The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-20
HOPI BLACKSNAKE DANCE.
A Frishtful Ceremony in a SubteTTa-
mean Temple.

9rIeiC the FORM ana AcblNAby OF
Living Serpents-Snakes the En-
blems of Rain Gods.
From the New York Tribune
Away off in Northern Arizona, in one
of the most desolate regions of North
America, live the primitive Hopi or Mo-
kis, most interesting people with re
ligious ritual full of strange ceremonies
that have been handed down unchanged
for centuries Isolated as they are in the
midst of a desert, and still farther cut off
from the world by the fact of their dwell
ing on the SUBMITS of almost inaccessi-
BILE cliffs, they remain the same to-day
that they were when the adventurous
Coronado marched to the conquest of the
Pueblo country in 1541.
One of their strange ceremonies is that
commonly spoken of as the Snake Dance,
which occurs every alternate year, usu-
ally about the end of July, on some one of
the three mesas on which their villages
are built In this dance, which is an in
vocation or Precipitation of the rain gods,
the performers carry living rattlesnakes
in their mouths as they circle about in
step with the songs. The Hopi are an
agricultural people, and Arizona is one of
the most arid countries in the world.
Naturally enough, most of their sacred
dances are intended to bring plentiful
supply of rain or moisture upon the crops.
The rain gods are always symbolized as
serpents.
Another of these rain dances is the
Pa-luli-kong, or dance of the Black
Watersnake, which occurs every year
about the end of February. This is
ceremonial prayer to the black water
snake, the great water god, to send
| abundant moisture. either snow or rain,
upon the ground before they begin the
spring planting. l once had an oppor
tunity of witnessing the most interesting
| part of this ceremony-the feeding of the
sacred snakes-and it was the widest
and most startling performance in all my
! Indian experience. The whole ceremony
occupies fifteen days and nights, and is
participated in by all the various sacred
orders but the feeding of the snakes,
| which takes place three days before the
elimination, is performed at night in the
kiva or subterranean chamber of the
priests of one particular order, whom, for
| convenience, we may designate as the
priests of the black watersnake. The
writer was making some ethnOlogic col
lections and investigations among the
Hopi, and had taken up temporary resi-
dence for the purpose in one of their vii
lagos called Tewa on the first mesa. On
the same mesa are two other villages,
separated from each other only few
hundred yards, and it was at the farther
of these, Walpi, that the strange rite
took place.
After several days had been occupied
in the preliminaries-one of which was
q ceremonial race by the priests around
the entire circuit of the mesa-notice
was given that the snakes were to be fed
that night in the snake kiva at Walpi.
At the other village the writer found an
other ethnologist, Mr.. A. N. Stephen,
who has been making study of this
people for years. His quarters were
close to the Snake Rock, around which
| the dancers go in the snake dance already
referred to, and, on the other side, was
the kiva of the priests of the black wa
tersnake. The kiva was sa grotto hol-
lowed out of the living rock and rooted
over level with the courtyard. The en-
trance was a square hole in the roof, Just
| large enough to admit a man, through
which ladder projected from below.
Together the two white men descended
and found themselves in an oblong cham
Der about twenty-five feet In length. In
the center was burning a small fire, upon
which an old man from time to time put
fresh twigs from pile at his side. At
| Un0 1Qrbner emu was u SOfG OF low Stage,
upon which was growing the sacred corn
and beans which had been planted with
much solemn ritual in the same place
twelve days before. This was the first
surprise-corn growing inside, while the
wintry blasts were bowling without and
the fresh green of the young blades,
which were several inches high, had a
pretty effect. Across the floor in front of
the stage was long pole, the purpose of
which was understood later. The walls
and the room logs which formed the raft
ers were covered with symbolic figures in
green, yellow, black and red, represent
ing the clouds, the rain, the lightning
and the rain-gods or snakes. One painted
snake extended the whole length of the
rafter.
| The snake images which were to be
used in the performance were piled Just
in front of the growing corn They were
of enormous size and startlingly realistic
The heads were evidently of wood
painted black, with large circles for the
eyes, horned like the horned serpents of
Oriental mythology, with double rows of
cleaning white teeth, through which
projected red forked tongues. Their
bodies, almost as large in the middle as q
mans leg, were painted dark above and
lighter below, and apparently were made
of stout cloth which the Hopi weave. The
makeup was perfect and so uucanny in its
| hdellty TO nature JhaJ IL gave one the
cold chills to look at them.
The performers to the number of about
thirty were already stripped to the
breech-cloth, and, with turtle-sheli rat
ties fastened to their right legs, were
dancing in unison with a slow chorus
which Stephen, who understood the
words, explained was an invocation to the
clouds to come near and give their moist
ure to fertilize the land of the HOpi The
dancers moved in double file in a semi
circle from one side to the other of the
kiva, and then, at the signal given by
rattle, faced about and danced back
again. They were of all ages, from gray
haired old men to one little fellow about
II years old whose legs were too short to
reach the floor when they sat along a
bench of rock at the side to rest between
the songs.
The songs were like all Indian songs,
weird, SLOW monotonous and oft repeated,
and the burden of all was prayer to the
water gods and an invocation to the
spirits of thunder, the cloud and the rain
At last, nearly atthemidnight hour, two of
the performers took hold of the long pole
stretched across in front of the stage,
and, fastening cords to it's ends, drew it
quickly no to the rafters. We now saw
that it was attached to curtain, which