Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-29

The Orgies OE the MOqui Indians Rs
 Seem by aa Array Officer in New aexI- | from the Albuquerque Jeurnall
 The Moqui Indians are to have their snake dance here this week. Captain s. G. Heaps
 told Journal reporter yesterday that he ! never saw anything quite so dreadful as those
 snake dances. Eight days before the time for the dance the men go out to hunt for the ! snakes. They take with them the sacred ' meal and the sacred rod, @ stick about five | feet long with fork at the end. They take every snake which they find. When they | find one they raise the stick over him, and | they watch their chance, and when the snake ! starts to run, with the speed of the light ' ning's flash they seize him behind the head
 and carry him to the people, where they put | them into place called au estufu, which is a \ hole in the ground about ten feet deep and l eight feet wide and fifteen long. and which | is covered all over, except a round hole in ! the center.
 The dance ground is a smooth piece of ! ground about sixteen feet in diameter, in the | center of which Is the sacred rock. On one \ side is the snake shade, a place about four | feet square, with walls on three sides about | four feet high and @ curtain hung in front, ' in front of which is a fiat board or stick. At @ given signal eighteen men from the second estufu quickly ascend the ladder and rush to the dance ground. The snake herders bring ont the snakes and empty them into the snake shade, where they are kept by the herders with sticks. The eighteen men rush three times around the sacred rock, stopping each time in front of the snake shade and stamping three times on the board or timber in frent of the snake shade. Eighteen wo men and eighteen maidens form 8 circle around the outside of the dance ring, each with dish of the sacred meal Eighteen other men rush out, each with stick two 1~.. kR4 oR ~rks sa1 sacred feathers tied. They wave them above the snake shade three times, each time making 8 loud, hissing sound like the hissing of 8 serpent.
 The first eighteen men then form line, the right resting close to the shade, the other eighteen forming in front of them The curtain is quickly drawn aside, the herder stirs up the snakes with his stick, all the wo- men shout, the first man with the speed of lightning seizss handful of snakes, grabs them with his mouth, the man opposite to him seizes him around the waist with one arm, with the other hand he waves the stick and feathers in the face of the snakes to at tract them, the man with his mouth full of snakes rushes madly around the ring, sup ported by the other one as Q partner, who is waving the stick and the feathers all the time. As he passes the women each one throws the sacred meal on the snakes Mean while each man Is seizing handful of snakes
 
 done in @ moment, each one having his part nsr with the feathers and all rushing around, the snakes writhing in contortions. the rat tlssnakss rAttling, the oopperhead and bull snakes a-hissing, the women shouting and throwing sacred meal-the whole forming one of the most terrible, horrible and revolt ing and unearthly sounds and sights that a man ever beheld. They rush around the ring three times, when the snakes are dumped by the sacred rock. He says he saw one man with five snakes in his mouth. One rattlesnake caught one of the men by the neck His partner seized 1t by the head and picked 1t back. If the snakes are not all taken out of the snake shade an other lot go through the same thing until all the snakes are carried three times around the ring
 At the conclusion of the dance the eight cen maidens form ring with the sacred meal, about six feet in diameter. the eight cen old women form two lines across the ring at right angles with the sacred meal. every man who can get one catches a snake, throws it into the ring and the herders keep them there uEtil the sun is just out of sight, when every man again rushes into the ring, seizes snake, and all run as fast as they can towards the four points of the compass for half mile, when they are dropped and let go, and all return to the dan cling ground, where they wave the sacred rod over the men who were bitten, chant and in yoke the snake god to save then. And so ends this frightful and horrible orgie Of course those who are bitten die, but the only wonder is that so few are bitten, as many of the enakes or rofkIeanakaA