Page 136 - TheHopiIndians

128 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

from the fields. The smaller blanket is kept as one
of the most sacred possessions; the young mother
puts it on only at the name-giving ceremony of her
first-born, and often it enshrouds her for the last rites
among the rocks below the mesa where the dead are
laid away. At the farewell ceremony of the Kachinas
all the brides of the year dress in their white robes
and appear among the spectators, look on for a time,
and then return to their homes. This review of the
brides adds much to the picturesqueness of this fes
tive occasion.1
There is no doubt that to the wise customs of the
pueblo dwellers is due their survival in the deserts
of the Southwest. One can only admire the work
ings of the unwritten laws which have lived from
out of the experience of past centuries and continue
yet to regulate the life of Tusayan.
There is no more interesting chapter of human
beliefs than that which deals with the ideas enter
tained by primitive peoples of death and the here
after. The Hopi, like other peoples, have thought
out the deep questions of origin and destiny, peopled
the mysterious spaces with spiritual beings, and pene
trated the realm of the hereafter to describe the life
after death. Thus they say that the breath body
travels and has various experiences on its way to the
i The details of the marriage ceremony are taken from on
article by H. R. Voth in the American Anthropologist, N. S.,
Vol. 2, No. 2, April-June, 1900.