Dramatic Elements in American Indian Ceremonials 7 



wall, bearing in the right hand a squash blossom and spruce twigs 

 and in the left an ear of corn, the whole company engages in a 

 frenzied dance in which the chief makes mad dashes among his 

 associates, who, crouching, meets his assaults and drive him back 

 to the sipapu. He swings his shield and dashes it from face to 

 face, all in perfect unison, those so attacked pretending to snatch 

 at it. The whole performance, highly suggestive of defense and 

 attack, is kept up until those participating are overcome with heat 

 and exhaustion, the chief shield-bearer alone triumphing. 



So much for the dramatic spectacle. The rituals accompany- 

 ing and accounting for the action remain obscure to the alien spec- 

 tator. In view of this, perhaps it will not be amiss to note the 

 salient features of Mr. Fewkes's purely theoretic interpretation. 

 This assault of men upon the bearer of the sun-shield may be 

 taken as a dramatization of the attacks of hostile powers upon the 

 sun-god himself. The object of this act is perhaps to offset the 

 malign influences or to overcome them through suggestion, for it 

 will be remembered that the shield-bearer, though made to retreat 

 to the sipapu, is never overcome by his assailants. All this is 

 done to bring back the vegetation-fostering sun, lest he disappear 

 forever as seems threatened by his southern decline. This prob- 

 ably constitutes the central motive of the entire enactment. But 

 before this can be made effective, first must one of the oldest and 

 most powerful of the sun's enemies be propitiated. It is on this 

 account that prayers are said to the Plumed Snake. It is with 

 this in view that meal offerings are made to the would-be 'devas- 

 tator of the earth, should he succeed in banishing Tawa, the be- 

 neficent sun. When the Plumed Snake has been won over, then 

 may the bearer of the symbolic sun-shield of Tawa assure, through 

 successful fighting, the return of that good friend of man. 



Paliiliikonti 



The Soyaluha exhibition does not, however, merit the consider- 

 ation due some other Hopi ceremonials. The Paliiliikonti, for 



