FIRE WORSHIP FEWKES. 593 



presentation, 5 the former annual, the latter quadrennial, the great 

 difference being mainly in the initiation of novices in the latter, 

 while there are no initiations in the former. It is commonly said 

 that the kindling of the new fire opens a new era, or a new round 

 of festivals, and as it is abbreviated or elaborated the great nine 

 days' ceremonials that follow throughout the year are simple or 

 complex. The ceremony has the same relative importance for the 

 Hopi as the kindling of the fire at the end of the Aztec cycle had 

 to the more highly developed aborigines of Mexico. 



The November fire rites and attendant festival at Walpi ° extend 

 over nine active days and nights, and are performed by four sacer- 

 dotal fraternities, called the Kwakwantu, the Tataukyamu, the 

 Aaltu, and the Wiiwiitcimtu. Each group of priests has certain 

 specialized secret rites of its own and performs public dances. The 

 new fire is kindled in only one kiva and all members of the socie- 

 ties are participants. The new fire is ignited by the frictional 

 method and is transferred by means of torches to the other four 

 kivas in the village. 



Two of the fraternities, the Kwakwantu and the Aaltu, kindle 

 the fire, the former using a stone (pi. 8, fig. 2) for the hearth. The 

 chief of this society personates the Fire God, and we may regard 

 the whole ceremony as under its direction. The second society, 

 called the Aaltu or horned priests, are associated with the clans 

 called Ala (horns), which are traditionally said to have formerly 

 lived in cliff houses in the north. This priesthood wears imita- 

 tion horns of mountain sheep, and in some of their public rites 

 imitate the motions of the mountain sheep. Their supernatural 

 is the Germ God, Alosaka, and they have a wooden image or idol 

 of Talatumsi of the same nature. 



The Ala, Flute, and Snake clans are closely associated and once 

 inhabited cliff houses at Tokonabi, on the San Juan and its tribu- 

 taries. They were among the ancestors of the Hopi, being the first 

 to settle at the so-called East Mesa of the Hopi. 



The Horn Society erected on the fifth day of the new fire ceremony 

 an altar of simple construction on which were set two chieftain's 

 badges. A layer of valley sand was sprinkled on the floor and at in- 

 tervals on its western border at equal distances were heaped up four 

 mounds of sand. A single prayer stick was set in the apex of two of 

 these mounds and each Horn priest placed a stick with attached 

 feathers in the same hillocks. Between the mounds of sand were 

 placed ears of corn of many colors and on the floor before it a figure 



6 These occur in the same month and are not like the abbreviated and elaborate snake 

 dances that take place six months apart. 



8 There were probably new fire ceremonies in other Hopi pueblos but none of them have 

 ever been described. 



42803°— 22— 38 



