lesnakes with
seeming impunity; the Apaches hold that every rattlesnake is an emissary
of the devil;[49] "the Piutes of Nevada have a demon deity in the form
of a serpent still supposed to exist in the waters of Pyramid Lake;"[50]
on the wall of an ancient Aztec ruin at Palenque there is a tablet, on
which there is a cross standing on the head of a serpent, and surmounted
by a bird. "The cross is the symbol of the four winds; the bird and
serpent the rebus of the rain-god, their ruler."[51] The Quiche god,
Hurakan, was called the "Strong Serpent," and the sign of Tlaloc, the
Aztec rain-god, was a golden snake.[R] All of these tribes are or were
worshipers of the generative principles, though, in most of them,
phallic worship has or had lost much of its original significance.[52]
In Yucatan and elsewhere in South and Central America, notably among the
ruins of Chichen Itza, the serpent symbol is frequently in evidence.[53]
The Indians of the Tocantins in Brazil, as well as the Muras, Mundurucus
and Cucamas, are mixed nature and devil worshipers;[S] as a sequence,
certain phallic rites are to be observed in their religious ceremonies.

[49] Bancroft: _Native Races, etc._, p. 135.

[50] _Ibid._

[51] Bancroft (Brinton): _Native Races, etc._, p. 135.

[R] In the celebrated calendar stone of the Aztecs, there have been
found certain hieroglyphics pointing to sun worship, coincidently,
to phallicism.

[52] _Ibid._, p. 134.

[53] Stephens: _Yucatan_.

[S] Consult Frantz Keller: _The Amazon and Madeira Rivers_.

Many of the native tribes of North America perform phallic rites at
puberty. James Owen Dorsey, who has made a study of the Siouan cults,
writes as follows:

"Every male Dakota sixteen years old and upward is a soldier, and is
formally and mysteriously enlisted into the service of the war prophet.
From him he receives the implements of war, carefully constructed after
models furnished from the armory of the gods, painted after a divine
prescription, and charged with a missive virtue--the tonwan--of the
divinities. To obtain these necessary articles the proud applicant is
required for a time to abuse himself and serve him, while he goes
through a series of painful and exhausting performances, which are
necessary on his part to enlist favorable notice of the gods. These
performances consist chiefly of vapor baths, fastings, chants, prayers,
and nightly vigils. The sp