The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-14

photograph the Moqui snake daf1ce
 both at Mishonginovi. on Middle Mesa
 and Walpi, on East Mesa. Early 1T
 August the sun priest of each village
 seeing the sun set in a certain niche 1T
 the mountains, scheduled the festivt'
 ties two weeks later.
 T succeeded this year In something
 never before done with the snake dane
 ers-persuaded them to come out early
 This was essential to the success of my
 photographs, for the dance has hitherto
 begun always at sunset. A fund was
 raised among other photographers and
 the spectators. With this as an incen-
 tive, even Moqui conservatism was
 overthrown We promised the snake
 priests that $25 would be placed upon their altar if they would begin the dance at 4:30 in the afternoon but that s5 would be subtracted for each fifteen minutes they were behind time. At Mishonginovi the dancers were quar- ter hour late and hence got only S20; but at Walpi they showed up in due time. At the latter pueblo the Indians had arranged that no white man could go into their kiva'-the subterraneal
  less than $50, nor on the mesa itself for less than $1. But government creden- tia,ls admitted me to the kiva for $10
 When we tried to get down into the Mishonginovi kiva before the dance we were admitted only on the proviso that we would ask the gods of the white man for rain, the snake dance being a supplication to the Mcqui rain gods. We consented and q missionary in our party conducted an eloquent religious service in the dark k1va. Efforts were made to have some pauses made in the dance to offer better facilities for photography, but from this the Moquis dissented. This is prayer for rain, said snake priest to my interpreter. We must feed our children. After they are fed, if there is anything left over the white man is welcome to It.
 T posted my instrument upon one of the native huts overlooking the dance plaza. focused upon the entire field of action, averaging thirty feet dis- tance. The dancers, moving over the plaza, with punches of live rattlesnakes clutched in their teeth and darting at their faces, afforded revolting specta- cle It looked very much to me as if several dancers felt the fangs of the serpents.
 T photographed the finish of the Moqui antelope race which annually occurs the day prior to the snake dance. It is so called because the antelope priests of the tribe preside over 1t. Four of these sacred personages des- cended the mesa between 3 and o'clock that morning and set out over the plains to perform certain ceremon- les at spring sixteen miles away. Shortly afterward sixty racers, almost nude, had assembled about the stream. Just as the sun showed its first ray they set off on running chase back to the top of the mesa. I commenced the exposure of my films just as they were coming up. They were waited by all the boys and girls of the village, congregated in the plaza, the boys bearing watermelons and cornstalks. The instant the fsetest runner entered thep laza an antelope priest made loud buzz by whirling a stick at the end of cord. This was a. signal for each moqui swain to bestow his melon or cornstalk upon some Moqui maiden. thus have these primitive people con ceived Saint Valentine ceremony all their own. Such a bestowal on this day of each year signifies that the favored maid Is selected as the sweetheart of the giver. At the same time the pre- siding antelope priests presented a gourd filled with water, a black ring and prayer wand to the winner of the race, who immediately carried his strange trophies down into the plain and buried them.
 'I photographed the antelope dance regularly held the night prior to the snake dance This was but rehearsal of the latter ceremony, save that corn stalks were substituted for serpents in the mouths of the dancers. I obtained also long film of the flute dance, held after the snake ceremony. as a prayer to the gods of the springs. The latter took place about certain springs In Oraibi, another Tasayan pueblo. It consisted of music on the aboriginal Moqui flute, dancing, racing and nu- merous powwowing ceremonials, in- nluding the spreading of the sacred | meal
 T demonstrated to my satisfaction i that the motion picture camera is in- | valuable in the study of primitive man n all of his phases. My films will be | installed in the bureau of ethnology. | The savans of that institution will | Utilize them in individual study and ectlre work If it be desired to learn, Or instance, the exact processes of making or any other industry n successive stages q projector throw ng the films upon a screen as we see hem in our amusement halls can be urned as sollwy as desired, reversed or 'epea ted, as needs be. An apparatus uch as I carried into the field can be aken wherever there are doings of in- crest to science. One will observe and 'etain far more details than hundred rained specialists.-From the Wash ngton Star.