FEWKES] ORIGINAL MEANING OF SNAKE DANCE 1009 
RELATIVE PLACE OF THE SNAKE DANCE IN PrRimITIVE WoRSHIP 
The present purpose of the Snake ceremony, which in many publica- 
tions has been confounded with its original aim, is primarily, as has 
been elsewhere shown, to bring rain and thus to promote the growth 
of corn; in fact this desire, due to present environment, dominates all 
the rites of the Hopi ritual. It is believed, however, that this is not 
original meaning—back of it is a psychic element which the Hopi 
share with other primitive people whose myths and ritual have not 
been modified by an arid climate and an agricultural life. We must 
look more deeply into the subject in order to bring the Snake dance 
into harmony with the elements of religion in a more primitive mind. 
It has been shown that in the Snake ceremony there is no worship 
of the Great Serpent, and the Snake priests scout the idea that this 
great deity belonged to their clan worship. In support of their claims 
it may be mentioned that Paliiliikof is not represented on their altars. 
The psychic element of religion in the Snake dance is totemic ancestor 
worship, which is fundamental in the whole Hopi ritual. The reptile 
is a society totem, the lineal survivor of a clan totem, and the totem 
ancestor, called the Snake maid, is, generally, like totemic ideas, an 
anthropo-zoémorphic conception. Members of the society claim immu- 
nity from the bite of the snake because it is their totem, and the idea 
of possession of the shade or ‘‘ breath-body” of the dead by the snake 
totem is in accord with universal totemic conceptions. 
The Snake dance is simply a form of clan totemism having special 
modifications, due to environment, to fit the needs of the Hopi. It 
is a highly moditied form of ancestor worship in which the Sun and 
the Earth, as parents of all, are worshiped, but in which the cultus hero 
and the ancestors of the clan are the special divinized personages rep- 
resented in secret rites. 
INTERPRETATION OF SNAKE AND FuuTe RITES 
The main object of the majority of Hopi ceremonials is the pro- 
duction of rain and the growth of corn. The reason for individual 
rites must be sought in certain universal principles of religion com- 
mon to all men. There are three primal elements which permeate all 
Hopi ceremonies the gods, the worshiper, and the needs of the latter, 
or what he wishes to obtain from the former. Ceremony is largely, if 
not wholly, made up of the methods adopted by the worshiper, man, 
to influence the gods to grant his wishes, and is directly the outgrowth 
of prayer, which is a reflection of desire or want, which in turn is the 
outgrowth of climatic influences. Agriculturists desire rain and crops, 
and they pray to the gods especially for these things. There are 

