Evening star., 1909-09-12

contact with these people who are prehistoric and
yet of the present day.
For example, most people know that the Hopi
have many and elaborate religious ceremonials but
the symbolism of these ceremonies and the beautiful
and poetic faith that lies behind them known only
by few. Many tribes of our Indians preserve the
form of number of their ancient religious observ-
ances even when the meaning of them has long been
forgotten. But among the Hopitu nothing is for
gotten, and their traditions and folklore bring to the
open mind the echoes of old wisdom which it is not
well even for civilized to lose sight of entirely.
Their gods are deihed Nature powers, as the Mother
Earth and the Sky or Sun God-the Father and
Mother of all living things To these added the
gods of Fire and Lightning, and this coseness to the
forces of Nature is the keynote to their whole
of life and thought we'll to their religion.
This latter is largely product of their environ
ment for Nature does not deal kindly with
the desert Look where you will over the waste of
sand he calls home, and you will find that the cry of
and beast is, Water! Water!" And so they
pray to their kindly Nature gods to give them of
this precious fluid that their crops may not wither
and they may not perish from thirst and starvation
Standing at the top of the cliffs where the Hopi
live, and looking out over the desoation of the
rounding desert, one wonders what could have in
duced these people to build their homes in such
inaccessible places, far from the fields where
they raise their scanty crops of corn and where
not drop of water can be found. But they will
tell you themselves that they did not always live on
the cliffs; that there was time when their lines
cast in pleasant places. Hundreds of
years ago they lived far to the south in forest clad
mountains where there were game and water in
plenty; but their enemies, the Apache Navajo, and
Ute, harassed them constantly and compelled them
to move from place to place. until at last they found
comparative peace the SUBMITS of the impreg-
nable cliffs where they dwell. There they have
established their little Republic and absolutely
self maintaining that they wholly Independent of
the white man and his civilization and could go
with their quiet life if all the rest of America
laid waste and the pale faces banshed the
to the lands whence they
Think Civilization Destructive
OWING to this isolation and inaccessiblity it is
- probable that in community in all the world
could be found greater number of patient sober and
industrious workers than the men and women who in
habit the strange villages borne high upon the cliffs
There are no jails, asylums poorhouses, saloons
among them. They are the only aboriginal people
known to history that has never invented intoxi
eating drink, and the only that has absolutely
refused the white mans whisky. They pure
blooded race, and have little to do with outsiders
possible for they believe that unless they pre-
serve their racial integrity, civilization will ultimately
corrupt and destroy them: But in the meantime
the Hopi present example of as perfect communal
life can be found. Widows and orphans belong
to the clan and well cared for. If suffers all