SUN WORSHIP FEWKES. 525 



In very old times, the legend states, before the seeds of corn and 

 other food which form the diet of the Hopi were brought to man- 

 kind, thereby changing their cultural condition, the announcement 

 of this gift was made to a gathering of people who sat around a 

 large sacred stone bemoaning their lot. A voice issuing from be- 

 neath the stone, called to the bravest of them to go down into the 

 bowels of the earth to meet the God of Germs. No one of their 

 number dared to accept this invitation save a young man not yet of 

 high standing; in the priesthood. He replied to the voice, "What 

 shall I do to enter the underworld ? " and the voice replied, " Put 

 your hand on the rock before you." The boy immediately did this 

 and a cleft appeared, widening into a passageway through which he 

 descended. 



He passed into the underworld and there entered a beautiful room 

 adorned with sea shells, turquoises, and other objects dear to the 

 Hopi heart. In the middle of the room was the god resplendent in 

 his costuming, wearing about his loins a girdle made of red horse- 

 hair, holding in one hand the shield of the sun and in the other 

 a whip made of the yucca. As the boy approached this being he 

 was greeted with the words " You are welcome here, but you must 

 endure much suffering before you depart. If you are brave of 

 heart you will carry back to your people gifts of great value." 

 Without hesitation the boy advanced and said, " I am ready for any 

 ordeal." Immediately after, the god raised his whip, which, like 

 a stroke of lightning, descended on the bare back of the youth. 

 For some time this went on until the boy was almost exhausted 

 with loss of blood, but he still kept his brave heart, and aft the 

 close the gods presented him with a prayer plume with the words 

 "Annually you must plant this stick in my shrine in the upper 

 world and I will bring you all the gifts of nature as a reward. You 

 must perform this initiation ceremony with the youths of age in the 

 village, dressed in the same way as the sun, and singing the same 

 songs which you have here heard. As a proof that I will aid you, I 

 give you here a bundle of seeds which you shall plant yearly. Put 

 your hand upon the rock above you." As he obeyed this command, 

 the rock opened a passageway and the boy passed out to his sorrow- 

 ing friends. The passageway then closed, and the boy put his hand 

 again on the rock, but it did not open, although the impression of 

 that hand is still pointed out on a rock in the valley below. When he 

 < rged from the underworld, he told the assembled men nothing of 

 his adventure other than that every year the boys and girls of a cer- 

 tain age should gather together in the kivas and he would perform 

 the mysteries of the initiation through which he had already passed 

 in the underworld. "And that is why," added the narrator, " every 

 year in February the personators of the Sun god nog our children 



