Page 145 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 137

as in our holiday season the people exchange greet
ings of good wishes and make presents of nakwakwo-
shi, consisting of a downy eagle feather and long pine
needles tied to a cotton string. December is a sacred
month when all occupations are limited and few games
are allowed, so that the Soyal is at the center of a
"holy truce," a time of "peace on earth and good
will to men," but strangely celebrated by pagan sun-
worshippers. For the Soyal is peculiarly a ceremony
brought to Hopiland by the Patki people who came
from the south where in past centuries they wor
shipped the god of day. The warrior societies of the
pueblos have made this their great festival and are
most prominent in its celebration.
In the principal kiva the customary elaborate ritual
has been conducted for nine days by the Soyal fra
ternity, which is made up of members of the Agave,
Horn, Singers, and New Fire societies. At one end of
the kiva is placed the altar, consisting of a frame with
parallel slats on which are tied bunches of grass, and
in these bunches are thrust hundreds of gaudily paint
ed artificial flowers. On the top are bows covered
with cotton, representing snow clouds. Before the
altar is a pile of corn laid up like a wall which has
been collected in the village to be returned filled with
fertility after the ceremony. Before the corn wall is
a ridge of sand on which are set corn fetiches of stone
and wood. The medicine bowl and many pipes,
feather prayer-sticks, etc., are in position on the floor.