ual.[132] It is
possible that the Navaho, who have a similar practice, derived it from
the Pueblos, but there are not enough data at hand to demonstrate this
beyond question.

Regarding the pose of the three figures in this picture, I have been
reminded by Dr Walter Hough of the performers who carry the wad of
cornstalks in the Antelope dance. In this interpretation we have the
"carrier," "hugger," and possibly an Antelope priest with the unknown
object in his hand. This interpretation appears more likely to be a
correct one than that which I have suggested; and yet Kopeli, the
Snake chief, declares that the Snake family was not represented at
Sikyatki. Possibly a dance similar to the Antelope performance on the
eighth day of the Snake dance may have been celebrated at that pueblo,
and the discovery of a rattlesnake's rattle in a Sikyatki grave is yet
to be explained.

One of the most prominent of all the deities in the modern Tusayan
Olympus is the cultus-hero called Pueuekonhoya, the Little War God. Hopi
mythology teems with legends of this god and his deeds in killing
monsters and aiding the people in many ways. He is reputed to have
been one of twins, children of the Sun and a maid by parthenogenetic
conception. His adventures are told with many variants and he
reappears with many aliases.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXVI

DOUBLE-LOBE VASES FROM SIKYATKI]

The symbolism of Pueuekonhoya at the present day consists of parallel
marks on the face or body, and when personated by a man the figure
is always represented as carrying weapons of war, such as a bow and
arrows. Images of the same hero are used in ceremonies, and are
sometimes found as household gods or penates, which are fed as if
human beings. A fragment of pottery represented in the accompanying
illustration (figure 263), shows enough of the head of a personage to
indicate that Pueuekonhoya was intended, for it bears on the cheek the
two parallel marks symbolic of that deity, while in his hands he holds
a bow and a jointed arrow as if shooting an unknown animal. All of
these features are in harmony with the identification of the figure
with that of the cultus-hero mentioned, and seem to indicate the truth
of the current legend that as a mythologic conception he is of great
antiquity in Tusayan.

[Illustration: FIG. 263--War god shooting an animal. (Fragment of food
bowl.)]

In this connection it may