Fewkes.l 422 LJan- 2. 
THE TUSAYAN NEW FIRE CEREMONY.i 
BY .T. WALTER FEWKES. 
The discovery of the use of fire was one of the most ancient in 
the history of human culture. It occurred far back in the evo- 
lution of man and was certainly not only one of the first, but 
also one of the greatest in the long line of discoveries, which 
distinguish man from the brutes. No savage race ignorant of 
the use of fire survives, and archaeology affords no evidence or 
at least no knowledge of man without it. We have in fact no 
means of knowing an;y'thing of a human society ignorant of this 
mother of all arts, but we may reasonably conclude that it could 
not have been much higher than that existing among anthro- 
pomorphoid animals. 
Almost all races refer the discovery of fire to their mythic 
history, and most of them have deified the discoverer. This dis- 
covery made such a profound impression upon the human mind 
that it has been given a unique place in most rituals, and is one 
of the few human discoveries which have been so treated. The 
antiquity of the new fire ceremony is so great that it is e\ddent 
in studying this rite we are dealing with one of the most ancient 
components of rituals. It is an element of culture which has a 
genetic connection with ceremonials dating back to the dawn of 
human history. While the widespread existence^ of the new fire 
ceremonials among people of every race affords evidence of its 
antiquity, our knowledge of its modifications, where it survives, 
is not all that could be desired, certainly not all that is possible 
to obtain. Science may yet gather up many clews which may 
lead by comparative methods of treatment to an idea of the 
ancestral ceremony, but before it is possible to generalize we 
1 This article is one of a series devoted to the ritual of the Tusayan Indians. 
Many of the observations were made by the late Mr. A. M. Stephen who at the time 
of his death at Keam's CaiSon, in the spring of 1894, was attached to the Hemenway 
Expedition. It was my intention to delay publication of my notes on the New Fire 
Ceremony until a final memoir could be prepared, after new studies of this observ- 
ance. As it was impossible to take .up again the field work on account of other 
duties, I have written out my notes, and the observations made by Mr. Stephen, as a 
preliminary account of this interesting rite. 
2 The miraculous lighting of the new fire at the holy sepulture is so well known 
that it need only be mentioned to call attention to the survival of new fire ceremo- 
nials in Christianity. 
