Page 143 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 135
of beings does not extend, except in few instances, as
the Corn Maid or Goddess of Corn, and perhaps to the
Goddess of Germs. There are beings of the six direc
tions; a god of chance in games and of barter; gods of
war and the chase; a god of the oven, and endless be
ings, good and bad, that have arisen in the Hopi fancy
as the centuries rolled by with their changes of cul
ture.
At some period a group of beings called Kachinas
and new to Hopi worship was added to the pantheon.
Most of these were brought in by the Badger clans, as
tradition relates, from the East, which means the up
per Rio Grande, and some were probably introduced
during the great westward migrations of other clans
from that region. The Kachinas are believed to be the
spirits of ancestors in some part, but the Kachina wor
ship is remarkable for the diversity of beings that it
includes, from the representation of a tribe as the
Apache Kachina, to the nature beings as the sun, but
many of them are not true Kachinas. (See Chapter X,
Intiwa, p. 227)
As might be anticipated from the fact that the Hopi
are made up of clans and fragments of clans of vari
ous origin, each with its separate ideas and practices,
their beliefs and customs as to the unseen world show
a surprising variety and include those of lower and
higher comparative rank. One idea, however, run
ning through all the ceremonies gives a clue to their
intention, obvious to anv man of the Southwest, be his