308 TUSAYAN SNAKE CEREMONIES [ETH. ANN. 16 
ancient performers or dramatize archaic celebrations. Where the drama 
induces them to introduce certain mythic animals, practical reasons 
lead them to personate what they can not obtain. They personate the 
duck (Pawik), and it is believed when they don the mask of Pavwik, 
they become Pawik katcinas, and thus they perform the ceremony as 
did their totemic ancestors. Reptiles, however, are easy to obtain; 
their personation by men is therefore not necessary, and most tenacious 
of all in its influence, the presence of the snake is a startling com- 
ponent which fascinates and survives. 
This theory implies but does not necessitate former belief in totemic 
descent. Certainly the evidence which we have leads us to believe 
that the Snake people, with a snake totem, believe they are descended 
from the Snake-woman, or if they stoutly deny descent from reptiles at 
present, may have once held it. Their denial, however, is only so much 
evidence, and is not necessarily decisive proof. White men as well as 
Indians deny many things which the comparative scientific method 
demonstrates to be true, 
