he father's clan is Tobacco, and the aunts named this
baby "Topt-si," "the red blossom on top of the tobacco plant," which
sounds so exactly like Topsy that the family sense of humor has
permitted the nickname. One of the writer's Hopi girls was named "two
straight, tall rows of corn," another, "Falling Snow." These pretty
names, too long for convenience, are nevertheless cherished, as a matter
of sentiment, by their owners.
[Footnote 33: Goddard, P.E., Indians of the Southwest: N.Y. Amer. Mus.
Nat. Hist., Handbook Series No. 2, 1921.]
=Marriage=
The following is Hough's[34] description of the wedding ceremony at
Oraibi: "When the young people decide to be married, the girl informs
her mother, who takes her daughter, bearing a tray of meal made from
white corn, to the house of the bridegroom where she is received by his
mother with thanks. During the day the girl must labor at the mealing
stones, grinding the white meal, silent and unnoticed; the next day she
must continue her task.... On the third day of this laborious trial she
grinds the dark blue corn which the Hopi call black, no doubt, glad when
the evening brings a group of friends, laden with trays of meal of
their own grinding as presents, and according to the custom, these
presents are returned in kind, the trays being sent back next day heavy
with choice ears of corn.
"After this three days' probation ... comes the wedding. Upon that day
the mother cuts the bride's front hair at the level of her chin and
dresses the longer locks in two coils, which she must always wear in
token that she is no longer a maiden. At the dawn of the fourth day, the
relatives of both families assemble, each one bringing a small quantity
of water in a vessel. The two mothers pound up roots of the yucca, used
as soap, and prepare two bowls of foaming suds. The young man kneels
before the bowl prepared by his future mother-in-law, and the bride
before the bowl of the young man's mother, and their heads are
thoroughly washed and the relatives take part by pouring handsful of
suds over the bowed heads of the couple. While this ceremonial ... goes
on ... a great deal of jollity ensues. When the head-washing is over,
the visitors rinse the hair of the couple with the water they have
brought, and return home. Then the bridal couple take each a pinch of
corn meal and leaving the house go silently to the eastern side of the
mesa on which the pueblo of Oraibi stands. Holding the mea
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