Page 122 - TheHopiIndians

VI

BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND DEATH

A blanket hangs over the usually opened door and
a feeble wail issuing from within the dusky house
betokens that a baby has come into the world, and
awaits only a name before he becomes a member of
the Hopi commonwealth. The ceremony by which
the baby is to be dedicated to the sun and given a
name that will bind him indissolubly to the religious
system of his people is interesting from the light it
casts on the customs of the Hopi and the parallels it
offers to the natal rites of other peoples.
On the mud-plastered wall of the house, the mother
has made, day by day, certain scratches which mark
the infant's age, or perhaps reckons the time on her
fingers till nineteen days have passed. The morning
of the twentieth day brings the ceremony.
Meanwhile the little one has been made to know
some of the trials of life. On the first day of his
entrance into this arena, his head has been washed in
soaproot suds and his diminutive body rubbed with
ashes, the latter, it is alleged, to kill the hair, and his
mother must also undergo the ceremonial head wash