110 SUMMER CEREMONIALS 
dances are said to be pritnarily for rain which is much 
needed in this arid region at this time. The same need of 
water has, no doubt, led to the visit to the Sacred Lake 
and the ceremonies connected with that event. Hence, 
also, the religious observances at the spring at the time of 
the Ley-la-tuk and the almost universal planting of prayer 
offerings in the fields. 
In a study of the Ley-la-luh at Moqui we have an in- 
teresting contribution to this line of thought. It will 
pr()l)al)ly be found when the idea Irack of that strange cer- 
emony, the snake dance, is thoroughly understood that it 
is connected intimately with the climate of the surround- 
ing country. 
The Kol-o-wis-si, or plumed serpent, one of the most 
powerful agents evolved in the mythological conceptions of 
the Zufiians, is a water being. All the waters of the earth 
are said by the Moquis to come from the udders oi Bo-ho-li- 
kon-ga, a fabulous crested serpent, father of all life, as Mu- 
ing-wa, the earth, is its mother. To kill a snake is to de- 
stroy the sources of water, and snake worship is connected 
with water worship if such an expression may be allowed. 
The importance which attaches to the Moqui ceremony 
called Ley-la-tuk comes from the suspicion that it is the 
same as the snake dance, and embodies all essential ele- 
ments of the latter. There are good reasons to believe 
that these two ceremonies differing as they do in details are 
really the same, liut that the Ley-la-tuk is the most })rim- 
itive. The snake dance may then be regarded as an elal)- 
oration of the ceremony o^ Ley-la-tuk to Avhich arc added 
many secondary symbolic observances. The gathering, 
handling, and sprinkling of the snakes with sacred water 
and meal from obvious reasons have fixed the attention and 
become ]n'ominent or rather the most impoitant things in 
the ceremony. The snake has thus come to give the name 
