As yet the myths of the Hopi have not been systematically collected, hence our view of the deeper workings of the Hopi mind is a limited one. No observer familiar with the language has lived with the Good People in order to hear from the wrinkled sages the tales of beginnings and the explanations of things that must be stored in their minds, if the fragmentary utterances that are extant may give indication. A few myths collated principally from the writings of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes are given as examples, displaying the range and depth of the imagination of these Indians.[11]

In the early days when the world was young, many monsters, most of whom were hostile to man, roamed the earth or infested the sky, and particularly harassed the Hopi. These monsters were gigantic in size and possessed special weapons of tremendous power to assist them in their supernatural craft. Long the people groaned under the ravages of the monsters, and the time and manner of their deliverance they delight to recount in many weird stories during the winter nights by their flickering fires of piÑon wood.

In the earth lived the Spider Woman, ancient of days, full of wisdom, and having a tender regard for her people, the Hopi. Born to her from a light-ray and a drop of rain were the Twins; one, the son of light, was the little war-god called the Youth; the other was Echo, the son of the cloud.

The Youth became the savior of the people; his heroic deeds of the old times in slaying the monsters cause him still to be held in reverence by the Hopi and remembered in their ceremonies.

The conquests of the Twins gave rise to many strange adventures. The transformation of the man-eagle by the Twins is a favorite legend of the Hopi.

In the above, in the heart of the sky, lived the Man-Eagle. On the people of the whole earth he swooped down, carrying aloft women and maidens to his house, where after four days he devoured them. The Youth, journeying to the San Francisco Mountains, met at the foot-hills the PiÑon maids dressed in mantles of piÑon bark and grass, and here likewise he met the Spider Woman and the Mole. “You have come,” said they in greeting; “sit down; whence go you?” Then said the Youth, “Man-Eagle has carried away my bride and I seek to bring her back.” “I will aid you,” said the Spider Woman. She bade the PiÑon maids to gather piÑon gum, wash it, and make a garment in exact imitation of the flint arrow head armor which rendered Man-Eagle invulnerable. So did they, and the Spider Woman gave it, with charm flour, to the Youth. As a spider, then, so small as to be invisible, she perched on the right ear of the Youth that she might whisper advice. Mole led the way to the top of the mountains, but the PiÑon maids remained behind.

When they reached the summit, Eagle swooped down; they got on his back and he soared aloft with them till he was tired. Hawk came close by, and on his back he carried them still higher in the sky. When he was weary, Gray Hawk took them and mounted to the heavens with them till he could go no farther, and Red Hawk received the burden; thus, for an immense distance, upward they flew, until the adventurers reached a chasm in the sky through which the Youth, Spider Woman, and Mole passed, and saw the great white house in which Man-Eagle lived.

The ladder which led into the house had for rungs sharp flint knives. The Spider Woman advised the Youth, before mounting the ladder, to gather a handful of sumach berries and give them to Lizard, who received them with thanks, chewed them and gave him back the cud. The Youth rubbed the sharp rungs with the chewed berries and they became dull at once, and he was able to climb the ladder without cutting himself. When he entered the house of Man-Eagle he saw hanging the monster’s flint arrow head armor, on a peg in a recess, and he at once exchanged it for the false armor the PiÑon maids had given him. In another recess he saw Man-Eagle and his lost wife. He called out to her that he had come to rescue her from the monster, and she replied that she was glad, but that he could not do so, as no one ever left the place alive. The Youth replied, “Have no fear; you will soon be mine again.”

The Spider Woman’s charm was so powerful that the Man-Eagle did not hear what was said, but he soon awoke, and put on the imitation flint armor without detecting the fraud. He then for the first time became aware of the Youth’s presence, and demanded what he wished. “I have come to take my wife home,” answered the hero. Man-Eagle said, “We must gamble to decide that, and if you lose I shall slay you,” to which the Youth agreed. Man-Eagle brought out a huge pipe, larger than a man’s head, and having filled it with tobacco, gave it to the hero, saying, “You must smoke this entirely out, and if you become dizzy or nauseated, you lose.” So the Youth lit the pipe and smoked, but exhaled nothing. He kept the pipe aglow and swallowed all the smoke and felt no ill effect, for he passed it through his body into an underground passageway that Mole had dug. Man-Eagle was amazed and asked what had become of the smoke. The Youth, going to the door, showed him great clouds of dense smoke issuing from the four cardinal points, and the monster saw that he had lost.

But Man-Eagle tried a second time with the hero. He brought two deer-antlers, saying, “We will each choose one, and he who fails to break the one he chooses loses.” The antler which he laid down on the northwest side was a real antler, but that on the southeast was an imitation made of brittle wood. Spider Woman prompted the Youth to demand the first choice, but Man-Eagle refused him that right. After the youth had insisted four times, Man-Eagle yielded, and the hero chose the brittle antler and tore its prongs asunder, but Man-Eagle could not break the real antler, and thus lost a second time.

Man-Eagle had two fine, large pine trees growing near his house, and said to the hero, “You choose one of these trees and I will take the other, and whoever plucks one up by the roots shall win.” Now Mole had burrowed under one of them and had gnawed through all its roots, cutting them off; and had run through his tunnel and was sitting at its mouth, peering through the grass, anxious to see the Youth win. The hero, with the help of his grandmother, chose the tree that Mole had prepared and plucked it up, and threw it over the cliff, but Man-Eagle struggled with the other tree and could not move it, so he was unhappy in his third defeat.

Then Man-Eagle spread a great supply of food on the floor and said to the Youth that he must eat all at one sitting. The Youth sat and ate all the meat, bread, and porridge, emptying one food basin after another, and showed no sign of being satisfied before all was consumed; for Mole had again aided him and dug a large hole below to receive it, and the Youth was a winner the fourth time.

Man-Eagle then made a great wood-pile and directed the Youth to sit upon it, saying he would ignite it and that if he were unharmed he would submit himself to the same test. The Youth took his allotted place, and Man-Eagle set fire to the pile of wood at the four cardinal points, and it speedily was ablaze. The arrow heads of which the flint armor was made were coated with ice, which melted so that water trickled down and prevented the Youth from being burnt, and all the wood-pile was consumed, leaving the Youth unharmed.

The monster was filled with wonder and grieved very much when he saw the Youth making another great pile of wood. Still thinking that he wore his fire-proof suit, he mounted the wood-pile, which the Youth lit at the four cardinal points. The fuel blazed up, and as soon as the fire caught the imitation armor of gum, it ignited with a flash and the monster was consumed. At the prompting of the Spider Woman, the Youth approached the ashes, took the charm in his mouth, and spurted it over them, when suddenly a handsome man arose. The Spider Woman said to him, “Will you refrain from killing people, and will you forsake your evil habits?” The Man-Eagle assented with a fervent promise, and the Youth, rejoicing, ran to his wife, embraced her, and set free all the captive women wives of the Hopi and other peoples, of whom there were many. Eagle and Hawk carried them to the ground on their broad pinions.

Over the plains and through the mountains roamed the Giant Elk. Many times larger was he than an ordinary elk, and an enemy to the Hopi, whom he slew with his great horns, laughing at their arrows and flint knives.

No one was safe from this roaming monster, enemy to living beings, so the Twins set out to have a trial of strength and skill with him. As it chanced, the Giant Elk was lying down in a beautiful valley, under the aspen trees of the San Francisco Mountains. Near the house of the Youths was this valley, and as they sought to stalk the Giant Elk the Mole met them and said, “Do not encounter him, for he is mighty and may kill you; wait here and I will help you.”

The Mole then excavated four chambers in the earth, one below another, and made the Twins remain in the upper one. He dug a long tunnel and coming up under the Elk, plucked a little soft hair from over his heart, at which the Elk turned his head and looked down, but the Mole said, “Be not angry, I only want a little soft hair to make a bed for my children.” So the Elk allowed him to continue the plucking. But the Mole took away enough fur to leave the skin quite bare over the heart, and expose the Elk to death. He then returned to the Twins and told them what he had done, and they threw bolts of lightning and wounded the Elk, who sprang to his feet and charged fiercely. But the Twins concealed themselves in the upper chamber, and when the Elk tried to gore them his horns were not long enough; again he charged, and thrust his horns downward, but the Twins had safely retreated to the second chamber; again he tried to reach them, but they were safe in the third room. They retreated to the fourth chamber, and when the Elk made another attempt he fell dead.

The Chipmunk who had witnessed the fight hurried up, and after thanking the Twins said he had come to show them how to cut up the monster’s body, which with his sharp teeth he soon accomplished. One of the Twins thanked Chipmunk, and, stooping, he dipped the tips of the first two fingers of his right hand in the Elk’s blood and drawing them along the body of the Chipmunk, made on it the marks which he still bears.

This is the story of how the Twins killed Chaveyo, who was a giant of the old times, clad in armor made of flint and seeking always for people to devour.

One day the Twins went to a great pool near Mt. Taylor, and soon Chaveyo came there likewise; he knelt down and drank four times, emptying the pool. He then arose and smelt the Twins and threw his weapon at them, but one of the Twins sprang in the air and as the weapon passed under him he caught it in his hand. Chaveyo then flung his lightning at the hero, but one of the Twins caught this as he had the weapon. The little war-god now flung his weapon at Chaveyo, but it glanced off his flint shirt. Then the Youth threw the lightning, but it only staggered him. After this they threw more lightning at Chaveyo, which knocked him down and killed him outright.

Another story tells how the Twins visited the sun.

The Twins lived with Spider Woman, their mother, on the west side of Mt. Taylor, and desired to see the home of their father. Spider Woman gave them as a charm a kind of meal, and directed that when they met the guardians of the home of the Sun, to chew a little and spurt it upon them.

The Twins journeyed far to the sunrise where the Sun’s home is entered through a canyon in the sky. There Bear, Mountain Lion, Snake, and Canyon Closing keep watch. The sky is solid in this place, and the walls of the entrance are constantly opening and closing, and would crush any unauthorized person who attempted to pass through.

As the Twins approached the ever-fierce watchers, the trail lay along a narrow way; they found it led them to a place on one side of which was the face of a vertical cliff, and on the other a precipice which sunk sheer to the Below (Underworld). An old man sat there, with his back against the wall and his knees drawn up close to his chin. When they attempted to pass, the old man suddenly thrust out his legs, trying to knock the passers over the cliff. But they leaped back and saved themselves, and in reply to a protest the old man said his legs were cramped and he simply extended them for relief. Whereupon the hero remembered the charm which he had for the southwest direction, and spurted it upon the old man, forcing the malignant old fellow to remain quite still with legs drawn up, until the Twins had passed.

They then went on to the watchers, guardians of the entrance to the Sun’s house, whom they subdued in the same manner. They also spurted the charm on the sides of the cliff, so that it ceased its oscillations and remained open until they had passed.

These dangers being past, they entered the Sun’s house and were greeted by the Sun’s wife, who laid them on a bed of mats. Soon Sun came home from his trip through the underworld, saying,

I smell strange children here; when men go away their wives receive the embraces of strangers. Where are the children whom you have?

So she brought the Twins to him, and he put them in a flint oven and made a hot fire. After a while, when he opened the door of the oven, the Twins capered out laughing and dancing about his knees, and he knew that they were his sons.[12]

Dr. J. Walter Fewkes says:

The Hopi, like many people, look back to a mythic time when they believe their ancestors lived in a “paradise,” a state or place where food (corn) was plenty and rains abundant—a world of perpetual summer and flowers. Their legends recount how, when corn failed or rains ceased, culture heroes have sought this imaginary or ideal ancestral home to learn the “medicine” which blessed this happy land. Each sacerdotal society tells the story of its own hero, who generally brought from that land a bride who transmitted to her son the knowledge of the altars, songs, and prayers which forced the crops to grow and the rains to fall in her native country. To become thoroughly conversant with the rites he marries the maid, since otherwise at his death they would be lost, as knowledge of the “medicine” is transmitted not through his clan, but to the child of his wife. So the Snake hero brought the Snake maid (Corn-rain girl) from the underworld, the Flute hero, her sister, the Little War God the Lakone mana. A Katcina hero, in the old times, on a rabbit hunt, came to a region where there was no snow. There he saw other Katcina people dancing amidst beautiful gardens. He received melons from them and carrying them home told a strange story of a people who inhabited a country where there were flowering plants in midwinter. The hero and a comrade were sent back and they stayed with these people, returning home loaded with fruit during February. They had learned the songs of those with whom they had lived and taught them in the kiva of their own people.[13]

Most of the migration traditions are full of mythic elements which have been incorporated with what has often been found to be veritable history. One of these, recounting the wanderings of certain Southern clans, is given by Dr. Fewkes.

At the Red House in the south internecine wars prevailed, and the two branches of the Patki people separated from the other Hopi and determined to return to the fatherland in the north. But these two branches were not on the best of terms, and they traveled northward by separate routes, the (later settlers of) Miconinovi holding to the east of the (later settlers of) Walpi.

The Patki traveled north until they came to the Little Colorado River, and built houses on its banks. After living there many years the factional dissensions, which seem to have ever haunted these people, again broke out, and the greater portion of them withdrew still farther north and built villages the ruins of which are still discernable not far from the site of the villages their descendants inhabit at present.

The Squash (Miconinovi) also trended slowly northward, occupying, like all their legendary movements, a protracted period of indefinite length—years during which they planted and built homes alternating with years of devious travel. They grew lax in the observance of festivals, and Muinwu inflicted punishment upon them. He caused the water to turn red, and the color of the people also turned red; he then changed the water to blue, and the people changed to a similar color. The Snow katcina appeared and urged them to return to their religion, but they gave no heed to him, so he left them and took away corn. Muinwu then sent Palulukon who killed rabbits and poured their blood in the springs and streams, and all the water was changed to blood and the people were stricken with a plague. They now returned to their religious observances, and danced and sang, but none of the deities would listen to them.

A horned katcina appeared to the oldest woman and told her that on the following morning the oldest man should go out and procure a root, and that she and a young virgin of her clan should eat it. After a time she (the old woman) would give birth to a son who would marry the virgin, and their offspring would redeem the people. The old woman and the virgin obeyed the katcina, and the former gave birth to a son who had two horns upon his head. The people would not believe that the child was of divine origin; they called it a monster and killed it.

After this all manner of distressing punishments were inflicted upon them, and wherever they halted, the grass immediately withered and dried. Their wanderings brought them to the foot of the San Francisco Mountains, where they dwelt for a long time, and at that place the virgin gave birth to a daughter who had a little knob on each side of her forehead. They preserved this child, and when she had grown to be a woman, the horned katcina appeared and announced to her that she would give birth to horned twins, who would bring rain and remove the punishment from their people. This woman was married, and the twins, a boy and a girl, were born; but she concealed their divine origin, fearing they would be destroyed.

The Patun (Squash) now moved to the Little Colorado, where they built houses and met some of the Patki people to whom they related their distresses. A wise man of the Patki came over to see them, and on seeing the twins at once pronounced them to be the Alosaka. They had no horns up to this time, but as soon as this announcement was made, their horns became visible and the twins then spoke to the people and said it had been ordained that they were to be unable to help their people until the people themselves discovered who they were. The Patun were so enraged to think that the Alosaka had been with them, unknown so many years, that they killed them, and still greater sufferings ensued.

They again repented, and carved two stone images of the Alosaka which they painted and decked with feathers and sought to propitiate the mother. She was full of pity for her people and prayed to the Sky-god to relieve them. A period elapsed in which their troubles were in great measure abated.

The Patun then sought to join the Patki clans, but the Patki would not permit this, and compelled them to keep east of Awatobi.

Many ruins of phratry and family houses of the Patun people exist on the small watercourses north of the Puerco at various distances eastward from the present village of Walpi. The nearest are almost fifteen miles, the farthest about fifty miles.

Their wandering course was now stayed. When they essayed to move farther eastward, a nomadic hunting race who occupied that region besought them not to advance farther. Their evil notoriety had preceded them, and the nomads feared the maleficent influence of their neighborhood. It would seem, however, that instead of hostile demonstrations the nomads entered into a treaty with them, offering to pay tribute of venison, roots, and grass-seeds, if they would abstain 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 decimated them, until finally the Alosaka katcina appeared to them and instructed them to carve two wooden images, but threatening them that if these images should be lost or destroyed, all the people would die.

Many other but widely divergent legends exist regarding 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, observed 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 traveled on the rainbow; he lived at Tawaki, the house of his father, the Sun, or the San Francisco Mountains.[14]

There is another tradition of the clans that moved from the southward collected by the late A.M. Stephen from no less a personage than Anowita (p. 208), who was chief of the Cloud people. The tradition is as follows:

We did not come direct to this region [Tusayan],—we had no fixed intention as to where we should go. We are the Patki nyumu, and we dwelt at Palatkwabi [Red land] where the agave grows high and plentiful; perhaps it was in the region the Americans call Gila valley, but of that I am not certain. It was far south of here, and a large river flowed past our village, which was large, and the houses were high, and a strange thing happened there.

Our people were not living peaceably at that time, we were quarreling among ourselves, over huts and other things, I have heard, but who can tell what caused their quarrels? There was a famous hunter of our people, and he cut off the tips from the antlers of the deer which he killed and [wore them for a necklace] he always carried them. He lay down in a hollow in the court of the village, as if he had died, but our people doubted this; they thought he was only shamming death, yet they covered him up with earth. Next day his extended hand protruded, the four fingers erect, and the first day after that one finger disappeared [was doubled up?]; each day a finger disappeared, until on the fourth day his hand was no longer visible and the old people thought that he dug down to the underworld with the horn tips.

On the fifth day water spouted up from the hole where his hand had been and it spread over everywhere. On the sixth day, Palulukona [the Serpent Deity] protruded from this hole and looked around in every direction. All the lower ground was covered and many were drowned, but most of our people had fled to some knolls not far from the village and which were not yet submerged.

When the old men saw Palulukona they asked him what he wanted, because they knew he had caused this flood; and Palulukona said, “I want you to give me a youth and a maiden.” The elders consulted and then selected the handsomest youth and fairest maid and arrayed them in their finest apparel, the youth with a white kilt and paroquet plume, and the maid with a fine blue tunic and white mantle. These children wept and besought their parents not to send them to Palulukona, but an old chief said, “You must go; do not be afraid: I will guide you.” And he led them toward the village court and stood at the edge of the water, but sent the children wading in toward Palulukona, and when they had reached the center of the court where Palulukona was the deity, the children disappeared. The water then rushed down after them, through a great cavity, and the earth quaked and many houses tumbled down, and from this cavity a great mound of dark rock protruded. This rock mound was glossy and of all colors; it was beautiful, and, as I have been told, it still remains there.

The White Mountain Apache have told me that they know a place in the south where the old houses surround a great rock, and the land in the vicinity is wet and boggy.

We traveled northward from Palatkwabi and continued to travel just as long as any strength was left in the people,—as long as they had breath. During these journeys we would halt only for one day at a time. Then our chief planted corn in the morning and the dragonfly came and hovered over the stalks and by noon the corn was ripe; before sunset it was quite dry and the stalks, fell over, and in whichever way they pointed, in that direction we traveled.

When anyone became ill, or when children fretted and cried, or the young people became homesick the Coiyal Katcina (a youth and a maiden) came and danced before them; then the sick got well, children laughed, and sad ones became cheerful. We would continue to travel until everyone was thoroughly worn out, then we would halt and build houses and plant, remaining perhaps many years. One of these places where we lived is not far from San Carlos, in a valley, and another is on a mesa near a spring called Coyote Water by the Apache.

When we came to the valley of the Little Colorado, south of where Winslow now is, we built houses and lived there; then we crossed to the northern side of the valley and built houses at Homolobi. This was a good place for a time, but a plague of flies came and bit the suckling children, causing many of them to die, so we left there and traveled to Cipa (near Kuma spring). Finally we found the Hopi, some going to each of the villages except Awatobi; none went there.[15]

The figure of a hand with extended fingers is very common, in the vicinity of ruins, as a rock etching, and also is frequently seen daubed on the rocks with colored pigments or white clay. These are vestiges of a test formerly practiced by the young men who aspired for admission to the fraternity of the Calako. The Calako is a trinity of two women and a man from whom the Hopi obtained the first corn, and of whom the following legend is told:

There was neither springs nor streams, although water was so near the surface that it could be found by pulling up a tuft of grass. The people had but little food, however, and they besought Masauwuh to help them, but he could not.

There came a little old man, a dwarf, who said that he had two sisters who were the wives of Calako, and it might be well to petition them. So they prepared an altar, every man making a paho, and these were set in the ground so as to encircle a sand hillock, for this occurred before houses were known.

Masauwuh’s brother came and told them that when Calako came to the earth’s surface wherever he placed his foot a deep chasm was made, then they brought to the altar a huge rock, on which Calako might stand, and they set it between the two pahos placed for his wives. Then the people got their rattles and stood around the altar, each man in front of his own paho; but they stood in silence, for they knew no song with which to invoke this strange god. They stood there for a long while, for they were afraid to begin the ceremonies, until a young lad, selecting the largest rattle, began to shake it and sing. Presently a sound like rushing water was heard, but no water was seen; a sound also like great winds, but the air was perfectly still, and it was seen that the rock was pierced with a great hole through the center. The people were frightened and ran away, all save the young lad who had sung the invocation.

The lad soon afterward rejoined them, and they saw that his back was cut and bleeding, and covered with splinters of yucca and willow. The flagellation, he told them, had been administered by Calako, who told him that he must endure this laceration before he could look upon the beings he had invoked; that only to those who passed through his ordeals could Calako become visible; and as the lad had braved the test so well, he should henceforth be chief of the Calako altar. The lad could not describe Calako, but said that his two wives were exceedingly beautiful and arrayed with all manner of fine garments. They wore great headdresses of clouds and every kind of corn which they were to give to the Hopi to plant for food. These were white, red, yellow, blue, black, blue and white speckled, and red and yellow speckled corn, and a seeded grass (kwapi).

The lad returned to the altar and shook his rattle over the hole in the rock and from its interior Calako conversed with him and gave him instructions. In accordance with these he gathered all the Hopi youths and brought them to the rock, that Calako might select certain of them to be his priests. The first test was that of putting their hands in the mud and impressing them upon the rock. Only those were chosen as novices the imprints of whose hands had dried on the instant. The selected youths then moved within the altar and underwent the test of flagellation. Calako lashed them with yucca and willow. Those who made no outcry were told to remain in the altar, to abstain from salt and flesh for ten days, when Calako would return and instruct them concerning the rites to be performed when they sought his aid.

Calako and his two wives appeared at the appointed time, and after many ceremonials gave to each of the initiated five grains of each of the different kinds of corn. The Hopi women had been instructed to place baskets woven of grass at the foot of the rock, and in these Calako’s wives placed the seeds of squashes, melons, beans, and all the other vegetables which the Hopi have since possessed. Calako and his wives, after announcing that they would again return, took off their masks and garments, and laying them on the rock disappeared within it.

Some time after this, when the initiated were assembled in the altar, the Great Plumed Snake appeared to them and said that Calako could not return unless one of them was brave enough to take the mask and garments down into the hole and give it to him. They were all afraid, but the oldest man of the Hopi took them down and was deputed to return and represent Calako.

Shortly afterward Masauwuh stole the paraphernalia and with his two brothers masqueraded as Calako and his wives. This led the Hopi into great trouble, and they incurred the wrath of Muiyinwuh, who withered all their grain and corn. One of the Hopi finally discovered that the supposed Calako carried a cedar bough in his hand, when it should have been willow; then they knew it was Masauwuh who had been misleading them. The boy hero one day found Masauwuh asleep, and so regained possession of the mask, Muiyinwuh then withdrew his punishments and sent Palulukon (The Plumed Snake) to tell the Hopi that Calako would never return to them, but that the boy hero should wear his mask and represent him, and his festival should be celebrated when they had a proper number of novices to be initiated.

The celebration occurs in the modern Hopi pueblos in the Powamu ceremony, where the representative of Calako flogs the children. Calako’s picture is found on the Powamu altars of several of the villages of the Hopi.[16]