lications Dr. J. Walter Fewkes has made the
valuable observation that there are marked "resemblances between a
ceremony practised [at the time of the Conquest] in the heart of Mexico
and one still kept up in Arizona," and states that these "lead one to look
for likenesses in symbolism, especially that pertaining to the
mythological Snake among the two peoples." He continues as follows: "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.... The facts here recorded look as if
the Hopi practise a ceremonial form 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 and ceremonials from the Zunians 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-muh='Water people,' whose legendary
history is quite strong that they came from the south."(50)

Dr. Fewkes frankly states that he "knows next to nothing of the symbolic
characters of the Mexican deities ..." and quotes Mr. Bandelier's opinion
that "there are traces or tracks of the same mythological system and
symbolism amongst the Indians of the southwestern United States and the
aborigines of Central America."

Under the leadership of Mr. Frank H. Cushing let us now enter into the
life and thoughts of the modern Zunis. After having traced certain ideas
in Mexico and Peru, it is possible to recognize them again when we find
them in Mr. Cushing's valuable work, from which I shall quote somewhat at
length, referring the reader, however, to the original, for a fuller
realization of existing resemblances.(51)

The Zuni creation-myth relates how the light of the Sun-father and a
foam-cap on the sea, caused the Earth-mother to give birth to
twin-brothers, Uanam Achi Piah-_koa_, "the Beloved Twain who descended."
The first was Uanam Ehkona=the beloved Preceder, the second Uanam Yaluna,
the beloved Follower; they were twin-brothers of light, yet elder and
younger, the right and left, like to question and answer in deciding and
doing.... The Sun-father gave them the thunderbolts of the four quarters,
two apiece.... On their cloud-shield, even as a spider in her web
descendeth, the