G08 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



considered father of gods and men, one of the oldest supernatural con- 

 ceptions in primitive culture. 



As above described, the Hopi Fire God, Masawu, sometimes carries 

 a dibble or planting stick, showing his intimate relation with plant- 

 ing; his personification in the sacred room goes through the act of 

 planting, prayers being said to him for the successful germination of 

 corn and other seeds. 



It would make an interesting article to treat fire worship among 

 our aborigines in a comparative manner and show the interrelations, 

 resemblances, and differences as well as the distribution of this cult. 

 Little can now be rescued as far as observation goes among certain 

 tribes; in others there are still unrecorded survivals. That it was 

 once as widespread as the American race seems a logical conclusion 

 from what is known. What modifications have occurred and how 

 many of these are due to environmental conditions is a chapter of 

 culture history that can not now be written, but it would have been 

 worthy of intensive investigation. From the time man emerged 

 from the brutes he has possessed a knowledge of how to artificially 

 create fire. This invention has aided him in his upward cultural 

 growth more than any other, and yet few ethnologists have turned 

 their attention to its influence on the history of the Indians. 



We are able to trace the evolution of the fire cult from its earlier 

 stage among the cliff dwellers to the modern pueblos. My archeo- 

 logical work last summer (1920) makes it possible as never before to 

 present the evidences of its existence among the cliff dwellers of the 

 Mesa Verde National Park, where the culture of certain modern pueb- 

 los originated. 



There are many American cliff dwellings of magnitude, as those of 

 the Canyon de Chelly and the Navaho National Monument, from 

 which evidence of fire worship has been observed, but rarely except 

 in the Mesa Verde do we find a specialized building for this cult that 

 may be called a temple. There is evidence that the building in the 

 Mesa Verde identified as a fire temple (pi. 12) was not a habitation ; no 

 household implements were found in the extensive excavation made 

 in its court or rooms, and its architectural form is unique. There 

 was no evidence of former grinding bins, no fragments of pottery, 

 no domiciliary utensils. There was nothing in the debris to show 

 that man ever inhabited it. This failure to find these and other uten- 

 sils is negative evidence ; but the identification is supported by archi- 

 tectural data. The existence in the court of a central fireplace full of 

 ashes, and the character of paintings on the walls recalling symbols 

 that have survived in the New Fire rite of the Hopi and other pueblo 

 tribes, are the positive evidences of its former use. This building was 

 a fire temple devoted to the fire cult, having a special room for kind- 

 ling of the new fire and a fire pit in the court for public dances con- 



