602 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



horned priests, whose chief transports it to the kivas and returns it 

 to the shrine on the days following the ceremonial fire making. The 

 two idols with horns on their heads had a similar shrine under the 

 ruin Awatobi. These idols, now at the Middle Mesa, are called the 

 Alosaka, or the Gods of Germination. There is every probability 

 that Talatumsi, like Alosaka, is the supernatural being connected 

 with germination. In the winter solstice ceremony at Oraibi a screen 

 (pi. 6) on which a figure of Alosaka is painted is introduced, and 

 at Walpi figures of Alosaka frequently occur when the God of Germs 

 is represented. 



Many references to this supernatural occur in legends, and the 

 cult is vigorous in all the Hopi pueblos, especially at the time of 

 the new fire ceremony. Although their idol represents the Germ 

 God, it is not the only objective representation of this being. 



In many Hopi altars the Hopi have a " cone " made of wood or clay, 

 the surface often inlaid with a mosaic of maize of different colors, 

 remotety resembling a half ear of corn. The surface of these cones is 

 sometimes painted to resemble corn, or they may have terraced repre- 

 sentations of a rain cloud attached to their tops. They represent Muy- 

 inwu, which appears to be another name for Alosaka, the Germ God. 

 The significance is best shown in the winter solstice rites at Oraibi, 

 where these cones are placed at the ends of lines of sacred meal on the 

 kiva floor. A man personating a bird (the Sky God ?) struts around 

 the room, encircles these objects, and leaps over them, while the priests 

 sprinkle the cones with meal, symbolic of prayers for growth of crops 

 and abundant rain. The many other rites that are performed with 

 these objects indicate that they are regarded with great reverence. 

 They are survivals of very ancient idols, as several similar objects 

 made of stone found in cliff ruins on the Mesa Verde are so similar 

 in form that they have been regarded as practically the same. 



It may be said that this form of idol is the only one used in common 

 by cliff dwellers and modern Hopi. The elaborately carved wooden 

 images of anthropomorphic form that figure so conspicuously on 

 Hopi altars are not recorded from the cliff dwellers, nor have we yet 

 found examples of the complicated forms of altar uprights of the 

 Walpi altars, which lead me to doubt whether the prehistoric pueblos 

 used elaborately carved figurines. It is much more probable that the 

 figurines were suggested by the santos introduced by Catholic mis- 

 sionaries. In the Walpi altars of the Snake and Antelope priesthoods 

 introduced by clans from the north there are no anthropomorphic 

 figurines, but the snake altar at Oraibi has two anthropomorphic 

 images. 18 



The upright stone slab called the Butterfly Virgin that stands back 

 of the antelope altar in the Walpi snake dance, appears to be typical 



18 One of these wears a netted cap similar to one found by Doctor Kidder and Mr. Guern- 

 sey in the San Juan area north of the Hopi. 



