XXVIII BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



now complete, and nearly all of the illustrations are ready for 

 reproduction. The Pueblo Indians well illustrate certain results 

 of environment in the development of Ijelief and ceremony. A 

 harsh environment begets jjrofound faith. This is illustrated 

 by the history of many cults. The Pueblo region was a gather- 

 ing ground of pi'imitive faiths, each fertilizing the others in 

 accordance with the law already set forth, and each intensified 

 by hard local conditions. The northern tribes, who furnished 

 much of the blood of the Pueblo peoples, were pressed down 

 from more humid regions and Itrought into conflict with alien 

 warriors and with an arid habitat in which the 'specters of 

 thirst and famine were ever present. The southern tribes, who 

 fui-nished most of the culture of the Pueblos, were in part at 

 least forced up toward the plateaus from the still more arid 

 districts about the present national Ijoundary into which they 

 had fled as the excess of population from the more fertile dis- 

 tricts of pre-Columbian Mexico. All of the peoples were 

 shadowed by the dangers of drought and by the hard labor 

 require<l for the maintenance of existence; all were accustomed 

 to invocations for rain; all were accustomed to ceremonies 

 connected with the growth of corn; all were accustomed to 

 reverence of beast-gods, and all ascribed their preservation 

 from ever-present danger to their success in propitiating the 

 maleficent mysteries In' whicli they were surrounded — for 

 that which is simph' a hard natural condition to the advanced 

 thinker is always a maleficent potency to the primitive thinker. 

 All of the circumstances were such as to develop a profoundly 

 devotional cast of mind among the l*ueblo peoples; and their 

 myths and ceremonies became so striking as to attract the 

 attention of students throughout the world, as wdiite men came 

 in contact with them. Mrs Stevenson's research'es concerning 

 the myths and ceremonies have been exceptionally tliorough, 

 and the i-esults now nearly ready for publication will form 

 a substantial contribution to the knowledge of aboriginal 

 mythology. 



Descriptive Ethnology 



During the year the important work of compiling a Cyclo- 

 pedia of Indian Tribes of North America was continued by 



