FEWKEs) palC'lukonti, or ankwanti 49 



Sonietiiiies the .screen performance is accompanied by an exhibition 

 by a masked man or men. who pretend to struggle with a snake effigy 

 which they carry in their arms. This performance consists mainly in 

 twisting those effigies about the l)ody and neck of the performer, hold- 

 ing them aloft, or even throwing them to the roof of the kiva, as else- 

 where" described in an account of the celebration in 1893. 



In some years marionettes representing Corn maids are su))stituted 

 for the two masked girls in the act of grinding corn, and these two 

 figures are very skillfully manipulated by concealed actors. Although 

 this representation was not introduced in 1900, it has often been 

 described to me, and one of the Hopi men has drawn mo a picture of the 

 marionettes, which is worth reproduction in a plate (see plate xxvii). 



The figurines are l)rought into a darkened room wrapped in 

 blankets, and are set up near the middle of the kiva in much the same 

 way as the screens. The kneeling images, sui'rounded by a wooden 

 framework, are manipulated by concealed men; when the song begins 

 they are made to bend their bodies backward and forward in time, 

 grinding the meal on miniature metates before them. The movements 

 of girls in grinding meal are so cleverly imitated that the figurines, 

 moved by hidden strings, at times raise their hands to their faces, 

 which they rub with meal as the girls do when using the grinding 

 stones in their rooms. 



During this marionette performance two bird effigies were made to 

 walk back and forth along the upper horizontal bar of the framework, 

 while bird calls issued from the rear of the room. 



The sulistitution of marionettes for masked girls suggests an 

 explanation of the use of idols among the Hopis. A supernatural 

 being of the Hopi Olympus may be represented in cei'omony or 

 drama by a man wealing a mask, or by a graven image or picture, a 

 .symbol of the same. Sometimes one, sometimes the other method of 

 representing the god is employed, and often both. The image may be 

 used on the altar, while the masked man appears in the public exhibi- 

 tion in the pueblo plaza. Neither idol nor masked personators are 

 worshipped, but both are regarded as s\'mbolic representations in which 

 possibly the gods may tempoi-arily reside. 



So with the use of marionettes to represent the Corn maidens in the 

 theatrical exhibition or the personation of the beings by masked 

 girls. They are symbolic representations of the m3'thic maidens 

 whose beneficent gifts of corn and other seeds in ancient times is a 

 constant theme in Hopi legends. 



The clan ancients or katcinas personated in the Great Serpent 

 drama vary from vear to year, implying the theatrical nature of the 

 festival, but there are certain of these personations which invariably 



o Article cited. The maslied man who thus struggles with the serpent effigy represents Calako, a 

 sun god, but figures of him draivn by a Hopi artist were called Macibol katcina. 



21 ETH— 03 1 



Mo. Bot. Garden 

 1005 



