He who can sympathetically understand the import of an Indian ceremonial will alone solve the mystery of what has been bequeathed by immemorial ancestors and of what reigns supreme to-day. To guard their ritual is the jealous care of the older generation. Not only is secrecy imposed by the ruler of their fraternities, but it is in fact their last weapon, whether of defence or of revenge, against the unwarrantable abuse of power and privilege which white over-lordship has wielded over its so-called “wards.” It is as if the Indian said: You have taken our lands and our freedom of self-government; you have forced upon us gods we neither understand nor love, and an education that teaches us we may deceive and later be absolved. Nothing is left us but our antique heritage of ritual and that we will keep inviolate though we lose our lives. One who has lived long among them told the writer that he had learned most from watching and listening to some old men who had come to look at a symbolic design made by a young Indian artist. For a while there was silence; then one man began to point out certain things, then another and another spoke, adding details, forgetful of their white friend silent in the background, till a long and complex tale had been quite unconsciously revealed to the listener. A familiarity born of years of sympathetic study of their traditions and folk-lore must be acquired before anyone can dare say he sees the deeper significance of their ceremonials. Like the dances of all primitive races, those of the Pueblos are essentially religio-sociologic in character, and present very subtle intricacies. Nothing “happens.” Everything is started by some personal agency, and everything has sex, and all is dramaturgic.[229] Dr. Fewkes is unquestionably right in saying that “the explanation of these observances, while the most fascinating and most valuable study, is most liable to error.”[230] “Back of every Indian ceremony is a story, and for every possible adventure of tribal life” there are tales and songs which are a part of daily existence, but which are especially celebrated by the festal “dances.” It follows that the Indian religion is a dramatic one, full of action and color that express to the lay mind hidden truths, just as in early Christian days the painted story on church walls was a picture Bible for those who could not read. [Illustration: THE INHERITED DANCE COSTUME _Fr. O’Sullivan_] Mary Austin says that most songs are for “occasions,” and that so blended are movement, melody, and the muffled beat of the _tombé_ that “the Indian will say indifferently, ‘I cannot sing that dance,’ or ‘I cannot dance that song.’ They are as much mingled as the water of a river with its own ripples and its rate of flowing.”[231]