The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-11
SOCIETY AND HOME TOPICS FOR WOMEN
A Daughter OF a Hopi Chiedin of the Moki Tribe
Tells Legend of the Sacred Snake Dance of Indians
by DOLLY DALRYMPLE

Gone were the crimson lights yesterday
afternoon following the matinee, and the
ancient "Fire Water of the Indians and
the music and the mystery that make of
the performance of La Mestena' round
at the Orpheum, a scene of rare delight
and charm.
The big theatre was dark, except for
a ray of golden sunshine that beamed
through the window lodges of the star s"
dressing room behind the scenes
1t was there the Indian Princess known
as La Mestena" which interpreted
means 'one who charms" had appointed
the time and the place to tell me her
story-and there the Indian maid was
waiting.
It's a far cry from the Mestena of the
stage. with her Indian dances of mystic
rhythm, color and light. to the earnest
young Indian woman who greets you in
her dressing room.
I'd expected to meet a curious sort of
person with the characteristics of the In
dian very dominant within her. but in
stead, I saw very much Americanized
Indian, sitting quietly upon IN comfy
chair, dressed in the prettiest of velvet
gowns and most becoming Of bonnets with
her big gray eyes under long lashes and
her dark swarthy skin and straight jet
black hair, arranged In the latest, while
her ears held great hoop earrings of
FURNISHED gold. and her red, red lips
showed youth and life-untod.
In this day of dancing when all the
world and his brother is tripping about
needless of what the others say. 1t oc-'
CURED to me that the one dance that
50 far had been almost left untouched,
was the Indian danee-though, to be sure
the Apache snacSs of Indian lore in name
-only--and the queer gyrations that the
Indian girl LA Mestena' does, might be
of interest to me and others as to its
origin and purport.
THE Snake dance that I'm doing' said
La Mestena,' Is the sacred dance OF
my tribe-the Molis. Every year out in
Waalpi-in far away Arizona it is revived,
and there in the little wiokup or as the
Americans call 1t, 'wigwam' where L was
born, you may sit and watch the per-
Torrance. The legend of the snake dance
is a pretty one Do you care to hear it?'
"Of course I do" l answered, all atten-
tion.
Years and years ago my great-great-
BrdnuIalner, Cnlef IapOn ruled the little
village of Awatba in the Arizona desert.
He became deranged because of long
continued drouth over the land and was
finally obsessed with the delusion that
his own people had conspired against him,
to prevent the rain falling upon his lands.
He finally become SO angry that he Wis
tied other tribes and persuaded them to
assist in the massacre of his people. One
evening the tribes descended upon the
little village of Awatba, and took all the
Inhabitants prisoners. The chief told them
If any one of them could persuade the
gods to send rain upon the land he should
be spared, IL not, all should be tortured
to DEATH.
"The Indian customs are strange and
difficult to understand, are they not?" ]
asked.
mot to me-" she said, reared as | was
among them. But as / said, the tribes
people assembled and offered up prayers
for rain, but in vain. Just then sprang
Indita, the daughter of Chief Tapoli and
seeing the position her people were placed
in. she decided quickly to attract the at
tention of the tribes. She began a weird
curious sort of dance, gathering from the