598 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



for worship of the Germ God. The figurine used in the November 

 new fire ceremony is called Talatumsi, related to Alosaka, and is 

 under the care of a group of priests called the Aaltu, who take the 

 prominent part in that rite. 12 Of this there is linguistic evidence, the 

 element ala, the first component in Alosaka and Aaltu, means horn, 

 and the priesthood sometimes called the Alosaka wear mountain sheep 

 horns (pi. 7) on their heads. Their idol, called Talatumsi, is with- 

 out horns (pi. 3, fig. 2) , and is ordinarily kept in a walled-up shrine 

 situated at the base of the Walpi mesa and is one of the most im- 

 portant idols used in, the new fire ceremony. Another idol used in 

 this ceremony has no human form, but is simply a log of petrified 

 wood (pi. 8, fig. 6) kept in an open shrine not far from the trail 

 to the Middle Mesa. This idol, called Tuwapontumsi, is never re- 

 moved from its shrine, but shortly after the making of the new fire 

 is visited by the priests for prayers. While Talatumsi is related to 

 the two wooden Alosaka images of Awatobi, the log of fossil wood 

 (pi. 8, fig. 6) may represent the hideous sister of Masawu, God of 

 Fire. 



There remains one other personation which needs definition before 

 we can understand the Hopi fire cult, and that is a being known as 

 Masawu, who is sometimes called the Skeleton God or God of the 

 Dead. This being is also called the God of Fire, which is equivalent 

 to calling him a God of Life. The incongruity of calling the same 

 being god of the living as well as of the dead may be explained when 

 we point out that the living breath bodies inhabit his realm, the under- 

 world, the future home of those whose bodies have died. The student 

 of Hopi mythology finds several such incongruities in names of super- 

 natural personages. 



Among the Hopi, as among many people in primitive culture, the 

 great elemental gods have many names referring to attributes. These 

 are synonyms often descriptive of personations, and if these names 

 were taken to indicate different gods, we would be led to believe that 

 they have a pantheon far greater than they do. A study of the sym- 

 bolism of idols shows that many of these names are eponyms. The 

 knowing priests sometimes understand this and the comparative 

 student may often equate these names by studies of cult objects, altars, 

 and effigies. It thus happens that the Sky God may also be a god 

 of life and have received a special designation as the dominant person- 

 ality in a fire ceremony. 



On account of the fact that the Hopi population has descended 

 from increments that came from different directions, they have rites 

 for the same purpose that differ in detail. There are two fire cere- 

 monials — one already referred to, performed in November, introduced 



12 The elaborate new fire ceremony, known as Naacnalya, ifrom the initiation of novices 

 by head washing, is described in an article, Journ. Am. Folk-Lore, Vol. V, No. 18, 1892. 



