Page 138 - TheHopiIndians

130 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

prayers and offerings in order to secure their good
will.
The last offices of the dead are very simple. In
sitting posture with head between the knees, with
cotton mask, symbolic of the rain cloud, over the
face, and sewed fast in a ceremonial blanket, the body
is carried down among the rocks by two men, who
have cleared out a place with their hoes. The rela
tives follow and without a word the body is placed
in the rude grave. A bowl containing food is set
near by under the rocks, and all return, the women
washing their feet before entering the house.
For four days the relatives visit the grave and place
upon it bowls containing morsels of food, and they
also deposit there feathered prayer-sticks. At the end
of four days the "breath body" descends to the under
world, whence it came, and is judged by the ordeal of
fire. In a closely-built town like Walpi the house is
not vacated after a death, but it would seem that this
widespread custom is observed in some of the pueblos.
The Navaho, in pursuance of this custom, throw down
the earth-covered hogan over the dead, and in the
course of time a mound filled with decaying timbers
marks the spot. Hopi burial customs have not changed
for centuries; they have never burned their dead, as
formerly did the Zuni and the peoples of the Gila val
ley. The ancient Hopi ceremonies contain al mast the
only records of their past history in the pottery, orna
ments, weapons, and relics of bone, shell, stone, traces