994 TUSAYAN FLUTE AND SNAKE CEREMONIES [ETH. ANN. 19 
altars known to the author. This mosaic occupies the position of the 
zone of sand, and as a consequence the row of birds placed on: this 
zone are, in Oraibi, found in two clusters, one on each side of the 
maize mosaic. There are several objects on the Oraibi Flute altar 
which are absent from that at Mishongnoyi, among which may be 
noticed a bowl back of the tiponi, wooden objects, artificial flowers 
like those inserted into the mounds of sand, and panpipe-like objects. 
The two upright wooden cylindricals representing maize, the rain- 
cloud symbols between the uprights of the altar, and the statuette 
of Cotokinuiiwt appear to be characteristic of the Oraibi altar. 
Markedly different as are the Drab Flute altars of Oraibi and 
Mishongnoyi, those of the Blue Flute are even more divergent. In 
fact, they have little in common, and can not readily be compared. 
The Oraibi altar has no reredos, but paintings on the wall of the 
chamber serve the same purpose. The Oraibi altar is composed of 
a medicine-bowl, placed on the floor and surrounded by six differently- 
colored ears of maize laid in radiating positions (a six-directions altar), 
the whole inclosed by a rectangle composed of four banks of sand 
into which rows of eagle wing-feathers had been inserted. 
The reason the Oraibi Cakwalenya altar is so poor in fetishes would 
have been found to be paralleled in the Walpi Macilefiya altar, now 
extinct, were we acquainted with its character. We shall never know 
what the nature of this altar was, notwithstanding the fact that it 
fell into disuse within the memory of a chief who died only a few 
years ago; but the author believes that one reason for its disappear- 
ance was that the Macilenya division of the Flute fraternity had no 
chieftain’s badge, or tiponi." 
No object corresponding with the bundle of aspergills tied to a rod 
and set upright in a pedestal, described in my account of the Oraibi 
Flute altar, was seen in either of the two Flute chambers at Mishong- 
novi, nor do I recall its homologue in Walpi or Shipaulovi. As the 
standard, or awata-natci,* stood in the Flute chamber, and not on the 
roof, when I saw the altar, it is possible that the aspergills belong 
with this object rather than to the altar itself. 
COMPARISON WITH THE SHIPAULOVI FLUTE ALTARS 
Both Flute altars at Shipauloyi are simpler than those at Mishone- 
novi. a feature due in part to the fact that Shipaulovi is a smaller 
pueblo and is of more modern origin. 
The reredos of the Blue Flute altar® is composed of a few upright 
1 This sacred palladium (‘‘mother"’) is, as has been repeatedly pointed out, the essential object of 
the altar, the great fetish of the society. A religious society destitute of it is weak, and rapidly dete- 
riorates. Hence the want of virility of the Snake society at Oraibi and the pueblos of the Middle 
mesa. Their chiefs haye no tiponi and the cult is not vigorous 
2 The staff is set on the roof to indicate that the altar is erected, and the secret rites in progress in 
the chamber below The term awata-natci, **bow upright,” is descriptive of the standard of the 
Snake and Antelope ceremonials, when a bow and arrows are tied to the kiva ladders (plate XLv11). 
See The Oraibi Flute Altur, Journal American Ethnology and Archeology, vol. 11 
