Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Philosophy
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
So far as I am able to learn, the three pieces of this remarkable
costume are never worn except on a single occasion, and at only one
other time does the bride formally appear in any of them. About a
month after the marriage ceremony has been performed, during which
time she has been living with the family of her husband, she completes
the marriage ceremony by returning to the house of her mother. This is
termed "going home," and this will be her place of abode until she and
her husband own a dwelling of their own. For this ceremony she puts on
the larger of the two blankets, which reaches almost to the ground and
comes up high on the back of the head, covering her ears. The smaller
blanket and the sash are rolled up in the mat, and with this in front
of her on her two arms she begins her journey "home." This white
cotton costume is probably a survival from times which antedate the
introduction of wool into the Southwest.
Who makes all these garments, blankets, etc.? Not the women, as you
might expect, but the men. A Hopi woman doesn't even make her own
moccasins. If you will descend into one of the kivas on almost any
day of the year, except when the secret rites of ceremonies are being
held, you will behold an industrious and an interesting scene. You
will find a group of men, naked except for a loin cloth, all busy
either with the carding combs, the spindle, or the loom; and to me the
most interesting of these three operations is that of the spinning of
wool. The spindle itself is long and heavy, and the whorl, in the
older examples, is a large disk cut from a mountain goat's horn. There
is no attempt at decoration, nor do the spindles compare with those
found in Peru and other parts of America for neatness and beauty. An
unusual feature of the method employed by the Hopi spinner is the
manner in which the spindle is held under one foot while he
straightens out the thread preparatory to winding it.
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