The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-08-06
INDIANS PRAY FOR RAIN.
Mystic Ceremonials Among the Cliff
Dwellers at Worlds Fair.
Especial Correspondence.)

!
st. Louis, Aug. 4.-The less civilized
a people. the more material are the
wants which they implore their del
| ties TO supply. Rain, rain, rain on the
| marched fields of MokiIand i'm the tar-
| off Painted Desert of the Colorado III
| Arizona is. at this time of the year,
the supplication that Is waited heav+
| EDWARDS by the Moki and Zuni priest
! descendants of the ancient, now to-
! tallv extinct Cliff DwelleTs. The Snake
dance. really the Rain Dance of the
miracle-working Zuni priests and medl-
| cine mon. has become famous through
| cut the Mesa-land of the unknown
west This Snake Dance, in all It's
native wizardy, is being repeated sew
eral times daily. Sundays alone eX-
| cepted at the Cliff Dwellers' conces-
sion at the worlds only greatest fair
in st. Louis. Twenty climbed med
| icine men, twenty forbiddingly-ca
soned priests, an entire Indian orches-
| ira of tom tom heaters, and a full
(! choir of Zuni incarnation chanters. No
| such scenic, vocal or instrumental in
vestiture, strictly native and abOTig-
! inal, has ever before been seen at any
| worlds fair or public exhibition of any
kind. The Cliff Dwellers' concession
| was the first organization at st. Louis
TO grasp the possibilities of the the
! atrcal as we'll as the educational side
of such a display, and their Theatre
| Moki ii, the midst of their handsome
and complete exhibit is daily and night
| iy thronged by thousands of interested
and diverted spectators, including all
| sorts and conditions of men. The
strange part of the attendance is found
| in the presence at all times of In
dams from the United States govern
ment and other exhibits. drawn thither
by the fame of the wonderful Shungo-
paw, chief of the Moki medicine men,
but, greater than that, a necromancer,
miracle worker and sleight of hand
performer absolutely the best among
the North American Indians yet
brought within the confines of civili-
cation. The ordinary mountebank
stands abashed at the skill and dex-
terity of this son of the Mesa, whose
keen eyes have a fascination all their
own. All the passes, paintings and
other exhibitions of wizardy of which
the theatres and the books are full are
known to this strange man, who in
vents as he goes along the neatest lit
tie tricks in mystification and dupli-
Gates instantly all those which the
spectators, having seen them else
where, ask him to repeat. He does
ali tHlS dIlllQ SITlCliy yum environment
and without the slightest use of ap-
paratus, covered tables, assistants or
parapherpalia Of any kind. But the
Cliff Dwellers' exhibit has other great
features. 1t is first and foremost an
chronological exhibit. 1t reveals in all
its parts the intention of it's projec-
tors to afford Worlds fair visitors the
fullest opportunity to study the man
ners, customs and tribal relations OF
the earth's strangest people in what is
today the United States. These Zunis.
Mokis and Pueblos are direct descend
ants of the famous. now extinct, Cliff
Dwellers of the unknown west, have
since time imnemorial been a peace
full people. Slaughter of or by the
whites is not in their records. They
have lived an isolated existence, cult
waiting the arts of peace rather than
war, and they are today the best ex-
ponents of the fine old adage, peace
hath her victories, no less removed
than war" Thir ways are gentle and
the elements so mixed in them that
Nature might rise up and say to all
the world: "These are men," Natural
ly with a people, tho aboriginal, so
constituted, the care of women and
children is Of first Importance. 1t is
amusing to watch the Zuni children,