526 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



that they may be brave of heart, and that the Sun god in turn may 

 bring his blessings of abundant crops and fertilizing rains." 



The last ceremony in the individual life of a Hopi is also con- 

 nected with the worship of the sky power, or his personation, the sun 

 god. After death the deceased is mourned for a limited time by the 

 relatives, during which there is placed over his face a wad of cotton 

 batting called a mask, in which are pierced two openings for his eyes, 

 and he is addressed as follows : " You have become a Katcina. Aid 

 us in bringing the rain, and intercede with the gods to fertilize our 

 farms." It will be noted that the dead is addressed by the same 

 name as that given to the ancestral personations, which play such a 

 prominent role in the worship and ceremonial dances of the Hopi. 

 After other rites, which need not be mentioned at this time, the 

 corpse is wrapped in blankets, in a contracted position, the knees 

 brought to the chin ; carried down the mesa by the oldest man of his 

 clan, accompanied only by one or two male relatives, and deposited 

 in a sitting posture in a rudely made grave among the rocks of the 

 foothills. The corpse is placed looking toward the east, and for 

 four days bowls of food and prayer offerings are placed over the 

 grave, but the place of burial is known only to the intimate rela- 

 tions. It is the belief of the Hopi that the spirit of the dead 

 remains in the grave four days, and that the " breath body " of the 

 food placed there is for the consumption of the spirit, or "breath 

 body " of the dead ; but at sunrise on the fourth day it is thought to 

 emerge from the grave, and is supposed to follow the sun in its course 

 to his house in the west, which is situated beyond the horizon, indi- 

 cated by a notch near the San Francisco Mountains, and on to the 

 abode of the dead. The object of placing the dead facing the east 

 is that he may see the sun when it rises and be able to emerge from 

 the grave in time for the journey. Under guidance of the sun, the 

 " breath body " enters the underworld, and is received by the ghostly 

 inhabitants which people it, for this is the abode of the dead, and the 

 Sky god is a ruler of that world, in the Hopi conception. It may be 

 said incidentally that the occupations which the apotheosized pur- 

 sue are practically identical, in their conception, with those of the 

 quick in the upper world. They not only perform the same secular 

 work as on earth, but also engage simultaneously in similar cere- 

 monies, and at times communicate with them through a hole (sipa- 

 pu) in the floor of the kiva, returning from time to time as already 

 described in those dramatic dances known as the Katcinas. It will 

 thus be seen that in individual rites from birth to death the worship 

 of the Sky god, in the form of the Sun god, is always present in the 

 Hopi mind, as well as in their great dramatic ceremonies. 



