, since they were but syllables
and sounds having no meaning in English. However, these sounds had a
definite order and rhythm. At this point the husband smilingly joined in
the song, and the unison of both sounds and rhythm was perfect. H.G.L.)
"By and by the locust heard the frog, so he came over and asked him what
he was doing. The frog said he was hot and wanted it to rain; that's why
he was singing. Then the locust said, 'Now isn't that strange, that's
exactly what I do to make it rain, too, and that's the best thing to
do.' So they both sang.
"Pretty soon they noticed that the clouds had been coming up while they
were singing, and before long it rained, and they both were happy.
"After this they were always great friends because they had found out
they both had the same idea about something."
XII. CONCLUSION
* * * * *
For some years the writer has been merely a friendly neighbor to these
friendly people, and this past summer she spent some time among her Hopi
friends, studying their present-day life, domestic and ceremonial, and
listening to their stories. The foregoing pages record her observations,
supplemented largely by the recordings of well-known authorities who
have studied these people.
To her own mind it is clear that the Hopi are living today by their
age-old and amazingly primitive traditions, as shown by their planting,
hunting, house building, textile and ceramic arts, and their ceremonies
for birth, marriage, burial, rain-making, etc. Even their favorite
stories for amusement are traditional. Surely this can not last much
longer in these days when easy transportation is bringing the modern
world to their very door. Only a few years ago they were geographically
isolated and had been so for centuries. Culturally, the Hopi are not a
new, raw people, but old, mature, long a sedentary and peaceful people,
building up during the ages a vast body of traditional literature
embodying law, religion, civic and social order, with definite patterns
for the whole fabric of their life from the cradle to the grave and on
into Maskim, the home of Hopi Souls. It is because they have so long
been left alone, with their own culture so well suited to their nature
and to their environment, that we find them so satisfied to remain as
they are, friendly, even cordial, but conservative.
The Hopi is glad to use the white man's wagon, cook stove, sugar, and
coffee, but he p
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