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Show 54 The room was large. On the floor at one end of the kiva was a sand painting. It was a maze of lines almost forming a square, called Tapu 'at, mother and child, the symbol of the Hopi people coming from the underworld to this fourth world. At the other end of the room, the poles of the weaving looms ran from the floor to the ceiling with cross-sticks at either end. Some of the sticks were broken, and the looms and forgotten weavings were full of the dust of Mother Earth. Spider trails ran across the threads. To the side was a dusty basket of wool, waiting to be spun into thread. Since his father was a medicine man, he hadn't done the weaving like some of the other men. The walls seemed to ring with the drumbeats and chants Chua had heard as a child when he stood above the kiva in his old village. Oh, how he wanted to be part of the Wuwuchim ceremony this year. A snake was painted on the wall. There must have been another snake clan here at some time. Chua ran his hand across the wall with the snake. As he did, he noticed a hidden entryway in the comer. The walls of the room didn't meet, leaving a small opening at the end. He slipped around it into another room. There were baskets of gourds for making rattles, and a basket of feathers. The feathers were blue, the color that flew the fastest. Chua stroked Chosovi. "That won't happen to you," he said to Chosovi. "Kwaaa," answered Chosovi. Empty baskets were stacked in one comer and pottery in another. Wool cloth lay folded neatly in one basket. Turquoise stones filled another. |