Page 179 - TheHopiIndians
P. 179

MESA FOLK OP HOPILAND               171
                              crated after a prayer-stick had been tied to his thigh
                              in the belief that the bird would carry the prayer to
                              the mighty beings with whom he was supposed to be
                              on familiar terms.
                                This describes the method pursued formerly and
                              which some of the old men have witnessed. Now the
                              Hopi eagle hunters take upon themselves the difficult
                              and somewhat hazardous task of visiting the eyries
                              to seize the eaglets. Not all are taken from the nest,
                              since a wise prohibition requires that some be left to
                              continue the species.  The eaglets are brought to the
                              pueblo, where their heads are washed with due cere
                              mony, and they are sprinkled with sacred meal. Then
                              the feathers are plucked out and the birds are killed
                              by pressure on the breastbone so as not to shed blood,
                              and they are buried in a special cemetery in a cleft
                              among the rocks where a few stones are put upon the
                              bodies after the ritual. At the close of the ceremony
                              of the departure of the gods, called the Niman, or Fare
                              well ceremony, small painted wooden dolls and little
                              bows and arrows are placed upon the eagle graves and
                              liberally sprinkled with sacred meal.
                                But this does not end the Hopi eagle customs. Near
                              the school at Dawapa, below "Walpi, one may stumble
                              upon a collection of oval objects of wood, placed
                              among rocks, some weathered and some bearing traces
                              of spots of white paint and feathers. He may learn
                              also that this is an eagle shrine and that these wooden
                              eggs are prayers for the increase of eagles prepared
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