t the Flute Dance as given today is a dramatization of
this legend. Dr. Fewkes, who collected this legend, tells us that the
Flute fraternity claims to be even more successful rain-makers than the
world-famous Snake fraternity.[26]

[Footnote 26: Fewkes, J. Walter, The Walpi Flute Observance: Journal
American Folklore, vol. 7, 1894.]

Dr. Monsen tells of seeing the Flute ceremony at Mishongnovi, a good
many years ago, and of the deeply religious feeling that pervaded the
whole scene. His words are descriptive of a dramatic moment at the close
of the day, when the procession had at last reached the public plaza on
top of the mesa.[27]

[Footnote 27: Monsen, Frederick, Religious Dances of the Hopi: The
Craftsman, vol. 12, 1907, pp. 284-285.]

[Illustration: Figure 7.--Hopi Girl in Butterfly Costume.

--Photo by Lockett.]

"By this time it was nearly dark, but the ceremony went on in the center
of the plaza where other mysterious symbols were outlined on the rocky
floor with the strewn corn meal, and numbers of supplementary chants
were sung until night closed down entirely and the moon appeared....
Then came something so extraordinary that I am aware that it will sound
as if I were drawing on the rich stores of my imagination, for the
coincidence which closed the festival.

"But all I can say is that to my unutterable astonishment, it happened
exactly as I tell it. At a certain stage in this part of the ceremony
there was a pause. No one left the plaza, but every one stood as still
as a graven image, and not a sound broke the hush, apparently of
breathless expectancy. The stillness was so unearthly that it became
oppressive, and a few white friends who were with me began to urge in
whispers that we leave the plaza as all was evidently at an end, and go
back to our camp below the mesa, when suddenly there rang out such a
wild, exultant shout of unrestrained, unmeasured rejoicing as only
Indians can give in moments of supreme religious exaltation--raindrops
had splashed on devout, upturned faces.

"Their prayers had been answered. The spell of the drouth-evil had been
broken, and the long strain of the solemn ceremonial gave place to such
a carnival of rejoicing as it seldom falls to the lot of civilized man
to see....

"From the white man's point of view, this answer to prayer was, of
course, the merest coincidence, but not all the power of church or
government combined could convince the Hopi that their god had