Page 130 - TheHopiIndians

122 MESA POLK OP HOPILAND

In every Hopi child's life the time comes when he
must join some one of the brotherhoods or societies,
which take in nearly every one in the pueblos, so that
a young man to have any standing must belong to
one at least of the Kachina brotherhoods. The boys
during their solemn initiation are soundly whipped
by the "flogger," whose name need but be mentioned
to the little ones to make them scamper.
But this takes us beyond the age of tender child
hood in the children's Paradise. To a children's
friend the Hopi tots are a perennial joy. Their
bright eyes are full of appreciation, though bashful-
ness may make them hide behind mother's skirts, but
there is a magic word they have learned from the
white people which overcomes that. A picture still
dwells in the writer's mind of a little fellow who
approached some visitors as near as he dared and
spoke the two words of English he knew: "Hello,
kente" (candy).
Although the ceremony of marriage is of small im
portance in comparison with the endless ceremonies of
the Hopi priesthoods, yet a great deal of interest
clusters around it and it is really a complicated af
fair. The trying antecedent stage of courtship, so
amusing to those not concerned, is the same as among
civilized young men and maidens. One of the first
questions Hopi women ask one is, ' ' Have you a wife ? ' '
and if the answer is negative, they express condolence
and sympathy, if they do not go so far as to inquire