n of the
Corn-maid by symbolic figures, such as graven images,[122] pictures,
and the like, in secret rites, the style of coiffure worn by the
maidens is common, as I have elsewhere shown in the descriptions of
the ceremonials known as the Flute, _Lalakonti_, _Mamzrauti_,
_Palueluekonti_, and others. The same symbol is found in images used as
dolls of Calako-mana, the equivalent, as the others, of the same
Corn-maid. From the nature of these images there can hardly be a doubt
of the great antiquity of this practice, and that it has been brought
down, through their ritual, to the present day. This style of hair
dressing was mentioned by the early Spanish explorers, and is
represented in pictographs of ancient date; but if all these evidences
of its antiquity are insufficient the testimony afforded by the
pictures on certain food-basins from Sikyatki leaves no doubt on this
point.[123]

Plate CXXIX, _b_, represents a food-basin, on the inside of which is
drawn, in brown, the head and shoulders of a woman. On either side the
hair is done up in coils which bear some likeness to the whorls worn
by the present Hopi maidens. It must be borne in mind, however, that
similar coils are sometimes made after ceremonial head-washing, and
certain other rites, when the hair is tied with corn husks. The face
is painted reddish, and the ears have square pendants similar to the
turquois mosaics worn by Hopi women at the present day. Although there
is other evidence than this of the use of square ear-pendants, set
with mosaic, among the ancient people--and traditions point the same
way--this figure of the head of a woman from Sikyatki leaves no doubt
of the existence of this form of ornament in that ancient pueblo.

However indecisive the last-mentioned picture may be in regard to the
coiffure of the ancient Sikyatki women, plate CXXIX, _a_, affords
still more conclusive evidence. This picture represents a woman of
remarkable form which, from likenesses to figures at present made in
sand on an altar in the _Lalakonti_ ceremony,[124] I have no
hesitation in ascribing to the Corn-maid. The head has the two whorls
of hair very similar to those made in that rite on the picture of the
Goddess of Germs, and the square body is likewise paralleled in the
same figure. The peculiar form is employed to represent the
outstretched blanket, a style of art which is common in Mayan
codices.[125] On each lower corner representations of feathered
strings