Fewkes-l 424 f J*"- ^' 
It is interesting that the initiation of youths into the priesthood 
is Hkewise so intimately associated with the new fire ceremonials. 
This as well as the phallic rites suggests the infancy of man of 
other races where there is a like association with new tire 
observances. 
The celebration of the new lire rites was naturally an appro- 
priate time for sacrifices to the P^ire God. and for offerings at the 
shrine of his hideous and much feared complemental female 
personage, TiXwapontmnsl. The reason for the association of the 
Dawn Woman ( Talatumsi) ^ with the new fire observance is not 
so evident, but the connection must be an important one from 
the fact that in the elaborate observance, of which the present 
ceremony is an abbreviated form, her effigy was brought into the 
pueblo (Walpi), and on consecutive days placed in succession on 
the hatches of the four kivas.- 
While from the character of the celebration, as well as its most 
striking events, we can readily divine tlie general significance of 
the ceremony, I feel that any explanatioTi given in the following 
pages is more or less incomplete. From the nature of the 
prayers and the attributes of the deities addressed, I am led to 
the belief that it has some relationship with germination. The 
omnipresent desire for rain has also tingeii portions of it, but its 
close resemblance to one of the women's ceremonials, which 
seems to be a prayei- to the Germ (xod, for fertility of crops, 
animals, and human beings, leads me to refer this fire observance 
to the same category. The germ gods, the earth gods^ and 
goddesses play important parts, although it must be confessed the 
connection does not at first sight appear to be very close. 
Prayers were made to certain obscurely known earth goddesses. 
TilwapoMumsi in my scheme of classification is placed among 
' Tiliva, sand, earth ; poilya, altar ; tiiiasi. woman. Tala. light, day ; tiunsi. 
woman. 
2 The name Wilwiltciniti is commonly applied to the celebration of the abbreviated 
new fire ceremony from the fact that the Wiiiviltclintu .society takes such a prominent 
part. The fire god is personated by the chief of the Kwakwantu (Anawita), and the 
signal for sacred fire making is given by the chief of the TataukyamA. 
A proper understanding of the new tiVe ceremony implies a study of the N^aMciiwlya 
(q. V.) to which this article is supplementary. 
3 Masauwuh, the Fire God, is a Death God, and also a god of the surface of the earth. 
He is likewise said to be a god of metamorphosis, but his function as such is not so 
clear to me. 
