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Show ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LI the altar as they love men. Then he prayed that the clouds would form like the clouds represented upon the altar, and that the clouds would flash lightning like the lightning on the altar, and that the clouds would rain showers like the showers represented on the altar, and that the showers would fall upon the growing corn like the corn upon the altar- so that men and birds and all living things would rejoice. The above was written about thirty years after this scene was witnessed and under circumstances where my notes and the illustration were inaccessible, and I now find that I have fallen into a trivial error in the description. The so- called honey was " honey dew" held in a basket- tray. After examining the painting described above Dr Fewkes writes: In seeking to identify from the painting the altar figured by Major Powell, it has been necessary for me to rely on general, rather than special, features. In these latter particulars the painting represents an altar which differs from any which I have studied, but there are certain general characters which would eliminate from our consideration the majority of Hopi altars and refer it definitely to that of a woman's fraternity of basket dancers known as the Owakftlti. The altar of this fraternity is characterized by the relatively large size of the upright part composed of numerous vertical wooden slats, the majority of which rest on the floor, but more especially by effigies of birds and butterflies mounted on pedestals surrounding a medicine bowl. Both of these features are found in the painting. The plate represents the interior of a kiva or sacred room devoted to ceremonies, the entrance being an opening in the roof. The fireplace is in the middle of the floor and near it are specimens of the straight- stem pipes, ancient types of these objects among the Hopi. At the left- hand or west end of the room are seen the uprights of the altar consisting of flat wooden slats upon which various symbols are depicted. The group of men in the middle of the picture are seated about a cubic object into the cavity of which one of their number is blowing tobacco smoke. This cubic object is a medicine bowl and the smoke is symbolic of the rain cloud. This episode occurs among many other rites in making the medicine by the Owakulti and various other Hopi fraternities. The ears of corn arranged radially from this medicine bowl are of different colors; they represent the four world- quarters, the zenith and the nadir, the colors corresponding to these directions. The effigies mounted on pedestals, alternating with these radially placed ears of corn, represent birds and butterflies. The Owakulti altar is the only one known to me having similar objects with like arrangement; a fact |
