112 SUMMER CEREMONIALS 
rain symbol on the eartli, the Sacred Lodge, and the de- 
posit of offerings of water in the receptacle below, there 
seems no doubt Init that this dance is a rain ceremonial 
which has many other ceremonial ways of expression. 
It is a noteworthy fact in this connection that the high- 
est stages of culture on the American continent among 
al)()rigines is found where the climate is so dry and where 
nature has done so littleJor the agriculturist. The fertile 
well-watered valley of the Missouri and Ohio would seem 
nuich more favorable to the development of the agricultur- 
ist than tlie deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. There are 
more fertile regions in South America than those in which 
the Peruvian culture flourished. Possibly, the abundance 
of game in such regions rendered it less obligatory for man 
to become an agriculturist. He remained a nomad be- 
cause game was plentiful, and as long as this source of food 
remained agriculture made slow growth. The arid deserts 
however, although less suited for cultivation than the bot- 
tomlands of the river banks, furnished only scanty hunt- 
ing privileges. The buffalo could not ])e relied upon for 
food and man was forced to cultivate the soil. The mo- 
ment primitive man became an agriculturist he became sed- 
entary, and he began to live in settled abodes. Then 
would naturally arise a system of observances instituted 
to bring rain for crops and elaborate ceremonials be prac- 
tised which would not arise among a race of hunters. Dry 
climates, for some unknown reason, have always had an in- 
fluence in leading a man from a nomadic to a sedentary 
condition or from the hunter to the agriculturist, and many 
of the civilizations on the old continent have arisen in sim- 
ilar desiccated regions. 
The writer believes that certain similarities in the re- 
ligious observances of the pueblos to those of other 
primitive peoples inhabiting a desiccated country are di- 
