Feb., 1912. Miscellaneous Hopi Papers — Voth. 103 



points), one single black baho, called chochokpi (seat), a puhu (road), 

 consisting of an eagle breath feather. To this are tied two cotton 

 strings, a shorter one, twisted several times, the other a single thread, 

 but somewhat longer. Besides this he makes about six nakwakwosis. 

 All this the one who makes the prayer offerings takes to the grave 

 (see Plate XXXIX) towards evening and places the two prayer 

 sticks, the nakwakwosis, some corn-meal and the bowl with food on 

 the grave (see Plate XL), the road he places on the ground west 

 of the grave, the thin string pointing westward. From this road 

 he sprinkles a meal line westward denoting the continuation of the 

 road. According to a belief of the Hopi the hikvsi (breath or soul) 

 of the deceased ascends early the next mor n i n g from the grave, par- 

 takes of the hikvsi of the food, mounts the hikvsi of the seat and 

 then travels along the road to the masski (skeleton house) taking the 

 hikvsi of the double baho along as an offering. (Comp. Voth: "Tra- 

 ditions of the Hopi," pages 109 and 114.) In the case of the death 

 of a small child, that has not yet been initiated into any societies, 

 the road is made from the grave towards the home of the child. 

 because it is believed that the soul of that child returns to the house 

 of its parents and is reincarnated in the next child that is born in 

 that family. Until that time the little soul is believed to hover 

 over the house. It is said, that when an unusual noise is heard in the 

 house, for instance a crackling in the roof, they think the little soul is 

 moving about and the mother then often secretly deposits a pinch of 

 food on the floor in some part of the house for her departed child . When 

 I asked one time what became of that child-soul in case no further birth 

 took place in the family, I was told, that in such a case the soul remained 

 near the house until its mother died, who then took the little soul with 

 her to the other world. 



Later the dead are sometimes remembered by prayer offerings and 

 food in such ceremonies as the Soyal, Marau, etc. (See the "Oraibi 

 Soyal Ceremony" by Dorsey and Voth, page 57, and my paper on 

 the "Oraibi Marau Ceremony," page 30.) 



