NO. 6 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I92O 



implication to regard it a temple of the eternal fire. Attention should 

 be called to the importance of the discovery that the cliff dwellers 

 had a New Fire Cult and possibly that rites of new fire and conserva- 

 tion of the same existed among prehistoric people of the Mesa Verde. 

 The rites of kindling the new fire among the descendants of the 

 clilT dwellers, as the Hopi, occur in July and November and are 

 known as the Lesser and Greater fire ceremonials. The act in both 

 is performed by means of a fire stick or drill made to rotate in a 



Fig. 97.— Eastern end of Fire Temple Court. Photograph by G. L. Beam. 

 Courtesy of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. 



notched board ; the same kind of fire sticks have been found in Spruce 

 Tree House, Square Tower House, and elsewhere. 



Probably it is to the Lesser Fire ceremony at the East Mesa of the 

 Hopi that we should look for the nearest survival of the cliiT dweller's 

 rite, as in it we find the personation of a phallic being, Kokopelli, 

 whose picture was well preserved up to a few years ago on the wall 

 of the secret chamber of the Fire Temple where fire was created. 

 This Lesser New Fire, called Sumykoli, is celebrated by a fraternity 

 of fire priests, now extinct, known as the Yaya priesthood. The Yaya 

 priest at Hopi carries in his hand during this ceremony a rattle of 



