664 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 [ETH. ANN. 17 
The three human figures on the food basin illustrated in plate 
OxxIx, /, are highly instructive as showing the antiquity of a curious 
and revolting practice almost extinet in Tusayan. 
As an accompaniment of certain religious ceremonials among the 
Pueblo and the Navaho Indians, it was customary for certain priests 
to insert sticks into the esophagus. These sticks are still used to some 
exteut and may be obtained by the collector. The ceremony of stick- 
swallowing has led to serious results, so that now in the decline of this 
cult a deceptive method is often adopted. 
In Tusayan the stick-swallowing ceremony has been practically 
abandoned at the East Mesa, but I have been informed by reliable per- 
sons that it has not wholly been given up at Oraibi. The illustration 
above referred to indicates its former existence in Sikyatki. The mid- 
dle figure represents the stick-swallower forcing the stick down his 
esophagus, while a second figure holds before him an unknown object. 
The principal performer is held by a third figure, an attendant, who 
stands behind him. This instructive pictograph thus illustrates the 
antiquity of this custom in Tusayan, and would seem to indicate that it 
was once a part of the Pueblo ritual! It is possible that the Navaho, 
who have a similar practice, derived it from the Pueblos, but there are 
not enough data at hand to demonstrate this beyond question. 
Regarding the pose of the three figures in this picture, I have been 
reminded by Dr Walter Hough of the performers who carry the wad 
of cornstalks in the Antelope dance. In this interpretation we have 
the “carrier,” “hugger,” and possibly an Antelope priest with the 
unknown object in his hand. This interpretation appears more likely 
to be a correct one than that which I have suggested; and yet Kopeli, 
the Snake chief, declares that the Snake family was not represented at 
Sikyatki. Possibly a dance similar to the Antelope performance on the 
eighth day of the Snake dance may have been celebrated at that pueblo, 
and the discovery of a rattlesnake’s rattle in a Sikyatki grave is yet to 
be explained. 
One of the most prominent of all the deities in the modern Tusayan 
Olympus is the cultus-hero called Piiiikonhoya, the Little War God. 
Hopi mythology teems with legends of this god and his deeds in kill- 
ing monsters and aiding the people in many ways. He is reputed to 
have been one of twins, children of the Sun and a maid by partheno- 
genetic conception. His adventures are told with many variants and 
he reappears with many aliases. 
The symbolism of Piiiikonhoya at the present day consists of par- 
allel marks on the face or body, and when personated by a man the figure 
1 The practice still exists at Zuni, I am told, and there is no sign of its becoming extinct. Itis said 
that old Naiutci, the chief of the Priesthood of the Bow, was permanently injured during one of 
these performances. (Since the above lines were written I have excavated from one of the ruins on 
the Little Colorado a specimen of one of these objects used by ancient stick-swallowers. Itis made 
of bone, and its use was explained to me by a reliable informant familiar with the practices of Oraibi 
and other villagers. It is my intention to figure and describe this ancient object in the accountof the 
explorations of 1896.) 
