The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-11

bles, which rattle loudly as the waffior moyeA and make Of him, In sound At least. a human iattler. Around each brow is bound a white handkerchief, the upper part of the forehead being painted a deep black and the lower half with h black and white band,
 The band forms In . circle and the basket Of serpents Is brought forth. one of the chiefs. hideously painted, opens the cage. and as each brave passes thrusts hls naked hfm within and jerks from 1t a wrltning serpent. which he hands to the buck. The snake dancer bends forward his hideous- iy marked face and seises the snake by its middle with his teeth. The serpent struggles wildly, while his human cap- tor gestieulating and syratins joins In the solemn rythmic niovemeht, in which. after each brave has been sup piled with serpents. the whole band ia soon participating:
 Round about the sacred circle the en- tire Moqui nation sits In dumb, relig- ious awe. There Is nothing to break the grim stiffness. save the hissins Of the sefpents and the rattiihs of the pebbles In the shsils on the warriors legs. The snakes themselves. although highly animated. seem neither to rattle nor to attempt to sting. Once in While In the course Of a dance. a rattisr will bury his fangs into the body of a brave. but he Will be pulled away as If nothing had happened, and the brave who has been bitten will continue to dance with perfect equanlmity.
 After perhaps half an hours dancing the snakes are thrown in wfithing mass Into the center of the circle, and are sprlnkled with holy meal The dan cers draw en, and then. at a given sig nal rush upon the mass Of serpents. each bfave selzing as many as he can with his two hands. and then bounding away over the prairie at top speed. The snakes are then turned loose, and the dancers return. racing at their utmost, to the village, and are gathered In the religious council or ceremony which follows
 Such is this famous dance, as des. cribed by eye.witnesses Of undues- tioned veracity. Certainly this power of the Indians to take these venomous rattleshakes and toss then, about at will. and 3oih With them iti the mad whifl Of such dance as is nowhere else to be seen, is magic Or occult pow CT of the highest sort. What is their secret? It Is said by some that the Moquis fang the serpents before the dance, so that they are really harmless. But those who have examined into the matter closely declare fatly, that the reptiles are selected at random, and relates & little incident which took place in Cheyenne a number of years ago, when the Wyoming town was the habitat only of Indians and cowboys. Baldwin had stopped one night to give his representation of the niaterialisa- tion Of spirits-a clever variation of the familiar cabinet trick. 6
 In the audience was a renowned In- dian chief of great bravery. Now to call an Indian a dog is to hurl at him the vilest imputatien against his brav- cry that an Indian knows. Among oth- CT. materializhtions which Baldwin made that evening was the face of d famous Indian warrior, then dead, who had long been af1 opponent of the great chief, in the audience. This face Hp- peared, at the window of the. cabinet and sin indian dialect denounced the old chief with the offensive epithet, "a dog" In wild anger the chief drew his tomahawk and made a rush for the stage. Some such maneuvre had been, expected and he was stopped for 8 mo- ment.- But he was not easily re- strained and yelled excitedly that he would kill his old enemy over again. A second later the curtains were thrown open and the chief was allowed to see that 1t was occupied only by the ma agiciah's assistant, who was tightly bound. But the old chief was hardly satisfied. He walked round and round the cabinet explored every recess, went all over the stage and was certain, in some way, that his insulting foe had been allowed to escape. He retired, muttering threats of vengeance. "
 Magician Baldwin got out Of thu. town oh the very first train.