698 THE TUSAYAN RITUAL. 



which he believes will change into tadpoles, and deposits them along dry- 

 water courses for the same reason, that rain may come. So shells from 

 the great ocean are likewise esteemed as bringers of water, and frag- 

 ments of water- worn wood are carefully cherished by him for a like 

 purpose. The dragonfly which hovers over the springs, the cotton- 

 wood which grows near the springs, the flag which loves the moist 

 places, becomes a symbol of water. Water itself from the ocean or 

 from some distant spring, in his conception, are all powerful agents to 

 bring moisture. There can be but one reason for this — the aridity of 

 his surroundings. Not alone in pictoral symbols does he seek to bring 

 the needed rains. The clouds from which rain falls are symbolized by 

 the smoke from the pipe in his ceremony, and he so regards them. He 

 pours water on the heads of participants in certain ceremonials, hop- 

 ing that in the same way rain will fall on his parched fields. Even in 

 his games he is influenced by the same thought, and in certain races 

 the young men run along the arroyos, as they wish the water to go 

 filled to their banks. 



To our ways of thinking these are absurd ways in which to bring 

 the rain, but to a primitive mind it is a method consecrated by tradi- 

 tion and venerated from its antiquity. 



Symbolic figures of maize, the national food of the Hopi Indians, are 

 no less common on ceremonial paraphernalia than those of rain. Maize 

 is painted on the masks of sacred dancers and represented by effigies on 

 altars. It gives names to several supernatural beings. Every babe, 

 when 20 days old, is dedicated to the sun and receives an ear of corn 

 as its symbolic mother. The badges or palladia of religious societies 

 are ears of corn wrapped in buckskin — symbolic, no doubt, of the time 

 when seed corn was the most precious heritage and preserved by the 

 chiefs. The foremost supernatural being in the Tusayan Olympus is 

 the Corn Maid, who is figured on food bowls, baskets, and elsewhere. 



It can hardly be necessary for me to adduce more facts in support 

 of the hypothesis that these two elements of the Tusayan ritual which 

 reflect the climatic surroundings are ceremonials for rain and those for 

 the germination, maturation, and abundance of agricultural products. 

 The necessities of life have driven man into the agricultural condition, 

 and the aridity of the climate has forced him to devise all possible 

 means at his control to so influence his gods as to force them to send 

 the rains to aid him. Wherever we turn in an intimate study of the 

 ceremonials of the Tusayan Indians we see the imprint of the arid 

 deserts by which they are surrounded, always the prayer for abundant 

 crops, and rains for his parched fields. 



When one makes the Tusayan ritual a special study he finds it won- 

 derfully complicated in the development of details. No Hopi priest 

 lives who understands the meaning of all these details, nor does he 

 care for an explanation of them. There are two fundamental factors, 

 however, which he can comprehend, and these are always on his lips 

 when an explanation of the ritual is solicited. We cling to the rites of 



