692 THE TUSAYAN RITUAL. 



certain distances north and south. The intervals on the horizon 

 between extreme northern and southern azimuth is mapped out by a 

 society of sun priests, who note the tree, hillock, or depression in the 

 horizon from which the sun rises or into which he seems to sink at 

 each interval, and thus determine the time for ceremonials with sur- 

 prising accuracy year by year. The solstitial points of the sun on the 

 horizon thus came to be cardinal points, two of which are called sun 

 houses. 1 



As the four solstices are marked epochs in the sun worship of an 

 agricultural people, the points of rising and setting at these times, or 

 their cardinal points, are associated with minor deities, offspring of sun 

 and earth. These are the positions of the sun houses. Naturally, his 

 children live in these four world quarters, and from that primitive idea 

 is evolved the worship of the so-called world-quarter deities which 

 play such a prominent part in the Tusayan ritual. 



Ancestor worship has developed into an elaborate system of minor 

 supernaturals called Katciuas, most powerful, in their conception, to 

 bring blessings, another name in their vocabulary for rain. It would 

 be instructive to trace the origin and define the character of these 

 beings if time permitted. Their name is legion, their ceremonials 

 conrplicated. 



In addition to the deification of the forces of nature, totems of ani- 

 mals, and ancestral personages, Tusayan supernal concepts are almost 

 iufinite in variety and number, many of which are simply modified 

 fetishes, the heritage of archaic conditions. To define the character of 

 a tithe of these concepts would be a task too technical for general discus- 

 sion. Among a people where gods are so numerous, every hostile one 

 must be appeased, no beneficent personage forgotten. From one end of 

 the year to another there is almost a constant round of ceremonials, to 

 describe which in detail would tax your patience. 



Fortunately, however, these ceremonials admit of a classification. In 

 one way we may say that the ritual of a people is the sum of all cere- 

 monials which recur with indecision i n successive cycles. The time 

 commonly adopted by primitive people is a natural epoch, the year 

 determined by the course of the seasons. 



Minor divisions of this year, or months, are characterized each by 

 a special ceremonial, so that roughly speaking we may say that each 

 ceremonial year at Tusayan is composed of thirteen great ceremonial 

 events, one for each lunar revolution. 



In the most elaborate of these monthly ceremonials occur rites last- 

 ing sixteen days, with four additional days for purifications. In the 

 celebration of many the time is curtailed, but no moon shines over 



'The horizontal rtositions of the sun at the solstices were probably recognized as 

 cardinal by other peoples of agricultural life. The reader who is interested to fol- 

 low this subject further is referred to various works on the orientation of Egyptian 

 temples. 



