Page 137 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 129
underworld, and "as everyone came up from out of
the sipapu, or earth navel, so through the sipapu to
the underworld of spirits must he go after death.
Far to the west in the track of the sun must he travel
to the sipapu which leads down through a lake. Food
must he have for the journey, and money of shell and
green turquoise; hence bowls of food and treasures
we place in his grave. Masauah, the ruler of the un
derworld, first receives the spirit. It is the spirit of a
good man, straightway he speeds it along the pathway
of the sun to the happy abode, where the ancestors
feast and dance and hold ceremonies like those of the
Hopi on the earth. Truly, we received the ceremon
ies from them, long ago.
If the spirit is not good, it must be tried, so Masauah
sends it on to the keeper of the first furnace in which
the spirit is placed. Should it come out clean, forth
with it is free; if not, on it goes to a second or a
third master of the furnace, but if the third fire test
ing does not cleanse the spirit, the demon seizes it and
destroys it, because it is posh kalolomi, "very not
good ! ' ' Just how much of this has been influenced
by later teachings is a vexed question and must be left
open.
In the underworld the spirits of the ancestors are
represented as living a life of perennial enjoyment.
Often they visit the upperworld, and since the Hopi
believe that their chief care is to guard the interests
of the pueblos of Tusayan, they must be appeased by