Page 106 - TheHopiIndians

98 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

under the four corner stones with appropriate cere
mony of breath-prayers for the welfare of the house
and its occupants. The plumes are dedicated to the
god of the underworld, the sun, and other deities con
cerned with house-life. The builder then determines
where the door shall be and places an offering of food
on either side of it ; he then walks around the site
from left to right, sprinkling a mixture of piki crumbs
and other food with tobacco along the line of the walls,
singing to the sun his kitdauwi, "house song"; Si-si,
a-hai, si-si, a-hai. the meaning of which has long been
forgotten.
The walls are laid in irregular courses, mortar be
ing sparingly used. The addition of plastering to the
outside and inside of the house awaits some future
time, though sometimes work on the outside coat is
put off to an ever vanishing maimnn. When the house
walls, seven or eight feet in height and of irregular
thickness from seventeen to twenty-two inches are
completed, the women begin on the roof. The beams
are laid across the side walls at intervals of two
feet; above these and parallel with the side walls
are laid poles; across these is placed a layer of
rods or willow brush, and above this is piled grass or
small twigs. A layer of mud comes next, and when
this is dry, earth is placed on it and tramped down
until hard. The roof, which is complicated and in
genious, is nearly level, but provision is made for car
rying off the water by means of spouts.