Page 209 - TheHopiIndians

IX

TRADITIONS AND HISTORY

When men grow old, they become, as if realizing
their passing, years willing or even anxious to transfer
to younger minds what they have learned. To the old
men the historian of Hopi turns for information ; the
young men by the laws of growth live in the present.
So when an old man dies there is a feeling of regret ;
especially when one as versed in the lore of his people
as Masimptua departs, for who knows whether the pic
tures of his brain are impressed upon the minds of the
new generation or whether they are lost forever?
Masimptua was one of the chief men of the East
Mesa. His house was as large and neatly-kept as any
in Sichomovi, where there is more room to build
large dwellings than in circumscribed Walpi with its
narrow cells. His children were grown up and mar
ried, and a number of little ones called him grand
father. Still his resting place is among the rocks on
the mesa slope below the town, unmarked, as are those
of his ancestors who sleep outside of the walls of the
ruined cities of the Southwest. It is pleasant to re