Evening star., 1901-10-22
A NEW SCIENCE
Analysing Primitive Man by the
Cineamstograph,
AT THE BUREAU OF Entomology
Interview With Scientist Who
Conceived the Idea.
SAVAGE CUSTOMS STUDIED

! Written for The Evening Star.
| A brand-new enterprise of Uncle Sam S
| is the application of the motion picture
machine for the analysis of the hitherto
mysterious and inexplainable doings of
primitive man. Never before this year was
| this attempted. Prof o. P. Phillips of the
| University of Pennsylvania, commissioned
a few months ago by the governments bu-
| reau of ethnology to initiate this work in
! the far west, has just returned from the
| field
This year 1 conceived the idea of analyz-
| ing the customs of primitive man by means
of the cineametograph camera said Prof.
Phillips yesterday to your correspondent.
'The American Indian is fast passing away
as child of nature, and many of his alb
original practices have gone out of ex-
istence within the past few years. Eth
! nologists can obtain more accurate con-
cepton of Indian customs from ten min
utes study by aid of moving life pictures
than from days observation by the un-
aided eye.
with the best equipment to be had in
the world 1 started for the field last July
and have since spent my time photograph
ing all of the Pueblo Indians, Zunis and
| Moquis of Arizona and New Mexico, also
the Diggers of the high Sierras From
Canon Diablo, small station on the Santa
Fe railroad, we first journeyed north in a
covered wagon to the Seven Cities of
Tusayan, discovered by the Spanish under
Coronado $50 years ago.
I'VE slept each night rolled up in blan-
kets upon the bare earth, and although
we encountered the rainy season had no
shelter whatever. We ate off our blan-
the word
Generous Tins Essential
Generous tipping is essential to success
ful photography such as I carried on in
the Indian country. l soon discovered this.
Each primitive red or woman de-
| manded a fee anywhere from 25 cents to 81
before consenting to pose. Even when l
snapped them c]andestinely they made me
pay up as soon as realizing that they had
been taken. In addition to distributing
lucre in generous quantities / had to keep
stocked with an abundance of calico, yeast
cakes, candy, matches and tobacco. The
yeast cakes went far to persuade the wo-
men, who manufacture their native leaven
by chewing up meal and allowing it to fer
ment in the moiStened state.
The common camera has ever excited In
dian superstition The cineametograph cam
era, by reason of the rumbling of it's
films, has an even more formidable effect.
Within twenty-five feet this noise was audi
BILE. When heard it in most cases excited
fear Next summer, when l return to the
held, shall take with me parlor instru-
ment, In which l can exhibit the motion
pictures and explain the purposes of my
work. AS it was, I could not by any ex-
| travagance of language explain through
my interpreter the intricacies of my ap-
paratuS
Bribed the Priests.
II reached Tusayan, Arizona, in time to
photograph the Moqui snake dance, both at
Mishonginovi, on Middle Mesa, and Walpi,
| on East Mesa. Early in August the sun
| priest Of each village, seeing the sun set
| in certain niche In the mountains, sched-
uled the festivities two weeks later.
Il succeeded this year in something new
| er before done with the snake dancers
| persuaded them to come out early. This
was essential to the success of my photo
graphs, for the dance has hitherto begun
always at sunset: fund was raised
among other photographers and the spec
| tators. With this an incentive, even
Moqui conservatism was oyerthroWn. We
promised the snake priests that $25 would
be placed upon their altar If they would
commence the dance at 4:30 in the after
noon but that So would be subtracted for
each fifteen minutes they We're behind
time. At Mishonginovi the dancers We're
a quarter hour late, and hence got only
$50: 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 Subterranean cham
Der where the snakes are kept-for less
than $50, nor on the mesa itself for less
lildU Sl. But government CreQentlaIS aQ-
mitted me to the kiva for $40 When we
/ tried to get down into the Mishonginovi
| klVa 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 supplcation to the
| Moqui rain gods. We consented and
missionary in our party conducted an elo-
J quent religious service in the dark kiya
Efforts were made to have some pauses
made in the dance to offer better facilities
for photography. But from this the Mo-
quis dissented. This is prayer for rain,'
| said a 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
Savage Valentine Festival.
II posted my instrument upon one of the
native huts overlooking the dance plaza.
| focused upon the entire field of action, av-
eraging thirty feet distant. The dancers,
moving over the plaza, with punches of
| live rattlesnakes clutched in their teeth
and darting at their faces. afforded a re-
! voting spectacle. 1t looked very much
| to me as if several dancers felt the fangs
| of the serpents.
81 photographed the finish of the Moqui
antelope race, which annually occurs the
| day prior to the snake dance 1t is so
| called because the antelope priests of the
| tribe preside over 1t. Four of these sacred
| personages descended the mesa between 3
| and o'clock that morning and set out
| over the plains to perform certain cere-
| monies at a spring sixteen miles away.
| Shortly afterward sixty racers almost
nude, had assembled about the stream.
| Just as the sun showed it's first ray they
| set off on running chase back to the top
| of the mesa commenced the exposure of
| my films just as they were coming up.
| They were awaited by all the boys and
| girls Of the village, congregated In the
| plaza, the boys bearing watermelons ard
| cornstalks. The instant the sfleetest run
| ner entered the plaza an antelope priest
| 40 hNyx pir1ir
end of cord. This was signal for each
| MoQui swain to bestow his melon or corn
stalk upon some Moqui maiden. Thus have
! these primitive people conceived 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 presiding antelope priests presented a
gourd filled with water, a BLACK ring and
I prayer wand to the winner of the race,
who Immediately carried his strange
| trophies down into the plain and buried
them.
II photographed the antelope dance reg