32 



NA TURE 



[May io, 1906 



" It is certain that for a long time past member- 

 ship at large in the fundamental religious bodies of 

 the Zuiii has not been dependent on the ties of clan- 

 ship, though in certain cases succession to office in 

 fraternities does depend on clanship. Before any 

 exposition of the origin of the fundamental religious 

 organisations and of the ritual can be offered, a com- 

 parative study of the Pueblos must be made. In this 

 work the passing hours are golden, for not only are 

 the villages losing their old-time landmarks, but the 

 people themselves are changing, are adapting them- 

 selves to a suddenly and profoundly altered environ- 

 ment, and the Zuni at least, whose religion teaches 

 them to speak with one tongue, to be gentle to all, 

 and to subdue the passions, thereby winning the 

 favour of their gods, are, under the influence of 

 modern conditions, losing the restraining power of 

 this religion, and, as a result, are changing for the 

 worse. " 



It is to be hoped that competent students will make 

 a thorough study of the sociology of these people 

 without delav, and at the same time make a serious 



Fig. 3. — Sword Swalli 



■effort to trace the transition of the old clan system 

 into the later religious fraternities. 



The memoir by Dr. J. W. Fewkes on Hopi Katcinas 

 drawn by native artists cannot fail to be of consider- 

 able interest to students of various departments of 

 •ethnologv. The practice of illustrating ethnological 

 researches by native drawings is much to be recom- 

 mended, as the drawings throw considerable side- 

 light upon the ideas and skill of the artists, and help 

 us in the study of their psychology; in the present 

 instance they have additional value in the suggestive 

 similarities they present to pictographs in the codices 

 of more southerly regions. The term katcina was 

 originally limited to the spirits of the ancients of the 

 Hopi or personified medicine power, and personifica- 

 tions of a similar power in other objects have like- 

 wise come to be called katcinas. Thus the magic 

 power or medicine of the sun or earth may be called 

 katcina. The term is also applied to personations of 

 these spirits or medicine potencies by men, or their 

 representation by pictures or images. In the Hopi 



NO. 1006, VOL. 74] 



ritual there are dramatic celebrations of the arrival and 

 departure of the katcinas, and during the whole year 

 there are ceremonies in which katcinas take part. 

 The annual ceremonies vary considerably each year, 

 so the katcinas are correspondingly numerous, and 

 not only have clans introduced new katcinas from 

 time to time, but individuals have done the same even 

 bv men still alive. Some of these ceremonies have 

 developed into a regular dramatic performance ; the 

 motive of one of these dramas is the growth of corn, 

 with representations of the maleficent and beneficent 

 agencies that affect the crop. The performance is 

 designed primarily to invoke the favour of the 

 mysteries by appropriate symbols combined with the 

 edification of the community at large. Thus a 

 portion of the chamber is set apart as a stage, while 

 the greater portion is reserved as an auditorium. A 

 screen on the stage is painted with appropriate 

 symbols, and is perforated to permit the passage of 

 the masked effigies representing the mystical 

 potencies, which are operated by shamans hidden 

 behind the screen, something after the fashion of 

 marionettes. The front of the 

 stage is occupied by a symbolic 

 field of corn, and the figures 

 which represent the storm and 

 drought emerge from their re- 

 spective apertures in the screen 

 and destroy the cornfield ; but 

 they are opposed partly by 

 musical and other incantations 

 of a group of shamans occupy- 

 ing one side of the stage, and 

 partly by human actors who 

 wrestle with and finally overcome 

 the evil marionettes. The entire 

 dramatisation stands on a higher 

 plane than any prevalent among 

 other tribes of the territory of 

 the United States, though lower 

 than that reached among the 

 Nahuatlan and Mayan peoples of 

 Mexico. 



Under the title of " Two 

 Summers' Work in Pueblo 

 Ruins," Dr. Fewkes describes 

 his survey of certain ruins mainly 

 in the Province of Tusayan. Dr. 

 Fewkes 's excavations confirmed 

 some statements made by the 

 Hopis concerning their former 

 history, and his intimate know- 

 ledge of the ritual and cere- 

 monies of the existing Pueblo Indians has enabled 

 him to explain the use or significance of objects dug 

 up by him. The report is illustrated by photographs 

 of ruins, plans of buildings, and a large number of 

 beautifully executed coloured plates of decorated 

 potterv, besides numerous figures in the text. The 

 author inclines to the belief that the Zunis never 

 advanced to the same perfection in the ceramic art 

 as did the Hopis. The author says, " In the evolution 

 of Pueblo decoration the development of ornamentation 

 advances from geometrical patterns to rude picture 

 writing, and, as a rule, the pottery on which the former 

 predominate is inferior to that on which the latter is 

 most prominent " ; but this hardly seems consistent with 

 the subsequent remark that " the more ancient the 

 ruin is, the better is the pottery." 



Dr. Cvrus Thomas gives the second portion of his 

 study of Mayan calendar systems, in which he deals 

 with Maudslay's investigation of the ruins at Ouirigua 

 and discusses Goodman's results. The paper includes 

 an account of the Mava method of calculation. 



