March, 1905. The Traditions of the Hopi — Voth. 81 



Having looked around a little while they turned around, taking with 

 them a watermelon, an ear of fresh com, and a melon. It was still 

 raining so that their feet sank deep into the ground. 



When they arrived close to the mesa somebody met them. It 

 was Big-Skeleton (Wok6masauwuu), who owns the earth and the 

 fields. He lived about half-way down the mesa near the mesa point. 

 He told the Katcinas that they should go up the mesa and prepare 

 a house there and- live there, and from there they should perform 

 their rites. So they went up on top of the mesa and have lived 

 there ever since. Soon after that the Walpi also commenced to move 

 up the mesa and build the new village, where it is at the present time 

 situated. 



18. THE TWO WAR GODS AND THE TWO MAIDENS.' 



A long time ago Pookonghoya and his little brother Bal6ngahoya 

 lived north of the village at the shrine of the Ach^mali. One day 

 they heard that two beautiful maidens were watching some fields west 

 of the village of Htickovi, of which the ruins may still be seen a few 

 miles north-west of Oraibi. They concluded that they would go hunt- 

 ing and at the same time visit those two maidens. When they arrived 

 there the maidens joyfully greeted them and they were joking and 

 teasing each other. The maidens believed that the two brothers had 

 come with the intention to marry them, and they said, in a half -jest- 

 ing manner, to their suitors: "We will cut off an arm from each one 

 of you, and if you do not die you may own us. " The younger brother 

 was at once willing, saying to his elder brother: "They are beautiful; 

 let us not be afraid of having our arm cut off." The elder brother 

 hesitated, saying, that that would hurt. So the younger brother 

 said, "I am willing, " laid his right arm over the edge of the mealing 

 trough at which the maidens had been working, and one of the maid- 

 ens struck the arm with the upper mealing stone and cut it off, the 

 arm dropping into the trough or bin. His elder brother hereupon 

 laid his arm over the edge of the bin, which consisted of a thin, sharp 

 slab, and the other maiden also cut his arm off with her mealing stone. 

 Now the two brothers said: "If we recover, we shall come after you. 

 Hand us our arms now. " The maidens did so and the two brothers 

 left, each one carrying his severed arm. Arriving at their home 

 north of Oraibi, they told their grandmother what had happened. 

 "There," she said, "you have been in something again and have 

 done some mischief." "Yes," they said, "We met two beautiful 



' Told by Qdyiwaima (Oraibi). 



