Page 128 - TheHopiIndians

120 MESA FOLK OP HOPILAND

lage, and one comes to respect the Hopi kindergarten
in which the children are taught through play-work
and unconsciously come to "know how." Even the
odd-looking dolls, which the Hopi children love with
the same fervor as the rest of the little men and women
of the child world, assist in teaching. These dolls,
carved from cottonwood and brilliantly decorated
with paint, feathers, and shells, represent the numer
ous beings who inhabit the spiritual world supposed
to rule the destinies of the Hopi. The children are
given these wooden figures to play with, and thus they
learn the appearance of the gods and at the same
time get a lesson in mythology.
In their sport, several little fellows armed with
bows and arrows may pretend to guard the pueblo,
and no doubt they have the same proud feeling in
possessing these savage weapons of war as a small
white boy has when master of a toy gun. Little tots
scarcely able to walk will be encouraged to shoot at a
target made of a bundle of sage-brush set up in the
sand at no great distance, and loud is the applause
from the parents and other onlookers when one of
these infants bowls over the target. The girls con
gregate in a secluded street and play, their soft voices
quite in contrast with any such group of white chil
dren. Perhaps the game is "play house," with the
help of a few stones and much imagination. The
moment, however, a visitor casts his eye in their
direction the game is broken up and all become pain