SUN WORSHIP FEWKES. 495 



presenting instances of symbolic personations I shall endeavor to 

 throw some light on the nature of sun worship as it now exists among 

 the Hopi. 



There are at least several kinds of data from which we can inter- 

 pret primitive conceptions of worship, among which are current 

 mythology, symbolism, and descriptive legends. For instance, when 

 the Sky god is personated, he wears prescribed paraphernalia, as a 

 mask painted with certain symbolic designs, and carries certain 

 badges or other regalia. We can interpret his supposed character 

 by his dramatic acts and relations to other supernatural beings when 

 personated in ceremonials. In myths of the Sun god there have been 

 passed down explanations of their rites by earlier devotees, which 

 are crystallized by sacerdotal additions or philosophical definitions 

 modified by the mentality of more modern thinkers. 



It is evident that these mythological stories and ceremonial sur- 

 vivals among primitive people are based on symbolic and analogical 

 lather than scientific conceptions, for in the growth of exact knowl- 

 edge each generation somewhat modifies the myths of its prede- 

 cessors, immediate or remote, to suit new conditions of life, evolved 

 in the evolution of religious thought; consequently mythology, so 

 called, is in a state of continual flux so far as explanation of cere- 

 monies is concerned, and its present form may be unreliable as a 

 means from which to determine the earliest or the characteristic 

 ideas of antecedent primitive people. 



One means of arriving at a knowledge of past beliefs is the sur- 

 vival of prehistoric ceremonies and cult objects handed down from 

 the past. The rites of the people are subject to slow changes, and 

 these modifications are not as rapid as the m} T ths, mainly because of 

 the secrecy surrounding them, augmented by the conservatism of 

 an original priesthood which tends to preserve them in their purity. 

 But myth and rite form the woof and the warp of religious develop- 

 ment, and it is advantageous, on the very threshold of the study of 

 sky worship among the Hopi, to measure the relative importance 

 of mythological evidence and that of surviving rites. In the present 

 article I have discussed the latter data. 



The existing ritual of the Hopi Indians is a complex, composed 

 of several units, possibly borrowed, but distinct from each other. 

 The rites of different units are unlike in details, but have forms of 

 nature worship and certain other cults in common. Sun worship is 

 a common element in this mosaic ritual, but its character varies in 

 complexity as well as in distinctive features in the component units. 

 To comprehend the character of sun worship it may be well to refer 

 to certain modifications in each component group. 



Both myth and rite furnish evidences that the highest form of sun 

 worship among the original Hopi was introduced by groups of peo- 



