FIRE WORSHIP FEWKES. 605 



what is ordinarily called the clan, but whether the original unit 

 was clan or gens, matriarchal or patriarchal, it was a group that 

 used the same hearth. The common fire was the bond of social 

 union, and it is natural to suppose that a religious rite should have 

 arisen among relatives directly concerned with that fire. There would 

 seem much to support the theory that the earliest house was con- 

 structed by man to shield his fire or a cave sought for protection or 

 shelter of this fire as well as to store a food supply. We thus owe the 

 beginnings of architecture to fire, and the social unit determined by a 

 common hearth would probably date back to a time when the social 

 units called clans and gens originated, if not earlier. 



Among agricultural peoples the preparation of cereals for food, in- 

 cluding the heat of fire for cooking them, need much care. The food 

 protectors, or guardians of the fire, assume importance as an ancient 

 features in the worship by a social unit determined by the fire. The 

 lares and penates came to be specialized fetishes of the " hearth 

 units " of society, and by analogies these penates were ancestral and, 

 as connected with the life or fire of the " hearth units," were incipient 

 fire gods. 



A few references to the lesser new fire ceremony bring out certain 

 aspects of the fire cult that are obscured by the more elaborate 

 ceremonies. Save in the manner of kindling the fire, the lesser new fire 

 ceremony, called Sumaikoli, is different from that performed in 

 November. The following events were noticed at Walpi on the 

 single day of the lesser new fire ceremony of the Hopi. The fire 

 was kindled by frictional methods, using the customary fire drills, 

 and was later carried by a being called Kawikoli and other couriers 

 to the four shrines of the fire god. Previously to the act of kindling 

 fire the priests occupied their time in the manufacture of prayer 

 sticks and their consecration by prayer* song, and, what is signifi- 

 cant, an invocation was made to Mother Earth called the Spider 

 Woman, 19 whose personality was symbolized by a bundle of black 

 sticks. The tiponi or badge of the chief is regarded as the " mother 

 of the priests." The most significant portion of the rites is accom- 

 panied with songs before the row of Sumaikoli masks shown in 

 plate 11. During the songs the chief priest kneels on the floor 

 by the side of his fetish, puts his mouth near the sipapu or cere- 

 monial hole in the floor near by, and yells to the Spider Woman 

 several times the, to us, meaningless syllables " Ta-a-he-he-he." 



The prayer sticks and the prayer fire were carried to the four 

 shrines of the Fire God, Masawu, by as many couriers, each one of 

 whom was naked and carried a cedar bark torch lighted at the fire 

 newly kindled in the kiva. With these lighted torches in one hand 

 the carriers shouted as they ran through the pueblo and rushed 



19 Kokyan-wugti, another name added to the long list of appellations of the earth being. 



