The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians / by J. Walter Fewkes.

  • Fewkes, Jesse Walter, 1850-1930.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians / by J. Walter Fewkes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    first stood on the upraise in the floor, called the spectators’ part, then squatted on the floor near the right pole of the ladder. He carried feathers in his hands,1 and, moving his arms up and down, imitated the motion of wings, as if flapping them like a bird. While he was performing these avian movements, the specta¬ tors sang a stirring song and the Bird-man slowly advanced to the middle of the room, imitating the gait of a bird and crouching in a squatting attitude. The motion of the wings and the bird-cries continued, the personator now and then raising his arms and let¬ ting them fall with a quivering motion. Once in the middle of the room he laid the feathers on the floor and remained there for a short time without moving. He then arose and danced for a long time, accompanied by a woman who held in one hand an ear of corn which she gracefully waved back and forth. She followed the Bird-man as he moved from place to place, and at the close of the dance took her seat near the right wall of the kiva where she sat before the Bird-man entered the room. After the woman had taken her seat, the Bird-man continued the wing movements with his arms, stretching them at full length and then drawing them back to his body. He then pro¬ ceeded to a pile of sand in a corner near the upraise ; taking pointed sticks or reeds in his hand and halting before this mound of sand, he threw first one, then another, of the sticks into the sand, all the time imitating a bird in the movements of his body and simulating the bird-calls with a whistle. He then went to the Soyaluna woman who had danced with him ; squatting before her, he uttered the strange bird-calls, and, making a pass, raised the small sticks which he carried from her feet to her head several times. He then returned to the mound of sand and again shot the sticks into it, after which he returned to the woman. This was repeated several times. The bird personator then returned to the middle of the kiva, before the altar, and, taking a bow and some arrows, danced for some time, while all the assembled 1 At Walpi he has a line of feathers tied along his arm.