I find a different conception from this of the rain-making powers
of the dead among the Hopi. Among other ceremonials, when certain
persons die, after the chin has been blackened, the body washed, and
prescribed feathers placed on different parts of it, a thin wad of raw
cotton in which is punched holes for the eyes is laid upon the face.
This is a mask and is called a rain-cloud or “prayer to the dead to
bring the rain.” In general, as many writers have said, the use of the
mask transforms the wearer into a deity designated by the symbolism
of the same,[133] and as a consequence the dead, we may theoretically
suppose, are thereby endowed with supernatural powers to bring rain.
The Ómowûhs, however, are the Rain gods, and so far as I can explain
the significance of the symbolic rain-cloud mask on the face of the
dead and the black color on the chin, it is simply a method of prayer
through the divinized dead to the Rain-cloud deities. Among the Hopi
the earth is watered by the Rain-gods, but the dead are ceremonially
made intercessors to affect them. In this view of the case the Hopi may
be said to believe that the earth is “watered by the deceased of both
sexes.”
The Hopi believe that the breath body of the Zuñi goes to a sacred
place near Saint Johns, called Wénima. There the dead are supposed to
be changed into Katcinas, and the place is reputed to be one of the
homes of these personages. It is likewise specially spoken of as the
house of Cálako, and it is believed that the Zuñi hold the same views
of this mysterious place. In lagoons near it turtles are abundant,
and not far away Mr Hubbell and others discovered sacrificial caverns
in which were large collections of pottery. Tótci, a Hopi resident of
Zuñi, is the authority for the statement that the Cibolans do not use
the raw cotton mortuary mask, although they blacken the face of the
dead chiefs. He says the same idea of divinization of the breath body
into a Katcina seems to be current among the Zuñi as among the Hopi.
According to Mrs Stevenson the father of the Kokko is Kaklo (Kyäklu),
whose servants are the Sälämobiyas. The name of their mother is not
known to me. The Katcinas are said to be the offspring of an Earth
goddess,[134] who figures under many names. Their father’s name on
comparative grounds is supposed to be Táwa, the sun, or Túñwup, their
elder brother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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