxskin. He was barefoot and wore embroidered anklets.

This leader, or Lakone taka, first made figures in meal on the ground, on which the women threw the corncobs with inserted feathers, as shown in an accompanying plate. The corncobs fell without regularity on the symbols, but the man picked them up and 1 them side by side, while the platoon of Lakone manas advanced a few steps and received them from his hands. This ceremony was

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