The Alósaka cult of the Hopi IndiansFewkes, Jesse Walter
Religion
The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Hopi Indians -- Religion
The distinctive symbolic feature of these images is the horns (_ála_)
above referred to, from which they take their name. There is a
priesthood at Walpi called the _Aaltû_ or Horn-men (to whom the name
_Alósaka_ is also given), who are the special guardians of the cult and
who perform rites which throw light on its nature. These _Aaltû_, in
their personifications of _Alósakas_, wear on their heads close-fitting
wicker caps,[3] on which are mounted two large, artificial, curved
projections made of buckskin, painted white, and resembling horns of
the mountain sheep[4] which, in certain of their actions, the _Aaltû_
imitate.
The three Walpi ceremonies in which we find survivals of the _Alósaka_
cult are the Flute, the New-fire, and the Winter Solstice, which are
especially instructive in a study of its significance.
Personations of Alósaka as Escorts
In the Flute and New-fire ceremonies the role of the personators of
_Alósaka_ is that of an escort who leads the columns of dancers or
processions of priests.
The personation of _Alósaka_ in the Walpi Flute-dance was by a member
of the _Ása_ clan, who, on the fifth day of the ceremony, drew a
line of ground corn and made rain-cloud symbols along the path by
which altar objects were carried from one place to another. He made
a line of meal across the trail by which one enters Walpi, in order
to symbolically close it to visitors on the seventh day, when the
historic reception of the Flute chief by the Bear and Snake chiefs was
dramatized, and brushed away this meal when the Flute chief was invited
to enter the pueblo at that time. He also “closed” the trail a second
time when the Flute priests marched into the pueblo, and brushed the
meal away as they proceeded. On the last day he led a procession of
priests to the Sun spring (_Táwapa_), where a ceremony of wading into
the water was performed, and escorted it back to Walpi on the afternoon
of the last day, when the public Flute exercises were conducted. He
sprinkled a line of meal over which certain sacred objects were carried
from the Flute altar to the roof of the house, and led the priests as
they bore these objects from place to place. There are only obscure
hints regarding the nature of the _Alósaka_ cult in these acts.
In the New-fire ceremonies we find _Alósaka_ filling the role of
escort, and also that of tyler at the kiva hatches. He escorted the
public dancers, visited the trails, and drew lines of meal across them
to prevent strangers from entering the pueblo. He inspected these
trails from time to time, guarded the ladder while the new fire was
being kindled, and carried it to the other kivas. These duties are
those of warriors, but _Alósaka_ was not armed, nor is the mountain
sheep which he represents a probable personation of a warrior.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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