110 SUMMER CEREMONIALS 



dances are said to be primarily 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-tuk at Moqui we have an in- 

 teresting contribution to this line of thought. It will 

 probably be found when the idea back 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 Zunians, is a water being. All the waters of the earth 

 are said by the Moquis to come from the udders of Bo-ho-li- 

 kon-ya, 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, but that the Ley-la-tuk is the most prim- 

 itive. The snake dance may then be regarded as an elab- 

 oration of the ceremony of Ley-la-tuk to which are 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 prominent or rather the most important things in 

 the ceremony. The snake has thus come to give the name 



