FEWKES] DURATION OF CEREMONIES 987 
FLUTE CEREMONY AT MISHONGNOVI IN 1896 
The Lefya or Flute ceremony is one of the most complicated in the 
Hopi ritual, and one of the most important in the calendar. It occurs 
in five pueblos, not being celebrated at Sichumovior at Hano. The 
ceremony was first described by the author in an article’ in which 
the public rites or **dance” at Walpi were brietly noted and their rela- 
tion to the Snake dance was first recognized. When this paper was 
published the author was unaware that the Flute ceremony was of 
nine days’ duration, for in 1890, when the description was written, 
the existence of nine days ceremonies among the Hopi was unknown. 
A more extended study of the Hopi ritual in the following year (1891) 
revealed the fact that a Flute ceremony, similar to that at Walpi, 
occurred likewise in the four other Hopi pueblos which celebrate the 
complete ritual, and in 1892 the author described the last two days of the 
Flute rite at Shipaulovi. In the course of these studies it was recog- 
nized that this ceremony lasted nine days, that it was performed by 
two divisions of Flute priests, and that each division had an elaborate 
altar about which secret rites were performed. 
The author was the first to recognize that several of the great Hopi 
ceremonies, as the Lalakofti, Mamzrauti, Flute, and others, extend 
through nine days, and that the Snake ceremony has the same dura- 
tion. Whether or not the other pueblo rituals have similar time limits 
to individual ceremonies is not clear from the fragmentary descrip- 
tions which have been published. 
The increased knowledge of the intricate character of the Flute 
ceremony led toa detailed study of the Walpi variant, and with the 
aid of the late A. M. Stephen the author was enabled to publish® a 
number of new facts on the Flute ceremony at Walpi in 1892. The 
only account of the Oraibi variant of the Flute ceremony that has 
been given is a description of the altars, which appeared in 1895," being 
a record of observations made on a limited visit to that pueblo in the 
summer of the year named. In the following year this account was 
supplemented by a memoir on the Flute altars of Mishongnovi. 
Tt will thus be seen that there exist published accounts of the Flute 
altars of all the Hopi pueblos except Shumopovi, and fragmentary 
descriptions of the secret and public exercises in two pueblos, Walpi 
and Shipaulovi. The following description of the Flute exercises 
at Mishognovi supplement those already given and add to our knowl- 
edge of the rites of the Flute society in the largest village of the 
Middle mesa. It will be noticed, by a comparison of these rites, that 
at Mishongnovi they are more complicated than similar ceremonies 

1 Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 1v, number 13, 
2Op. cit., vol. vir, number 26. 
Op. cit., number 31. 
