Page 201 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 193

of venisou, roots, and grass-seeds, if they would ab
stain from traversing and blighting their land, to
which the Patun agreed.
But these unfortunate wretches were soon again
embroiled in factional warfare which finally involved
all the Hopi, and the stone images of the Alosaka were
lost or destroyed. Famine and pestilence again deci
mated them, until finally the Alosaka katcina appeared
to them and instructed them to carve two wooden im
ages, but threatening them that if these images should
be lost or destroyed, all the people would die.
Many other but widely divergent legends exist re
garding the Alosaka, a number of which are associated
with the pueblo of Awatobi, which was formerly one
of the most populous Hopi towns. At one time this
village experienced drought and famine, and Alosaka,
from his home in the San Francisco Mountains, ob
served the trouble of the people. Disguised as a youth
he visited Awatobi and became enamored with a
maiden of that town. Several times he visited her,
but no one knew whence he came or whither he went,
for his trail no one could follow. The parents of the
girl at last discovered that he came on the rainbow,
and recognized him as a divine being. The children
of this maid were horned beings, or Alosakas, but their
identity was not at first recognized.
Like all the cultus heroes, Alosaka is said, in legends,
to have been miraculously born of a virgin. His
father was the Sun, his mother an Earth-goddess,
sometimes called a maiden. Like many gods, he trav
eled on the rainbow ; he lived at Tawaki, the house of