Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/499

Rh the animals included in the above list. Neither Moquis nor Apaches worship the buffalo; at least, the Arizona Apaches do not, for the very good reason that the buffalo has never been in their country.

Variations and petty discrepancies of this kind count for nothing. Ceremonies may change with surroundings, and so, too, an animal revered in one locality on account of its venomous nature, or because it is a staple article of food, may in another not be venerated at all; and the reason in each case will be either that it does not live in the new locality, or that its place in the dietary has been taken by something else.

To the elements, fire, water, earth, and air—or, to speak more strictly, the four winds—the Apache pays the same earnest devotion rendered by all red men. An old and very intelligent chief met in one of the Pueblos, north of Santa Fé (New Mexico), insisted that the tribes of the south-west had once the same belief and the same observances. The more the matter is looked into, the more clear will it become that he was both truthful and accurate.

It is true that feasts of fire are not celebrated by the Apaches as by the Zunis and others; but, in the hunting- sacrifice outlined above, it has been shown that one of the features was the kindling of fire by rubbing sticks together, and in the harvest dance, given after the crops have been gathered, the same ceremonial ignition is observed.

Water, as water, does not appear to be venerated; but the frog and the toad, inseparably associated with this worship by the Pueblos, are found among the Apache dieties.

The Zunis and Moquis have sacred springs. One, near the Moqui village of Mushangnewy, Arizona, is furnished with an altar or shrine, and has received many votive offerings of petrified wood and plume-sticks. Springs of this kind are not seen in the country of the Apaches.

Rain, hail, and the rainbow occur in all symbolism of the South-West.