FIKE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTUEE 149 



ing, climbs up the hill without any fear, blows in his flute: psee . . . 

 psee . . . psee . . . and shouts 'You! Heaven! Go further! I 

 have nothing against you! I do not fight against you!' He may 

 add in a threatening tone : ' If you are sent by my enemies against 

 me, I will cut you open with this knife of mine.' The thunderstorm 

 will then pass away."^^ 



The myth of the thunderbird best developed or best described 

 from the northwest coast of America can be traced among tribes 

 from several other localities. The conception is of a huge bird riding 

 the storm and hurling bolts, which are fishes concealed in its plumage. 

 It would be easy to see in the thunderbird a personification of the 

 storm cloud. If the man eagle of the sky, a Hopi myth, belongs to 

 the thunderbird cycle, the bolt motive is omitted on account of 

 other explanations for lighting. Lightning is a province of the 

 Manitous of the northern plains and northeastern tribes. Some re- 

 semblances appear here to the thunderbird. 



Somewhat advanced beliefs as to the origin of lightning appear in 

 the mythology of the tribes of the southwestern United States and 

 Mexico. Herrera, writing of Mexico at the period of the conquest, 

 says: 



"And believed that thunder and lightning were living creatures 

 that came down from heaven, and when a flash of lightning killed 

 anybod}^ they said the gods were angry." ^^ 



An interpretation of the Mexican belief cited is probably to be seen 

 in the belief of the Zuni Indians of New Mexico. The Zuni myth of 

 the twin gods of war, children of the sun, represents the pair stealing 

 the lightning, a perquisite of their father, and having sport with it. 

 The lightning is represented as a ball rolled along the clouds.^^ 



In the dramatizations of natural phenomena the Hopi at the 

 beginning of the Snake Ceremony whirl the rhombus or bull roarer, 

 simulating apparently the storm. The vane is usually painted with 

 a zigzag line, which is the symbol of lightning among all the Pueblos. 

 The Zuni and Hopi represent lightning in their ceremonies with an 

 extensible rackwork headed with an arrow shape. The sudden 

 darting out of this device is very startling. Among the Pueblos 

 lightning is regarded as having both a good-working and bad-working 

 effect. The Hopi are pleased when lightning strikes in their fields, 

 as they believe that it fertilizes their crops and makes the yield abun- 

 dant. The contrary is true when lightning strikes the pueblo, as will 

 be shown later. The Pueblo have the most extensive symbolism of 

 lightning. The symbol appears on religious paraphernalia, is painted 

 on pottery, and woven in textiles. Lightning is assigned to the four 



" H. A. Junod. The Life of a South African Tribe, vol. 2, pp. 290-292, Neuchatel, 1913. 

 * Herrera. General History of America, vol. 3, p. 112, London, 1726. 

 «« F. H. Gushing. Zuni Folk Tales, New York, 1901. 



