68 Introduction. 



ticipates in a ceremony for the first time, when she assumes the name 

 given her at the initiation into the society that celebrates that cere- 

 mony. 



All H6pi proper names have some reference to the clan totem 

 of the Name Giver, never, unless coincidentally, to the clan totem 

 of the Bearer of the name. This reference to the clan totem, how- 

 ever, is not always clear and apparent, and hence sometimes the 

 meaning of the name is not easy to determine. It must be borne 

 in mind that the "child-name" and the later name, at least in the 

 women's societies, is always given by women, frequently by very 

 old women, of whom it could hardly be expected that they would 

 put together the different elements of a name according to "gram- 

 matical rules" and "scientific principles." The same is true of any 

 Name Giver. The Hopi are very simple-minded people. In making 

 up a name, or in composing a song, they have in mind certain ideas, 

 which they express in the simplest manner, without much regard for 

 any laws that might govern the proper connection of such ideas or 

 their relation to one another. In my endeavors to get at the mean- 

 ing of a song or a proper name I have often been told, even by the 

 most intelligent interpreters of Hopi "oral literature," that they are 

 unable to give an exact interpretation, because they do not know 

 just what the author had in mind. A few names may illustrate 

 this point: Chorzhhepnoma, from Choro (blue-bird), heplawu (hunt), 

 and noma (wrapped or covered up), may mean: Hunt or seek a 

 Blue-bird and cover it up; or, Hunted Blue-bird covered up; or, 

 even, if "n6ma" is merely a feminine ending, Hunt Blue-bird. 

 Whether I, you, he, or she is meant cannot be determined either, as 

 the verbs in the Hopi language are the same in the first, second, and 

 third person and in the masculine, feminine, and neuter gender. 



Another difficulty in interpreting Hopi names lies in the fact 

 that the same name may mean different things. For instance, if 

 asked for the meaning of the name Cakwyamtiwa, one acquainted 

 with the H6pi language could say without making further inquiry : 

 "Blue or Green" (having Come Out; but "blue" what and "come 

 out" where, one could not tell until he knew the clan relationship 

 of the Name Giver; and even then, as has already been intimated, 

 it might in some cases be difficult to give a correct interpretation, 

 not knowing what the party giving the name had in mind. But not 

 considering this last named difficulty, were the Name Giver of the 

 above-mentioned name of the Tobacco clan, it would in all prob- 

 ability refer to the matured blossom of the tobacco plant; were he 



