SUN WORSHIP— FEWKES. 523 



One more fact might be mentioned in regard to this abbreviated 

 Buffalo dance, namely, that the prayer offering (pi. 11) made after 

 the c *e at the Sun shrine has a very unusual form. It is, in fact, 

 a mi] re notched ladder about G inches long, adorned with feath- 

 *s, ii tation of the prayer stick which is placed in the Sun shrine 

 i ■■-*> "" ■*. t. The recognized object of this strange offering is to aid, 

 by '^thetic magic, the Sky god in rising, as recounted in an 



elaborate legend to which the legendists of certain clans refer when 

 asked to account for this form of sun worship among the Hopi. 



Studies of the idols of the great serpent, taken in connection with 

 Hopi myths and modern ceremonial survivals and symbolism, lead 

 to the conclusion that the great serpent effigy or idol on Hopi altars 

 is the personation of the power we commonly call the Sky god. This 

 power, or the fructifying principle of nature, becomes manifest to 

 man as the lightning, but is visible also as the sun, which has its 

 appropriate symbol and personation. Hence, Sun worship and great 

 serpent worship are indissolubly connected and by some are thought 

 to be identical. They are not the same, but regarded as different, 

 being directed to attributes of the same supernatural being and 

 therefore aspects of the same worship. This power is called by as 

 many names as the personators assume. 



When we analyze the meaning of the great serpent represented by 

 God B of the Maya codices or horned serpent figures on shell and 

 other objects from the Mound Builders 1 indicating a similar sym- 

 bolism, we find evidences of the same conception of a great power 

 sometimes called the Sky god, the great male power that creates, 

 among other things, life and light. 



The worship of sun or sky is pronounced in certain individual 

 and secular customs of these people. If he visits any of the dwell- 

 ings where there is a newly born baby a few days old, the observer 

 will notice on the wall of the room near the fireplace a number of 

 parallel scratches a few inches long made by the thumb-nail. Every 

 day after birth the mother of the baby makes an additional scratch, 

 until they are 20 in number. On the evening of this day begins 

 the rite of consecrating the baby to the sun and giving him a name. 

 In order to see this rite one should spend the night in the room, 

 where he is always welcome, as many of the preliminary events 

 occur before sunrise. About 4 o'clock in the morning the grand- 

 mother, or the oldest woman member of the family, prepares for the 

 event. The room is carefully swept, the baby washed, its face cov- 

 ered with sacred meal, an ear of corn tied to its breast. This ear of 

 corn is the symbolic mother of the child, and is carefully preserved 

 through its life. Shortly before sunrise the father seats himself on 

 the east side of the roof, completely muffled up in a blanket with only 



1 Also the great sorppnt mound of Ohio. 



