Editing Hopi mythology (section)

===Entrance into the Fourth World===
[[File:Hopi petroglyph - Mesa Verde National Park.jpeg|thumb|An [[Ancestral Puebloans|Ancestral Puebloan]] [[petroglyph]] in [[Mesa Verde National Park]]. The boxy spiral shape near the center of the photo likely represents the "sipapu", the place where the Ancestral Puebloans emerged from the earth in their creation story.]]
Two main versions exist as to the Hopis' emergence into the present Fourth World.

In one version, after evil broke out amongst the people in the Third World, with the help of Spider Grandmother, or bird spirits, a hollow [[bamboo]] reed grew at the opening of the Third World into the Fourth World.  This opening, ''sipapu'', is traditionally viewed to be the [[Grand Canyon]].  According to Barry Pritzker, "the people with good hearts (kindness) made it to the Fourth World."<ref name="bp"/>{{rp|16–17}}

The other version (mainly told in Oraibi) has it that Tawa destroyed the Third World in a great flood. Before the destruction, Spider Grandmother sealed the more righteous people into hollow reeds which were used as boats. On arrival on a small piece of dry land, the people saw nothing around them but more water, even after planting a large bamboo shoot, climbing to the top, and looking about. Spider Woman then told the people to make boats out of more reeds, and using island "stepping-stones" along the way, the people sailed east until they arrived on the mountainous coasts of the Fourth World.

While it may not be possible to positively ascertain which is the original or "more correct" story, Harold Courlander writes, at least in [[Oraibi]] (the oldest of the Hopi villages), little children are often told the story of the ''sipapu'', and the story of an ocean voyage is related to them when they are older.<ref name=Courlander>Harold Courlander. ''The Fourth World of the Hopis'', p.205.</ref> He states that even the name of the Hopi Water Clan (Patkinyamu) literally means "a dwelling-on-water" or "houseboat".  However, he notes the ''sipapu'' story is centered on [[Walpi]] and is more accepted among Hopis generally.<ref name=Courlander/>

According to Barry Pritzker, "In this Fourth World, the people learned many lessons about the proper way to live. They learned to worship Masauwu, who ensured that the dead return safely to the Underworld and who gave them the four sacred tablets that, in symbolic form, outlined their wanderings and their proper behavior in the Fourth World.