fewkes] WINTER SOLSTICE ALTARS A T HA NO 27 1
feather, has been pointed out in an article on the feather as a decorative design in ancient Hopi pottery. 1 The medial line of triangles, representing feathers, on the Sikyatki food-bowl, is paralleled in the Hano kiva by eagle-wing feathers inserted along the middle of the image of a snake.
A small vase was next placed just in advance of the effigy of the Great Snake, and into this vase Pocine poured water from an earthenware canteen, making a pass as he did so to the four Pueblo cardinal points — north, west, south, and east — in sinistral ceremonial circuit." A stone arrowpoint was then laid on the lozenge-shaped extremity of each lightning figurfe.
Pocine now scraped into the vase some powder from a soft white stone, saying, as he did so, that the process was called sawiyauma, u rabbits emerge," s and that he wished he had stones of other colors, corresponding to the cardinal points, for the same purpose. After this was finished he emptied on the floor, from a cloth bag, a miscellaneous collection of botryoidal stones (many of which were waterworn), a few fetishes, and other ob- jects, one of the most conspicuous among the latter being a large green stone. All were at first distributed on the meal picture without any special order, but later were given a definite ar- rangement.
Pocine next went up the kiva ladder, and standing on the upper rung in the sunlight, sought, by means of an angular piece of glass, to reflect a ray of sunlight on the altar, but more especially into the vase of medicine. Four turkey-feathers were then inserted at equal intervals along the base of the serpent effigy, as shown in plate XIX.
1 The American Anthropologist, vol. XI, page I.
- The Tewa, like the Hopi, recognize six ceremonial directions — north, west,
south, east, above, and below. The sinistral circuit is one in which the center is on the left hand, while the dextral circuit has its center to the right. The older term, "sunwise," for the latter circuit, etymologically means one ceremonial circuit in the northern hemisphere and an opposite in the southern. On this and other accounts the author has ceased to use it in designating circuits.
3 For the increase of rabbits.
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