ANCESTOR WORSHIP FEWKES. 491 



In the organization of the Hopi there is a large social unit of Tewa 

 extraction called the Asa or Tansy Mustard " clan," from the fact 

 that in its migrations the mothers stilled the cries of the babies 

 hanging on their backs by shaking a tansy mustard flower before 

 their eyes. This clan came to Hopi from Zuni, where members still 

 live and are called Aiwahokwe. The majority of the Asa live in 

 Sitcomovi, the " Zuni pueblo " among the Hopi. The masks (pi. 2) 

 of this clan bear no symbol indicative of the tansy mustard or any 

 other flower, which would lead us to believe that clan names change 

 while symbols remain constant, or are more ancient. 



The festal year at Walpi contains many elaborate ceremonies 

 which, roughly speaking, fall into two groups, the summer and 

 winter festivals; the former, the masked, are Katcinas, which are 

 radically unlike the unmasked dances of the latter. Some of these 

 occur at regular intervals; others are more sporadic, but no moon 

 waxes and wanes over Walpi without witnessing a religious pageant 

 of some kind, which, for obvious reasons, will be more striking in the 

 summer months but more elaborate in winter, since at that time the 

 agriculturist has no work in the fields and the cold has driven the 

 whole population into the pueblo. 



The primitive astronomers or sun priests have given names to the 

 different points on the horizon behind which the sun rises or sets cor- 

 responding to all the great festivals. When by means of this solar 

 clock the time of the ritual year is determined they inform the 

 speaker chief or town crier, who makes a public announcement. At 

 sunrise he stands on the highest roof of Walpi and shouts the news 

 of whatever events will occur, informing those who are to take part 

 to make their preparations. 



The great ceremonials occur annuallv on about the same date and 

 in a sequence. In order to determine the date on which a ceremony 

 occurs the aboriginal Hopi relies on the position of the sun at sun- 

 rise or sunset. The eastern and western horizons are used as great 

 solar clocks. When, for instance, the sun sets behind the San Fran- 

 cisco Mountain, or the " mountains of the high snows ", our luminary 

 has reached the farthest point south, or the winter solstice. The 

 point on the horizon behind which he sinks is called the Sun House 

 of the West. Possibly the belief that the dead follow the sun to the 

 west and the position of the house of the sun behind the mountains 

 of the high snows has led to the legend that the Katcinas live in these 

 mountains ; as symbolic of that belief the Katcinas wear cedar boughs 

 in their armlets, belts, and on their masks. 



