A THEATRICAL PERI- ORMANCli AT WALI'I 6lQ 



these two figures are ver}'^ skilfully manipulated by concealed 

 actors. Although this representation was not introduced in 

 1900, it has often been described to me, and one of the Hopi 

 men has drawn me a picture of the marionettes which is worth 

 reproduction in a plate. 



The figurines are brought into the darkened room wrapped in 

 blankets, and are set up near the middle of the kiva in much the 

 same way as the screens. The kneeling images, surrounded by 

 a wooden framework, are manipulated by concealed men ; when 

 the song begins they are made to bend their bodies backward 

 and forward in time, grinding the meal on miniature metates 

 before them. The movements of girls in grinding meal are so 

 cleverly imitated that the figurines moved by hidden strings at 

 times raised their hands to their faces, which they rubbed with 

 meal as the girls do when using the grinding stones in their 

 rooms. 



As this marionette performance was occurring, two bird effi- 

 gies were made to walk back and forth along the upper hori- 

 zontal bar of the framework, while bird calls issued from the 

 rear of the room. 



The substitution of marionettes for masked girls suggests an 

 explanation of the use of idols among the Hopi. A supernat- 

 ural being of the Hopi Olympus may be represented in cere- 

 mony or drama by a man wearing a mask, or by a graven 

 image or picture, a symbol of the same. Sometimes one, some- 

 times the other method of personating the god is employed, and 

 often both. In the latter method the image may be used on 

 the altar, while the masked man appears in the public exhibi- 

 tion in the pueblo plaza. Neither idol nor masked personators 

 are worshipped, but both are regarded as symbolic representa- 

 tions, in which possibly the gods may temporarily reside. 



So in the use of marionettes to represent the Corn Maidens 

 in the theatrical exhibition or personation by masked girls in the 

 same role. They are symbolic representations of the mythic 

 maidens whose beneficent gifts of corn and other seeds, in 

 ancient times is a constant theme in Hopi legends. 



The clan ancients or Katcinas, personated in the Great Ser- 

 pent drama vary year by year, implying the theatrical nature 



