The record-union., 1897-12-10
THE WEIRD SNAKE DANCE.

| Mesa ana the shadows Of the quick
| coming night seemed to start out of the
ground after the momentary twilight of
the tropics.
We We're standing on top of an adobe
house in the far Southern wilderness.
looking down into the courtyard of the
village of the Moqui Indians. The court
was oblong; on two sides were the adobe
houses of the tribe. On the other two
rose the precipitous Mesa. which the
tribe, ant-like, had burrowed
In the middle of the courtyard rose a
rock quite fifteen feet from the ground
and somewhat larger at the top than the
bottom. This was the sacred rock Of the
snake dances of the Moquis, which we
We're to see
Below us, in the hubbub of the court,
alive with strange seeming figures, was
a conical stack of cottonwood branches
called a skivi," with a curtain in front.
Under the curtain, covered in part by a
board, hole had been dug, in which the
| snakes were to be put
Then came two priests of the tribe,
venerable, with the stamp Of high office
and the weight of honored years upon
| them
Between them they bore with great
difficulty a great sack heavy with writh-
| ing snakes, whose cOntortionS were
plainly visible through the folds of the
sack. Behind the curtain of the myster-
les the holy snakes were deposited.
Soon from the right, beyond the sacred
rock, appeared Wiki, the chief and high
| priest of the tribe, an old man with
| trembling limbs and sunken features,
tottering on the verge of the grave.
He was richly adorned with the in
sigma of his honored position, and car
ried in his hand bowl from which he
sprinkled with a branch the sacred
water over the heads of the people, like
a priest of the church with his "asperges
| me, Domino"
| With reverence they bowed. 1t was
with sacred water they were sprinkled,
water brought from a mountain some
miles distant, from the holy fountain OF
the tribe.
Next appeared the snake priests,
| twenty in number, similarly at
tired save for a fox or a rabbit skin
which hung from the belt behind. These
marched around the inclosure three
times, and as each passed the board in
front of the curtain he gave it vio-
lent stamp with his right foot, making
a terrific sound resembling thunder.
At every stamp the snakes woke and
Kissed angrily.
These twenty-nine took their positions
facing Wiki and the antelopes, the chief
snake standing opposite Wiki, who then
stepped forth, and, standing in front of
the sacred XVI, in the shrill, quavering
voice of an old man shouted three times
h; inv 70 Cod nf II I'm after
each invocation sprinkling with sacred
water the boughs and curtain which in
closed the snakes.
Twelve Indian maidens now entered
bearing bowls of sacred meal and took
their places at the end of the court be-
! yond the sacred rock.
| In pairs thus they step to the XVI and
crawl under the curtain.
Following Wiki came the antelopes
the dancers of the antelope dance on the
previous day; then the musicians, seven
in number; then four boys. about s
years old, and last the medicine man.
This holy person carried an instru
ment at the end Of a string which he oc-
casionally whirled about making deep
gutteral sound like the thunder of the
storm for which they were praying.
For it was rain they besought. Strange
as it may seem, on the afternoon follow
/ ing. after many days of draught, ter
rife thunderstorm spent itself through
out that whole plain beneath, which the
MoQuis use for pasturage and cultiva-
| ton.
These thirteen who have entered are
nearly nude, having loin cloths and Gu
riously wrought ornaments on the
shoulders. their arms and shoulders
| streaked with white paint and the rest
of their bodies painted brown. Their
faces We're blackened except the chins,
which were painted white. Their eyes
had a set expression, and their coun-
tenances bore evidences of the religious
| fervor with which their being was fill
ed
These thirteen took their places i'm
mediately below us, with their backs
| toward us.
There is a moment of hushed expec-
fancy.
Fully $50 white people on the roof
| watched the horrid rite with a shud-
der.
Now, in the ghastly flare of the fire.
light priest emerges.
He has the snake!
1t is grasped firmly in his mouth,
from six to eight inches from the head,
the long body hanging down the left
side
Another and another of the priests
follow
The snakes are bull snakes, whip
snakes. rattlers and horned snakes,
varying from two to five feet in
length.
Judging from the terror of the native
bystanders the rattlers are surely in
possession of their fangs. The other
snakes are harmless.
With these in their mouths, always
keeping time to the music made by the
antelopes, the priests pass around the
sacred rock, by the maidens who sprin-
kle the snakes with sacred meal, down
the other side past us. some retaining g
their snakes to the end of the inclosure
and others dropping theirs, to the evil
dent terror of those who stand close to
the edge of the Mesa.
The circle OF dancers passed on, al
ways in time to the music, until the
snakes were all taken from the XVI
and deposited with the attendants.
The court was now filled with these
Enthusiastically painted priests. exhausted
by the physical and mental strain.
showing in every feature the passion
into which they had worked them
selves.
Their faces and shoulders were COW
cred with blood where the snakes,
evading the attendants, had bitten
them, and near at hand were the at
| tendants their hands fllad with yrritb