590 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 225. 



duues of Lake Michigan,' pp. 167-202, with 

 eight photographs. This very complete ecolog- 

 ical study of the dune floras is continued from 

 the February number. A special feature of this 

 part is the discussion of embryonic duues. The 

 active or wandering dunes are also taken up 

 and will be completed in a subsequent number. 

 The following briefer articles appear : Ralph 

 E. Smith : ' A new Colletotrichum disease of 

 the Pansy;' E. J. Hill: 'A new biennial- 

 fruited oak,' with two plates; Elias Nelson : 

 ' The Wyoming species of Antentiaria,' in which 

 eight new species are described. Numerous 

 Book Reviews and Notes for Students complete 

 the number. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 289th regular meeting of the Anthropo- 

 logical Society was held Tuesday, March 28, 

 1899. Dr. J. Walter Fewkes made a commu- 

 nication on the 'Winter Solstice Altars at Hano,' 

 a Tewan pueblo in Tusayan. He began by 

 saying that the Territory of Arizona is covered 

 with mounds or ruins indicative of the habita- 

 tions of prehistoric pueblo people, but that it is 

 evident that these villages were never simul- 

 taneously inhabited. Their distribution shows 

 that this agricultural, aboriginal population of 

 Arizona was more evenly distributed over the 

 Territory in ancient times than at present. The 

 presence of nomadic enemies — Utes, Apaches, 

 Navajosand others — had led to a concentration 

 of the pueblo aborigines of this region into 

 limited areas, a movement which began in the 

 15th century and was continued in the two fol- 

 lowing. The so-called province of Tusayan was 

 one of those centers of concentration or refuge, 

 and the inhabited pueblos of the area now con- 

 tain some of the descendants of the survivors of 

 the abandoned villages between the Mojollones 

 Mountains and the Utah boundary. 



Three of these Tusayan pueblo — called Walpi, 

 Siteomori and Hano — are situated on one mesa, 

 not more than a gunshot apart. Dr. Fewkes 

 showed how Walpi had been founded by clans 

 driven southward from the Colorado River, and 

 how their pueblo had grown by successive in- 

 coming clans from south and east. At the end 

 of the 17th century the hostile nomads had so 



closed in on Walpi that they swarmed in their 

 farms, and utter annihilation stared the Hopi 

 in the face. The Governor of Walpi sent to 

 New Mexico for help, and after four appeals a 

 band of Tewa warriors from a pueblo in the 

 upper Rio Grande valley went to his aid. 

 These warriors drove back the Utes, and in re- 

 turn for this help, the Tewa were given a site 

 for their home near the main trail to the mesa 

 upon which Walpi is situated. The village 

 which they built is now called Hano. For two 

 centuries the successive generations of inhabit- 

 ants of Hano have remained Tewan in their 

 customs in the country of their adoption. Hano 

 preserves the Tewan language, although, by 

 marriage with the neighboring Hopi, the con- 

 sanguinity of the inhabitants is more Hopi than 

 Tewa. Similarity of language is not always a 

 sign of blood kinship. There are also many 

 Tewan customs in marriage, mortuary and other 

 rites in Hano, but the most characteristic of all 

 are the religious festivals. The most instruc- 

 tive of these are the winter-solstice rites. 



Of all expressions of religious sentiment ob- 

 jects like fetishes and ceremonial paraphernalia 

 are the least variable from generation to genera- 

 tion. Mythology changes as man advances in 

 culture or lives in a new environment, and 

 accretions in form of myths to adjust worship 

 to the spirit of the times multiply from gen- 

 eration to generation. Expression of the re- 

 ligious feeling through acts or dramas called 

 ceremonies is more conservative than through 

 myth and less modified by the evolution of 

 culture, and new myths are invented to harmo- 

 nize and explain ceremonies handed down from 

 ancient times. The objects used in worship — • 

 fetishes, idols, paraphernalia — change even less 

 than rites or myths, and reflect better than 

 both the true ancient religious sentiment of 

 which they are expressions, and are, therefore, 

 of preeminent importance to the ethnologist in 

 the study of ethnographic religion. 



These ceremonial objects are very numerous 

 among the Hopi; and their installation in sacred 

 rooms, at times of great ceremonies, is called 

 an altar. The two altars at Hano during 

 winter-solstice rites were described in detail. 

 The most striking fetishes upon them were clay 

 images of the Great Snake. There were also 



