THE FOURTH WORLD: HOGANS

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In the sweat bath the men discussed how to build a home. After the bath, when the men returned to where the women were staying, they learned that the women had made a simple forked shelter out of sunflower stalks.

However, Haashch'eelti'i (Talking God) showed the people how to make a home out of logs.

The people constructed a hogan of five logs, following Talking God's instructions. The first two logs came from east and west, the next two from south and north, and the fifth from the northeast. In blessing the hogan, they blessed only four sides. Today only four sides of a hogan are blessed. On the roof, where they placed the end of the east log, they put white shell; under the south log, turquoise; under the west log, abalone; under the north log, obsidian, and under the fifth log, jewels from all directions. Where the logs came together at the roof top, they tied feathers of different birds. The tips of the logs are thought to be the eyes of the hogan.

First Man and First Woman told the people that in the future when they built a hogan they must do the same thing and also put pollen underneath and on top. They requested that the hogan be blessed with white and yellow cornmeal, with pollen and with powder from prayer sticks.

After the logs were up and the smaller logs were being added, the people wondered which way the doorway should face. They decided that since all prayers and songs started in the east, they should have the doorway facing east. After deciding upon the doorway, they selected a place where the ashes from the hogan's fire were to be put. Neither charred wood nor bones were to be left inside. This was the first Alch'i'adeeza (Male hogan) ever built.

The Male hogan was used only for ceremonial gatherings and other religious matters. Food could be brought in when it was time to feed the men engaged in religious activities, but the remains had to be removed as soon as they finished eating. (Some say that the first Male hogan is still in existence, somewhere near the Place of Emergence, and that, at this place, there is still a petrified ladder.)

Next they built Hooghan nimazi (Female hogan) to the south of the Male hogan. The Female hogan was very different from the Male hogan, both in appearance and function. It was white. It had neither eyes nor the vestibule in the front. In the Female hogan, the children could play and cry, the women could talk and entertain themselves, and the men could tell stories and laugh. Thus, any activities were allowed in the Female hogan, while only religious activities were permitted in the Male hogan.*

* This separation of functions of the two kinds of hogans still is observed today.

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