NO. 6 



SMITHSONIAN" EX iM.OKATlONS. 1 y20 



8l 



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

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

 had a New Fire Cult and possibly that rites of new hre 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 

 cliff 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. Ream. 

 Courtesy of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. 



notched board ; the same kind of fire sticks have been ff)un(l in I^pruce 

 Tree Mou.se, Square Tower House, and elsewhere. 



Probably it is to the Lesser I'^ire ceremony at the l~ast Mesa of the 

 Mopi that we should look for the nearest survival of the clifT dweller's 

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

 whose picture was well preserved up to a few year.^ ago on the wall 

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

 This Lesser New Fire, called Sum\koli. is celebrated by a fraternity 

 of fire priests, now extinct, known as the \':i\:i priesthood. The Wiy.i 

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



