so-called Flute Ceremonial. This figure Holden takes to be the "sorcerer," Tlaloc. It is probably a personage connected in some way with rain, but whether a rain god or a priest officiating in ceremonials for rain I do not know, but incline to the latter opinion.* The literature describing the ceremonials in which the Feathered Snake is introduced in Central America is voluminous. Between Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan, and the various other names under which this personage figures, and Ba'-lü-lü-koñ there are many points of resemblance, but I have not yet found that the Hopi associate with their god the idea of a beneficent law-giver or wise reformer. I have not yet found that the Hopi entertain the same idea of Ba'-lü-lü-kon that the Mexicans did of Quetzalcoatl. Experience has taught me, however, not to declare that such an association does not exist in their conception of his attributes. In the codices we find figures of animals and human beings with heads drawn in the same way, and we may conclude that the two have some intimate relationship. We have, for instance, a snake's body with symbolic markings and a head almost identical with the head of an accompanying human being. It is reasonable to conclude that the human being personifies the snake, wears the mask‡ of the snake, as shown in Pl. IV. He represents the feathered snake ceremonially. From a study of the figures of the codices we may thus be able to reconstruct the mythological system § of the Maya from the pictures without regard to the hieroglyphic symbols. Following this method, which is by no means a novel one, I have introduced a figure of what I regard as one of the snake gods|| in my representation (Pl. IV) of the Plumed Serpent of Yucatan. * According to Sahagun (p. 5) the Mexicans had a goddess, Civacoatl, "mother of the snake," "mother of twins," who was called Tonantzin, our mother. If the Mexicans believed that Civacoatl or a snake mother was their ancestor it would not surprise a Hopi snake priest, who traces his ancestry to the Tcu'-a-ma-na or snake virgin whom the snake hero, Tiyo, the legend says, saw and married in the underworld and brought to his people, but who gave birth to snakes. In the legendary dramatization of the Snake Dance she is personified in the Tusayan kib-vas. See, for another meaning of Civacoatl, Brinton, Rig-Veda Americana. See Acosta, pp. 388-392; Serna, Documentos Inéditos, Tomo civ; Sahagun, Gomara, Herrera, Clavijero, et al. Gomara (Cronica, p. 199) mentions the fact that in the festival of Quecholli rattlesnakes (“culebras del cascabel") are carried in the hands. The symbolism is always best expressed in Hopi personification by the head-dress. This is common among all primitive people, and is well seen in a study of the figurines or dolls of the Tusayan villages. See Schellhas, Seler, et al. I have no cause for controversy with any one who may consider this a "rain god," and I am willing to designate it a "snake rain god," for it seems to me that the identity of its mask with the head of the adjoining snake connects the two. It has not been my intention in the preceding pages to compare all the aboriginal ceremonials of the people of Central America and those at present practiced in Tusayan. A large literature is in existence treating of the former, and we are beginning to become ac quainted with the details of the latter. Several most important works on the religious practices of the Mexicans have long been overlooked on account of their rarity, but are now being published in Spain and in Mexico. There possibly still remains among the unpublished manuscripts in the precious collection of the Lonja, in Seville, other documents bearing on this part of the subject which historical research will bring to light. There is also a call for observations on the survivals of old culture in folk-lore among existing tribes of Mexico and other countries of Central America. The study of documentary accounts and modern survivals should go hand in hand, and, forming the body of data thus accumulated, it will be possible to enter the field of comparative ceremoniology of the American race better equipped than ever before, and to make an exhaustive comparison which will throw light on individual like nesses. One is tempted to indulge in a theory as a working hypothesis. From the speculative side it seems probable that there is an intimate resemblance between some of the ceremonials, the symbolism, and mythological systems of the Indians of Tusayan and those of the more cultured stocks of Central America. In my opinion, we are not yet justified in offering any but a theoretical explanation of the origin of the Hopi ceremonial and mythological systems, but their intimate relationships with those of the neighboring Pueblos indicates a close kinship. How much has been derived from the Pueblos and how much from other stocks can only be answered by more research. The facts here recorded look as if the Hopi practice a ceremonial system of worship with strong affinities to the Nahuatl and Maya. I have not yet seen enough evidence to convince me that the Hopi derived their cult or ceremonials from the Zuñians or from any other single people. It is probably composite. I am not sure that portions of it were not brought up from the far south, perhaps from the Salado and Gila by the Bat-kin-ya-mûh, "Water people,” whose legendary history is quite strong that they came from the south. I only know at present that there are traces or tracks of the * See Bandelier in Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. iii. |