2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 50 
The writer has already identified some of the ancient houses of 
those Hopi clans that claim to have dwelt formerly south of Walpi, 
on the Little Colorado near Winslow, but has not investigated the 
ruins to the north, in which once lived the Snake, Horn, and Flute 
clans. An investigation of the origin and migrations of this con- 
tingent is instructive because it is claimed that these clans were 
among the first to arrive at Walpi, or that they united with the 
previously existing Bear clan, forming the nucleus of the population 
of that pueblo. 
A preliminary step in the investigation of the culture of the clans 
that played a most important part in founding Walpi and giving rise 
to the Hopi people would be the identification of the houses (now 
ruins) of the Snake, Horn, and Flute clans, the existence of which 
in the region north of Walpi is known with a greater or less degree of 
certainty from Hopi legends. An archeologic study of these ruins 
and of cult objects found in them would reveal some of the prehis- 
toric features of the culture of the ancient Snake clans. ‘‘The 
ancient home of my ancestors,” said the old Snake chief to the writer, 
‘“was called Tokénabi,“ which is situated not far from Navaho moun- 
tain. If you go there, you will find ruins of their former houses.”’ 
In previous years the writer had often looked with longing eyes to 
the mountains that formed the Hopi horizon on the north where these 
mysterious homes of the Snake and Flute clans were said to be 
situated, but had never been able to explore them. In 1909 the 
opportunity came to visit this region, and while some of the ruins 
found may not be identifiable with Tokdénabi, they were abodes of 
people almost identical in culture with the ancient Snake, Horn, 
and Flute clans of the Hopi. 
References to the northern ruins occur frequently in Hopi legends 
of the Snake and Flute clans, and even accounts of the great natural 
bridges lately seen for the first time by white people were given years 
ago by Hopi familiar with legends of these families. The writer heard 
the Hopi tell of their former homes among the “high rocks” in the 
north and at Navaho mountain, fifteen years ago, at which time 
they offered to guide him to them. The stories of the great cave- 
ruins to the north were heard even earlier from the lips of the Hopi 
priests by another observer. Mr. A. M. Stephen, the pioneer in Hopi 
studies, informed the writer that he had learned of great ruins in the 
north as far back as 1885, and Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff, aided by Mr. 
Stephen, published the names of the’clans which, according to the 
Hopi, inhabited them. 
a The exact situation of Tokénabi has never been identified by archeologists. Ruins are called by the 
Navaho nasazi bogondi, “houses of the nasazi.’”’ The name Tokénabi may be derived from Navaho to, 
“water;”’ ko, contraction of bokho, ‘‘canyon;”’ and the Hopi locative obi, “ place of.” The derivation from 
Navaho boko, ‘‘coal oil,’’ is rejected, since it is very modern. 
