The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-02
THE M0OUI SERPENT DANCE.
Deadliest of Reptiles Do Not Brighten
@ the Indians.

eblo Of Oraiba had looked in vain many
days for the coming of the rain god.
The land was athirst and the warriors Of
the tribe painted like lizards on the burn
ing rocks.
Months has heightened into seasons.
and the pitiless glare Of day had parched
the heritage Of the mesa and dried the
streams at their source. Heat quivered
on the broad plain. and the night brought
no dew to refresh the dwellers in thc
Seven Cities Of Tusayan
Ba-lu-lu-kong. the great serpent, god of
water, lay torpid like the sidewinder OF
the barren lands-asleep. while the land
thirsted and the crops persisted and the
people cried aloud in the fear Of their
hearts - praying that his mighty tail
might strike the clouds to loose the light
nings and send the thunder rolling across
the three plateaus presaging the coming
of the waters.
But on this day the lone watcher at
sunrise, standing at gaze with the dawn
crimsoning in the east, knew that Ba-lu-
lu-kong must begin to stir in his sleep.
for behold the time was come when those
who wOrshiped the rain god prepared for
the rites that made glad the heart of the
great serpent and propitiated him. 1t was
the day on which the high priests en-
tered the kevas to fast and pray-the day
on which the chantings and invocations
Of the people began, preparatory to the
snake dance. the most solemn and impress
sive of MOqui ceremonies weird festi-
val and peculiar custom Transmitted by
oral tradition from immemorial time.
The Moqui pueblo of Oraiba is ninety
six miles northwest of Flagstaff, and six
ty-nine miles north of Winslow, in the
territory of Arizona.
The villages are on three mesas 500 feet
above the valleys, skirting the edge of
the cliffs. The houses of Oraiba are
built in crooked rows and rise two, three
and four stories, with broken ollas for
c,limleys and fireplaces. These buildings
arc of rock and mud, with matched roofs,
plastered over with adobe, and they are
entered by means of ladders.
In the two are thirteen kevas or lodge
rooms Of the thirteen secret organizations
into which the citizens of the village have
segregated themselves
Chief among these are the orders of the
Antelope and the Snake, each governed by
a high priest and a council, and by these
orders is performed every other year the
famous Aoqui ceremony Of the snake
dance.
Eight days previous to the date set for
the snake dance the high priest of the two
| orders enter their respective kevas and do
not emerge until the time for the dance to
begin
During four days previous to the dance
the members of the order fast, chanting
dismally. night and day, an invocation to
Ba-lu-lu-kong.
At sunrise on the morning on which the
high priest enter the kevas the members
of the snake orders leave the village and
[ scatter down the valley toward the east
( liking for retles that are to be used
in the coming ceremonies Each man is
/ provided with a leather bag, some corn
/ meal and a bahoo, or small bunch of
! sacred eagle feathers.
When a snake has been discovered the
/ Moqui rushes forward, sprinkles the SER
pent with cornmeal and caresses him with
| the sacred bahoo. Then he grasps the rep
/ tile deity by the neck and thrusts it into
/ the leather bag. The chase is continued
until sunset when the men return to their
| keva and deposit their snakes in large
/ earthen jars
Al sunrise on the following morning the
same men hunt toward the south, the
next day to the west and the next to the
north. This Is repeated during the four
following days beginning in the east.
! Then the snake collecting is finished
As a safeguard against the bites of the
| snakes the Indians drink of the bitter tea
| called Ma-ku-be, the essence of an herb
| known only TO the chief priests of each or
| der and revealed to his successor only at
the near approach OF uealn, OF Wneu 100
| old TO continue in office.
At the instant of sunrise as the first
| CLINT of light falls upon the sacred feath-
| ers by the wasted pools the devotees leap
1 forward in the mad race for the keva on
the mesa. a mile distant, rising 500 feet
from the valley at the summit of a rugged
and tortuous trail
1t is a feat that no athletes of civilization
would dare to undertake under the same
conditions. For four days these men have
tasted Only the energy of their faith
I nerves them to the effort. and the weakest
even of these falls sometimes by the way
side exhausted, swooning,. dying.
1t is a race with the sun. His fiery
lances must not strike the lintels of the
keva portal before the children of the
Great Serpent fall PROSTATE at the en-
trance. To see those men enter the viii
lage straining every muscle, with haggard
/ faces, drawn by the agony of their ter
rible eXeFtion,. their hair afioat on the
winds Of their swift movement, their lips
fiecked with the spume of glands that
flow for lack of strengthening sustenance
to look upon this heroic, terrifying spec
tacle is 10 recall the fables of the ancient
Greeks when men fed at headlong pace
from the wrath of hideous monsters pur-
suing to destroy.
Now a space is cleared at the edge of
the village, and everything is in readiness
for the wierd ceremony. Here on the last
OCCASION Wnen the ElSnl was performed 9OU
Indians assembled around the boske a
shrine built of cotton wood branches in
a circular form, and within which was
placed the jars containing the snakes pre-
viously gathered.
Already Ba-lu-lu-kong began to awake.
Clouds had lifted along the horizon and
vaporous banners floated from the battle
ments of the sky.
Suddenly eleven men of the Antelope or
der emerged from their keva, marching in
singl file to the boske. Circing the open
space they lined up with their backs 10
the shrine, while the chief priests sprink-
led them with consecrated water from the
tip of the sacred eagle feather. These men
wore the sacred blanket of the Moquis
around their loins, dark-red moccasins on
their feet. a bunch of corn husks tied to
each arm above the elbow and eagle feath-
ers in their hair; each carried a white
painted gourd rattle in his right hand
Their bodies were painted black with
white streaks, coiled and sinuous like the
snakes they were about to loose
Then came thirteen members Of the
Snake order in single file, the chief priest
! car In elr