THE TUSAYAN RITUAL. 699 



our ancestors because they have been pronounced good by those who 

 know. We erect our altars, sing our traditional songs, and celebrate 

 our sacred dances for rain that our corn may germinate and yield 

 abundant harvest. 



The town crier calls at dawn from the house top the following an- 

 noun cement, which is the key to the whole explanation of the Tusayau 

 ritual : 



"All people awake, open your eyes, arise, 



Become Talahoya (child of light), vigorous, active, sprightly. 



Hasten clouds from the four world quarters ; 



Come snow in plenty, that water may he ahundant when summer comes. 



Come ice and cover the fields, that after planting they may yield abundantly; 



Let all hearts be glad ; 



The knowing ones will assemble in four days; 



They will encircle the village dancing and singing their lays 



That moisture may come in abundance." 



I have limited myself to showing that the arid climatic conditions 

 are reflected from the rites of one tribe of Indians, and it would be in- 

 structive to see whether these facts are of importance from the com- 

 parative side. There are other equally arid regions of the globe where 

 we might justly look for the same results if this climatic condition is 

 as powerful in the modification of cults as implied. There are marked 

 similarities in the climate of Arabia, of Peru, and of Assyria, and as a 

 consequence startling resemblances in their rituals. But there are 

 many differences; and we thus detect that our analyses of causes has 

 not been complete or ultimate, for we have limited it to but one powerful 

 element in the modifications of ceremonials. 



Environment is a complicated nexus of influences, organic and inor- 

 ganic, threads of which we can successfully trace a certain distance, 

 but which eludes as we go further. There are many effects where causes 

 remain to be discovered, and many climatic influences on cults have yet 

 to be clearly discerned. 



A few words more and I have done. Theories among civilized men, 

 like things among savages, may become fetishes. It Avould be lamen- 

 table if environment should become a word to conjure with, or if we 

 should use it to cover ignorance of that which we can not explain. I 

 have tried to show that one highly complicated ritual is so plastic that 

 it responds to climatic conditions, but there are elements in it due to 

 some other unknown cause. Because climatic conditions explain cer- 

 tain modifications in human culture the tendency would be to strive to 

 make it do duty in explaining all. Such a generalization is premature 

 and unscientific. The theory that differences of species of animals and 

 plants were due to climatic influences may have satisfied the early stu- 

 dents of evolution before Charles Darwin pointed out the law of natural 

 selection. Environment is a factor which profoundly affects animals, 

 but a struggle for existence in which the fittest survive is a law of 

 evolution. 



