Death Ritual- Pahos Death, too, comes to the Hopi Indians, and a plentiful supply of the essential eagle feathers must be at hand for the making of pahos. When the medicine man seeks to drive away the evil that causes illness, he places a paho of eagle feathers on the path leading away from the village. Otherwise, the evil spirit may not even know which direction to travel. Should the ministrations of the medicine man prove ineffective and the patient die, the spirit must be helped on its journey to the Underworld. The bodies of the plucked eagles are buried in the eagle burying ground at the foot of the mesa. Food is placed in the grave and prayers are offered, as in the case of a human. After the death of a Hopi Indian, a woman of the family washes the hair with yucca-root suds and otherwise prepares the body for burial. A cotton mask is tied over the face. A prayer paho, of the finest eagle down, is bound to a lock of hair with cotton yarn and made to fall forward over the face. In the case of a woman, her wedding robe is used as her shroud; a man is wrapped in an ordinary blanket. The body is arranged in a sitting position in a corner of the room. An official mourner is designated by members of the family, and it is the duty of this individual to scold the dead person for going away and causing sorrow in the village. The burial is conducted at night by the father or nearest male relative, with one male relative to assist in carrying the body from the mesa to the burial ground in the flat below. Here the corpse is placed in the grave in a sitting position. No train of mourners accompanies the funeral party. The men return to the house and participate in purification ceremonies which include the house as well as their persons. Sacred meal is sprinkled throughout the room, pinon twigs are burned in the fireplace and the men bathe hands and feet. Only then may they rejoin the family circle and the routine of family life be resumed. Prayer feathers, attached to cotton yarn, are placed at the grave to point out the direction the spirit must travel to its future home in the Underworld. For four days food and prayer-feathers are placed at the grave. During the ensuing months new pahos are placed in rock shrines at a distance from the village, where they may be found by the spirit of the dead.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:00:09 +0000
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