Page 64 - TheHopiIndians

56 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

Owi, "yes." Still, the queer-sounding names of the
plants and their uses given by Kopeli were duly put
down on paper, for which the Hopi have a word which
literally means corn-husk. On their journey around
the cornfields they met various groups of watchers,
some reclining beneath the sloping farm shelters of
cottonwood boughs, some chatting together or gnaw
ing ears of corn roasted in a little fire. Everyone re
quested matches and willingly assisted in conferences
over plants of which Kopeli might be doubtful. Boys
with their bows and arrows tried for shots at crows,
and little girls minded the babies. Life in the fields
is full of enjoyment to the Hopi, and the children
especially delight to spend a day picnicking amidst
the rustling corn-leaves.
The plants having been hunted out in the cornfields,
Kopeli and Kuktaimu sought higher ground among
the rocks below the mesa, where different species of
plants grow. At the foot of the gray rocks are found
many plants of great medicinal and ceremonial value
to the Hopi, according to the Snake priest, who grew
enthusiastic over a small silvery specimen with pun
gent odor. "Very good medicine," he said. At this
juncture, when the plant had been carefully placed
in the collecting .papers, Kopeli made a characteristic
gesture by rapidly sliding one of his palms over the
other and said pasha, "all." The nearness of the
evening meal must have been the influence that caused
Kopeli to say that the flora of Tusayan had been ex