WHITE] PAKAPHERNALIA AND RITUAL 129 



your people will pray to me I will help them." latik" did not object; 

 but whenever a stick is offered to God, one for latik" is always 

 included. 



The wasan' is shown in the accompanying diagram. (Fig. 4, «.) 

 The}' are used in much the same way that prayer sticks are. 



A wi'icBi, or ceremonial cigarette, is shown in Figure 4, h. 



A ya'Bi is a staff, or cane, about 3 feet long, with a waean' tied to 

 one or both ends. A yaei is a symbol of office, and contains 

 "power." (Fig. 4, c.) 



A kachina doll is shown in Figure 4, d. 



The Ho'nan' 



This is the chief fetish of a medicine man. It is a corn ear, a 

 perfect one, completely kerneled to the tip. It is wrapped with 

 native cotton. The base is inserted in a sheath of buckskin. It is 

 placed m an upright position in front of the altar during ceremonies. 

 The top is encircled with strings of beads and decked with vari- 

 colored parrot feathers. It is very similar to the mUi described by 

 Mrs. Stevenson in The Zuni Indians (pp. 418-420). Ho'nan' is the 

 Hopi word for badger.'' In the Keresan pueblos of the Rio Grande 

 this fetish is called i'arik" (i'atik"). Why the word ho'nan' is used 

 at Acoma I can not say. The badger is an important medicine 

 animal because he digs roots out of the groimd. 



The Altars 



These have already been mentioned in connection with ceremonies 

 and have been illustrated with drawings. As we indicated, there 

 is some doubt regarding the construction of the altar of the Fire and 

 the Flint Societies, raised by the discrepancies of different drawings 

 of them.'- (Fig. 5.) I am left with an rmcomfortable suspicion of 

 the altar attributed to the Antelope clan (the cacique's altar). I was 

 not able to secure drawings of this altar from another informant. 



Wood from a tree that has been struck by Hghtning is the best 

 for the manufactm"e of altars. It is best to secure this wood from 

 Mount Taylor. A 55-year-old informant told me that the altars 

 used when be was a boy have been replaced with new ones, as the 

 old ones were almost worn to fragments. The new ones are much 

 larger, he said, and are more neatly and skillfully made, since Amer- 

 ican tools were used instead of aboriginal ones in their manufacture. 

 It is said that when an altar becomes too old for use it is taken out 

 and hidden in some canyon or on a moimtain. I was shown a 



'' Fewke-s, J. W., in Handbook of American Indians, pt. 1, p. 562. 

 " See the otlier drawing of a curing society's altar on p. 130. 



