Page 43 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 35
sets about preparing for a good time. In the latter
part of August, after this ceremony, the pueblo re
sumes its normal state and the people settle down to
the feast of good things from their fields, which they
attack with primitive zest and enjoyment. It is great
ly to the credit of the Hopi that they work well and
rest well like the unconscious philosophers they are.
The moon of September watches over a scene of
peace and plenty in Tusayan. The cool, clear nights
betoken that frosts and the time of harvest are ap
proaching. The heat of summer is gone and the sea
son is ideal.
Since the Hopi are good people one would infer that
they need no rulers. One might live among the Hopi
for some time and not wittingly come in contact with
a chief or a policeman or any evidence of laws, but the
rulers and laws are there nevertheless.
The voice of the town crier awakens one to the fact
that here is the striking apparatus of some sort of a
social clock. It will be found that there is an organ
ization of which the crier is the ultimate utterance.
Chiefs are there in abundance, the house chief, the
kiva chief, the war chief, the speaker chief who is the
crier; chiefs of clans, who are chiefs of the fraterni
ties: all these are members of the council that rulea
the pueblo. The council meets on occasion and acts
for the common weal, and the village chief publishes
their mandates by crier.
In this most democratic organization the agents of