THE TUSAYAN RITUAL. 691 



system in point of fact that they are quite willing to ingraft the Chris- 

 tian ritual on their own, and in some of the modified pueblos of the 

 Eio Grande we find the two coexisting. The sun especially has many 

 names among these people, attributal or incorporated, derived from 

 colonists among them. While it oftentimes puzzles the student to 

 identifiy them, it causes no trouble to the primitive mind, who gladly 

 accepts the medicine of all people, friends or enemies. Of synonyms 

 of the sun, one of the most potent is called the Heart of the Sky. 



In the mythology of the American Indians the worship of a mythic 

 serpent is widely associated with that of the sun. Among the Pueblos 

 this serpent appears as the Great Plumed Snake. This personage was 

 a marked one in the Mexican and Central American mythologies. He 

 is found carved in stone on the stately ruins of Chiapas and Yucatan, 

 painted in fresco on the necropolis of Mitla, and represented in stucco 

 on the facades of other high temples of Mexico. As the most powerful 

 of all the divinities of the ISTahuatl and Aztec peoples, he has crept into 

 all the mythologies where traces of ISTahuatl words can be detected. 

 In Tusayau the Great Plumed Serpent is a powerful deity to bring the 

 rain, and is associated with lightning, his symbol. By simple observa- 

 tion the untutored mind recognizes that rain follows lightning, and 

 what more natural than that it should be looked upon as the effect. 

 He therefore worships lightning because of this power. The course of 

 the lightning in the sky is zigzag as that of the snake, both kill when 

 they strike. The lightning comes from the sky, the abode of the sun 

 and rain god, and the simple reasoning of the Tusayau Indian supposes 

 some connection between the lightning, snake, and rain. The suste- 

 nance of the primitive agriculturist comes from the earth, and if the 

 soil is nonproductive the sun and rain are of no avail. The Tusayan 

 Indian thus recognizes the potency. of the earth and symbolically deifies 

 it as the mother. Consequently earth goddesses play important roles 

 in his mythology, and here likewise the composition of the tribe shows 

 itself in the many names by which the earth mother is designated. 

 We find her called " Mother of Germs," " Old Woman," " Spider 

 Woman," " Corn Maid," " Growth Goddess." Strangely enough to us, 

 but by no means strange to a primitive mind, this latter is associated 

 with fire; for in the Indian conception fire itself is a living being, and 

 what is more natural than association of fire and growth? 



Before we pass to a consideration of the lesser gods of Tusayan 

 there remains to be considered, among those of primary importance, 

 a strange collection of concepts, the direct outgrowth of sun worship. 

 I refer to what are known as the gods of the world quarters or cardinal 

 directions. 



The constant observation of the sun has led to an intimate study of 

 the position of this luminary in different seasons, especially in his vari- 

 ation in places of rising and setting. As is well known, the sun, on 

 account of the obliquity of the ecliptic, rises and sets at different 

 points on the horizon at different dates, varying with latitude, between 



