Page 179 - TheHopiIndians
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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