fewkes] objects from little colorado ruins 107 



Fetishes 



The immbcr of graves in whicli smooth, waterworn stones, quartz 

 crystals, and fossil cephalopods occur in other ruins has been noted 

 in the account of Awatobi and Sikj^atki. A considerable number of 

 these objects were found in the Little Colorado ruins; the fossils 

 included a tooth and remains of several crinoids and of an ammonite. 



Similar objects are still \ised in Hopi ceremonies, and it is well to 

 call attention to the fact that some of the priests begged the author 

 to give them these ancient objects that they might use tlieui in the 

 preparation of medicine and in other sacred or ceremonial ways. 



Some of the smooth stones may have been used in polishing 

 pottery, but this can hardly be said of the quartz crystals and the 

 botrj^oidal specimens. 



Fossil cephalopods, called koaitcoko, although very common in the 

 rock strata underlying the modern pueblos, are sometimes looked 

 upon by the Ilopis with great reverence, and are used in several mod- 

 ern ceremonies. One of the best-known instances is in the tipcrai of 

 the Lalakoiiti, described in an account of the unwrapping of that 

 palladium, as follows:" 



The cbief priestesses and Kwateakwa then untied the hnndles npon the altar. 

 They first nn wrapped the buckskin thong which bound one of tliem and took from 

 the top a large niTuaber of sticks of different lengths, to each of which numerous 

 feathers were tied. In the midst of these sticks there was an ear of X)opcopn sur- 

 rounded b}- a mat made of eight black feather-sticks tied together. This mat, 

 surrounding the corn, rested upon a cloth. Removing this cloth from the cradle, 

 there appeared below it a nicely folded piece of buckskin painted on the border, 

 with the rain-cloixd ornaments painted black, the falling rain being represented 

 by fringes. Within this skin there were many breath- feathers and a single reed,* 

 to which feathers were tied. Below the buckskin there were many bean and 

 melon seeds. Within the bundle of breath-feathers there was a fossil shell, frag- 

 ments of another, and the pirion branch. The basket itself, wliich forms the 

 cradle, was made of a continuous coil of wickerwork. rectangular in shape. 



When the priestess had undone this bundle, the contents of which were consid- 

 ered so sacred that we were not allowed to touch them, she carefully repacked it. 

 She first put in the seeds of beans, com, and melons, and then a number of breath- 

 feathers. She sprinkled these with metallic iron dust [micaceous hematite] and 

 added a piiion branch (pine needle). On these she placed the cloth in which the 

 fossil shell was tied and the reed with its feathers. Above this she tied around 

 the ear of corn the old prayer-sticks, to which she added a new one which she 

 had prepared. The black sticks were said to be old men and the seeds to be food. 

 The fossils, which are called koaitcoko,'' were found later to be one of the numer- 

 ous cephaloijod fossils abundant in certain places. It was said that these sacred 

 specimens came up from the under world. The contents of each btmdle were sub- 

 stantially the same. 



It will be seen from this quotation from a description written in 1892 

 that one of the most sacred objects in the bundles before the reredos 



a The Lalakonti; A Tusayan Ceremony, in the American Anthropologist, v. 5, p. 121, April, 1892. 

 b This resembled the so-callerl reed cigarettes used in other ceremonies. 

 <^ The same name was given for the whole bundle. 



