Page 185 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILANP 177

Other holy places, most of them ruins of abandoned
towns, are visited at times by this people, who cheer
fully make long journeys to mountains and running
streams for sacred water, pine boughs, or herbs. They
carry with them feather prayer-sticks and sacred meal
as offerings to the gods of the place. One of the
streams from which holy water is brought is Clear
Creek near the town of Winslow, seventy-five miles
south of Walpi.
Each field has a shrine and pahos are often seen
there; this is also the custom among the Zuni and
other of the Pueblos. In the center of the main plaza
of each pueblo may be seen a stone box with a slab of
stone for a door which opens to the east. This is
called the pahoki, or "house of the pahos," the central
shrine of the village, and it is carefully sealed up when
not in use.
It is to be expected that the shrines of the ancient
pueblos would have vanished, and it is true that such
remains are the rarest encountered in exploring ruins.
Still a few traces reward a careful search in the out
skirts of many of the ruins. A shrine made of slabs
of stone painted with symbolic designs of the rain
cloud was found at the ancient town of Awatobi, and
is now in the National Museum.
In caves and rock recesses of the mesas are depos
its of the sacred belongings of the societies. These
places, while not shrines perhaps, are kept inviolably
sacred, and no curious white visitors have peered into