s it to a fourth fire and again
casts it into the flames, where it is utterly consumed, the only
residue being soot on the side of the pit.

I have not recorded this as a universal or an aboriginal belief among
the Hopi, but rather to show certain current ideas which may have been
brought to Tusayan by missionaries or others. The details of the
purification of the evil soul are characteristic.

The western cemetery of Sikyatki is situated among the hillocks
covered with surface rubble below a house occupied in summer by a
Hopi and his family. From the nature of the soil the excavation of
this cemetery was very difficult, although the mortuary objects were
more numerous. Repeated attempts to make the Indians work in a
systematic manner failed, partly on account of the hard soil and
partly from other reasons. Although the lower we went the more
numerous and beautiful were the objects exhumed, the Indians soon
tired of deep digging, preferring to confine their work to within two
or three feet of the surface. At many places we found graves under and
between the huge bowlders, which are numerous in this cemetery.

The southern cemetery lies between the outer edge of the ruin on that
side and the decline to the plain, a few hundred feet from the
southern row of houses. Two conspicuous bowlders mark the site of most
of the excavations in that direction. The mortuary objects from this
cemetery are not inferior in character or number to those from the
other burial places. All attempts to discover a cemetery on the
eastern side of the pueblo failed, although a single food basin was
brought to the camp by an Indian who claimed he had dug it out of the
deep sand on the eastern side of the ruins. Another bowl was found in
the sand drift near the trail over the mesa to Kanelba, but careful
investigation failed to reveal any systematic deposit of mortuary
vessels east of the ruin.[111]

The method of excavation pursued in the cemeteries was not so
scientific as I had wished, but it was the only practicable one to be
followed with native workmen. Having found the location of the graves
by means of small prospecting holes sunk at random, the workmen were
aligned and directed to excavate a single long, deep trench, removing
all the earth as they advanced. It was with great difficulty that the
Indians were taught the importance of excavating to a sufficient
depth, and even to the end of the work they refused to be taught not
to burro