It is interesting to note that there is no _Alósaka_ escort of the Flute priests in their public dances at the Middle Mesa, and, judging from photographs, it would seem that there is a like absence at Oraibi, which may be due to the absence of certain clans. Thus, one of the chiefs of the _Aaltû_ or _Alósaka_ society at Walpi belongs to the _Ása_ clan of Tanoan extraction limited to the East Mesa. The first colonists of this clan were essentially warriors, and their performance of escort duty may be a survival of former times. As there are two chiefs of equal standing in the _Aaltû_ priesthood, one of the _Ása_ and the other of the Bear clan (one of the oldest in Walpi), it would seem that there are two phases of the cult, and that the function of _Alósaka_ as an escort is distinct from an older one common to other Hopi villages. Germinative Element in the Alósaka Cult The germinative element of the _Alósaka_ cult, which we may regard as an ancient phase, was introduced into Awatobi and the other Hopi pueblos by a group of clans from the far south. These clans, called the _Patuñ_, or Squash, founded the pueblo of Micoñinovi,[5] where the _Alósaka_ cult is now vigorous, and were prominent in Awatobi where it was important. There is one episode of the elaborated New-fire ceremony which is traced to these southern clans; this concerns a figurine, called _Talatumsi_, kept in a shrine under the cliffs of Walpi and especially reverenced by the _Aaltû_ or _Alósaka_ priests. In the elaborated New-fire rites, called the _Naácnaiya_, just after the fire has been kindled by frictional methods in the _Moñkiva_ before a man personating the Fire-god, one of the _Aaltû_ brought into the pueblo, from the shrine in which it is kept, the image of _Talatumsi_ wrapped in a white blanket with prayer-sticks in its girdle. This was set on the kiva hatches, one after another, where it remained several days; rites were performed about it, during which it was sprinkled with meal in prayer, and later reverentially carried by the _Aaltû_ back to its shrine, where it was set in position to remain until the next quadrennial ceremony. This image is supposed to represent, not _Alósaka_, but the bride of _Alósaka_, the maternal parent of the _Aaltû_ society about whom cluster so many folktales. She is the cultus heroine of that society,—one of their ancestors,—and her effigy is brought into the pueblo in November, every four years, by one of their number, just as we may suppose the images of _Alósaka_ were brought into old Awatobi when the New-fire ceremony was celebrated in that ill-fated pueblo.