"Papa: 'Not at all; nowhere; you saw it put in the sand; how can it go anywhere?'

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"Myself: 'Did you ever hear of Montezuma ? 'Papa: 'No; Monte-Montzoo-(attempting the word). Melican man?'

""Myself: 'No; one of your people we think. What are these dances for, that you have sometimes?'

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'Papa: "The grandfathers always had them.' "As an evidence of how difficult it is to obtain a satisfactory answer from a Moqui as to his religion, Dr. Oscar Loew, chemist to the Wheeler surveying expedition in 1874, who was with the Moquis for a time, writes:

"With regard to the religion of the Moquis, diligent investigation failed to develop anything definite. To the inquiry whether they worshipped Montezuma, the reply was, in broken Spanish, 'No sabe, (I don't know).' By Mesayamtibe (a Moqui man) we were informed that he believed the 'sun to be the true God,' but that the so-called 'happy hunting ground' was, in his opinion, but a creation of the imagination. The Moquis sometimes hold religious meetings in caves in the vicinity of their settlements.'

*

* *

"Major J. W. Powell wrote in 1875 of the religion of the Moquis as follows:

"The people seem to worship a great number of gods, many of which are personified objects, powers, and phenomena of nature. They worship a god of the north, a god of the south, a god of the east, and a god of the west; a god of thunder, and a god of rain; the sun, the the moon,

and the stars; and, in addition, each town has its patron deity. There seems also to be ingrafted on their religion a branch of ancestral worship. Their notion of the form and construction of the world is architectural, that is, composed of many stories. We live in the second.'

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"Special Agent Julian Scott, after two trips to the Moqui villages, wrote on May 20, 1891: "There is no use talking about their religious beliefs, of which little is known. Dr. (Washington) Matthews is probably the best informed man respecting their mythology.'

"Mr. J. Walter Fewkes (1891) writes:

"The Hopi (Moquis) recognize that they have copied much from the Zunis in their religious ceremonials. Many of their Kat-tci-na dances are said to be Zuni Kat-tci-nas. It is perfectly natural that they should copy their neighbors, especially if they believe the ceremonials more effective, and, also, the Hopi observances have evidence of being copied from many sources.

"It is a most baffling task to obtain from the Indians the proper names of their ceremonies. It is probable that for each celebration they have several names, which are mostly descriptive of some portions of a dramatic episode or some particular phase with more or less mystic elements.'

"Mr. A. F. Bandelier says the Moquis are Pueblo Indians to all intents and purposes, their language excepted. This probably in

cludes their religion, Pueblo referring to the Pueblos of New Mexico.

"It would seem from the authorities that the Moqui religion consists of 'mythology' and a number of ceremonies of a devotional character; in fact, a highly developed materialism with ceremonial aids.

"It will be recalled in this connection that there is no Christian church in any of the seven Moqui pueblos, and but little evidence of the remains of even a memory of the Catholic faith, whose clergymen were once with them, save, perhaps, in the rough shrines and altars now

seen.

SACRED FIRES NOT PERPETUAL IN THE ESTUFAS.

"With a view to placing the life and actual condition of this curious people (the Moquis) on record in the Eleventh Census, the special agents who visited the Moquis were instructed to observe closely as to their alleged mysteries. It is stated by several modern writers that the Moquis kept alive the sacred fires. Mr. Scott wrote in 1890, both as to this and the venerable pipes as follows:

"I have heard of the sacred fires that are ever kept burning in the kevas (or kivas) of the Moqui Pueblos, and naturally looked for them. But alas! like many other things I read about and was told of, they proved a myth. During ceremonies they always keep a little fire going, which may be properly called their altar. These fires are prepared by the priests who pre

side over the ceremonies, and who sit directly in front of them and go through their invocations addressed to the smoke, which, rising upward and through the hatch, disperses itself in the air and carries their entreaties to the deities; besides, the priests are usually naked and the fire protects them. They smoke tobacco during the ceremonies, which seems to form a part of the rites, and which is never omitted. It is the cigarette as a rule, and is there omnipresent. While they use to some extent the different kinds of modern pipes, I have never seen one about in the kevas; the cigarette is universally used. Now and then an ancient pipe is seen, but all my efforts failed to get one. Pipes are only used in their ceremonies, and the Moquis attach superior attributes to them, believing that they are charmed by the spirits of the dead who, in life, smoked them. The story of the sacred fire seems to have no truth in it. There has been a misunderstanding. It is true that in some of the kevas or estufas of the seven pueblos there are always ceremonies going on, conducted by the priests. These ceremonies are also the schools of instruction for their young men when admitted into the different orders. It is in the estufa that the traditions and folklore of their race are told over and over again. They are the natural resorts of the old men who are unfit for labor, and it is from them that the Moqui youth obtain the traditional part of their education and all data as to the history of their people. This history is all oral, as they have no written language. The fire that is kindled in the keva is upon the flat stone floors and about in the

center. About it are a few blocks of stone, which are used by the priests for seats. These stones are utilized, for practical use, as seats by being covered with blankets, rolled up, to make cushions of. The priests are perfectly naked while going through their religious performances, excepting, of course, the gee string (always worn around the waist of the male), which is not used at all as a covering, but as a suspensory.'

"Mr. J. Walter Fewkes (1891) says that 'in none of the kibvas (kivas, or estufas) in the Moqui pueblos, is there a fire burning all the time.'

MOQUI GODS.

"The number and variety of idols or images belonging to the Moquis is startling. In every household can be seen from one to a dozen wooden or clay idols or gods of the oddest and quaintest shapes, roughly made, and while resembling one another, they are different from any other Indian images. They are of all sizes, from two inches to over four feet high, painted in various colors; sometimes they are invested with beautiful ceremonial robes, woven pressly for them. These gods are not, properly speaking, gods at all, but represent different Cachinas (or Katcheenas), who are but semi-gods and intermediaries between the Moquis and their principal deity. The Cachinas are said to have once existed: 'It was in the long morning twilight of the earth's age'; however this may be, they certainly have an existence now in the grotesque figures found suspended to

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