, called in the modern ritual _nakwakwoci_,[126] are appended.
The figure is represented as kneeling, and the four parallel lines are
possibly comparable with the prayer-sticks placed in the belt of the
Germ goddess on the _Lalakonti_ altar. In her left hand (which, among
the Hopi, is the ceremonial hand or that in which sacred objects are
always carried) she holds an ear of corn, symbolic of germs, of which
she is the deity. The many coincidences between this figure and that
used in the ceremonials of the September moon, called Lalakonti, would
seem to show that in both instances it was intended to represent the
same mythic being.

There is, however, another aspect of this question which is of
interest. In modern times there is a survival among the Hopi of the
custom of decorating the inside of a food basin with a figure of the
Corn-maid, and this is, therefore, a direct inheritance of ancient
methods represented by the specimen under consideration. A large
majority of modern food bowls are ornamented with an elaborate figure
of Calako-mana, the Corn-maid, very elaborately worked out, but still
retaining the essential symbolism figured in the Sikyatki bowl.[127]

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXV

FLAT DIPPERS AND MEDICINE BOX FROM SIKYATKI]

While one of the two figures shown in plate CXXIX, _e_, is valuable as
affording additional and corroborative evidence of the character of
the ancient coiffure of the women, its main interest is of a somewhat
different kind. Two figures are rudely drawn on the inside of the
basin, one of which represents a woman, the other, judging from the
character of the posterior extremity of the body, a reptilian
conception in which a single foreleg is depicted, and the tail is
articulated at the end, recalling a rattlesnake. Upon the head is a
single feather;[128] the two eyes are represented on one side of the
head, and the line of the alimentary tract is roughly drawn. The
figure is represented as standing before that of the woman.

With these few lines the potter no doubt intended to depict one of
those many legends, still current, of the cultus hero and heroine of
her particular family or priesthood. Supposing the reptilian figure to
be a totemic one, our minds naturally recall the legend of the
Snake-hero and the Corn-mist-maid[129] whom he brought from a mythic
land to dwell with his people.

The peculiar hairdress is likewise repre