158 FEWKES: INITIATION AT HANO 



neck over his shoulders, and taking a planting stick in his 

 hands assumed the kneeling posture which the Hopi take when 

 they are planting on their farms, kneeling on one knee with the 

 stick held vertically in his two hands. A second man who 

 entered the kiva, in the same way donned the other helmet and 

 without a word took his position near his predecessor. The 

 songs of the assembled priests then became more animated and 

 finally died down to a low murmur and ceased. The two per- 

 sonators manipulating their planting sticks in rhythm kept time 

 to the songs. At the conclusion of which the singers filed out 

 of the kiva, but as each man passed the fireplace he placed in 

 the flat basket on the floor by the side of the kneeling figures a 

 feather, symbolic of a prayer, for a successful harvest. As the 

 last man left the room he halted for a moment at the fireplace, 

 with one foot on the ladder rung and announced that in the 

 spring, at planting time, a great ceremony to the planting god 

 would occur in the fields to the west of Walpi. The prayers 

 throughout this rite were particularly fervent, but so low they 

 could not be heard even a few feet away. There was no loud 

 talking and the faces of all were very serious as befitting the 

 reverence for the beings addressed; many even went so far as to 

 turn their faces away from the dread being to whom they 

 prayed. After the departure of the men the two planting gods 

 silently gathered up the feathered prayer offerings offered them, 

 and departed. 



The supernatural being called Masauu, also known as Eototo, 

 was the chief cult being of the Fire people who migrated into 

 the Hopi country, according to legends, from the East in pre- 

 historic times. They formerly lived at a pueblo, now in ruins, 

 three miles east of Walpi, called Sikyatki. A quarrel arose 

 between Walpi and the inhabitants of Sikyatki, sometime be- 

 fore 1540, which eventually led to the overthrow of the latter 

 pueblo, whose people were incorporated in the former. Their 

 cultus supernatural, Masauu, transferred to the Hopi pantheon, 

 is still from time to time personated by descendants of the 

 ill-fated Sikyatki, now fused with other Walpi clans. 



