Sacred Texts Native American Hopi Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
The Traditions of the Hopi, by H.R. Voth, [1905], at sacred-texts.com
Kalátötö often visits Oraíbi to find something to eat among refuse. Children tease him and snap their fingers against his head so that he nearly dies. He then retires to house. He wonders how he can get hair on his head like children, and goes to timber and gets some pitch. He goes to village to hunt for hair and finds some on piles of refuse. Next morning he puts pitch on his head and hair on it. He visits village again and children recognize him. They notice smell of pitch and take little sticks, with which they scrape it off his head and chew it. He gathers up hairs which they had thrown away and returns home. Next day he goes to timber and finds cactus, juice of which he puts on his head and pastes hair to juice when nearly dried. He goes again to village and children again try to remove head covering, but they find it is not pitch. Towards evening he goes home and then dried juice cracks and falls off with hair. He tries pitch again and puts it on evening before dance in village, pasting new hair to it. He sleeps well, but pitch has become -warm during night and adheres to floor on which he has been sleeping. He tries to rise, but cannot, and dies of hunger.