THE TUSAYAN EITUAL. 689 



All cosmogony begins with a created earth and that earth is mother 

 of gods and men. From the nuder world, a cavern in the earth, men 

 crawled to the surface through an opening called the sipapu. Baces, 

 like individuals, grew or were born; there is no hint as to how mother 

 earth was created. 



The highest supernatural beings were deified forces of nature endowed 

 with human or animal forms. Among these were sky gods, earth gods, 

 and their offspring in the early times when the race of man was young- 

 The pueblos deified the sun and called him father of all, and so impor- 

 tant is the place that he plays in their beliefs that they are ordinarily 

 called sun worshipers. They endow him with human form, speaking 

 of the disk as his mask. Each day he is thought to rise from his home 

 in the under world and at night sinks into a western house. The pueblo 

 Indians live in houses. Their chief supernatural has a house, as indicated 

 by their use of this word for his place of rising and setting. The sun is 

 a benificent being all powerful to bring the rains. In other parts of 

 America among warriors he is appealed to to destroy enemies. Among 

 those people whose environment necessitates rain he is regarded as all 

 powerful for that purpose. Like ancient Aryans, the Tusayan Indians 

 pray to the rising sun for blessings, but the meaning of the word "bless- 

 ing" is always rain, that the farms may be watered and the crops grow 

 to maturity. The worship of the sun, therefore, is of great importance; 

 it pervades all the ritual, but it is always with one intent — the over- 

 powering need of the agriculturist for rain in a desert environment. 



As I have used the word "prayer," it may be well for me to point out 

 the signification of this word among these people. We are dealing 

 with a race in that stage of culture where the symbolism is all-impor- 

 tant. Their word for prayer is, u scatter," that is, to scatter sacred meal. 

 When a Tusayan priest addresses a supernatural being of his mythology 

 he believes he must do so through the medium of some object as a 

 prayer bearer; he breathes his wish on meal and throws this meal to 

 the god. The prayer bearer is thought to have a spiritual double or 

 breath body which carries his wishes. It is an old idea with him, 

 reaching back to fetishism, for his breath with the talismanic words is the 

 spell which brings the desired results. It must be mentioned, however, 

 that oftentimes ethical ideas are associated with Tusayan prayers for 

 rain, and I have frequently heard the priests at the close of their songs 



monotheistic stage of supernatural concepts, and if that evidence is nnimpeachable 

 it would not be improbable that traces of the same should be found among pueblos. 

 Unfortunately, however, the evidences on this point are none too strong, the prob- 

 abilities that the writers and the documents did not eliminate their own interpreta- 

 tion too great. The pueblos at present have an idea of a supreme spirit, but there 

 is every reason to believe it is of exotic derivation in the time since Coronado. 

 However honest may be the modern priest who may say that he learned from his 

 grandfather certain current beliefs, the crucial test of their prehistoric character 

 must come from proof that the grandfather's testimony is correct. The sources of 

 error in stories passed down by word of mouth through many generations are too 

 many to permit us to pin much faith to traditions reputed to be of great age. 



SM 95 44 



