Arizona republican., 1914-08-18
TRIBES GATHER
 AT ORA|b| F0R
 H0PFCEREMONY
Snake Dance Announced by Indian Courier for Au- gust 30-Crowd Already Gathered-Navajos Drift in by Hundreds
Special to The Republican,

thirtieth of the month, instead Of August F, as was first announced. The courier bore credentials, which make his announcement official.
 now says that once more the attend ance will break all records, for already the people are gathering. Advertised by the tourist agencies for the seven teenth. the dance has drawn splen- did crowd, men and women from all over the earth, who are waiting along the main line, or encamped among the MeSas.
 Navajos, to the number of five hum dred. or more than have ever gathered for a like event, are already on the trails between. the Hopi villages and their own Country. It is the custom of the eastern race to gather up the sacred corn meal, sprinkled about the serpents before the concluding move ment in the dance, and pack it in little snakeskin bags as charms against the evil spirit The scramble of the Nava- io boys for this meal is like that of street gamins for pennies.
 About the Dance
 The Moki or Hopi Snake Dance, held alternate years by custom, and now every year for revenue, is prayer for rain. The ceremonial is nine days in length and takes in almost every form of worship. known to the semi bar barious tribes Fasting, public prayer, incantation by the priests, races, the dances themselves and the purification all these are items on that nine day bill
 Weeks before the dance, the young men SCOUT the mesas and the plains for rattlesnakes. They gather an immense quantity of the reptiles, and hide them in one of the khivas. All these nine days. the elders remain in the under ground chapels, intoning their pray CTS, to the gods, and performing rites unknown to any man but an accepted member of the priesthood. Not even foh Theodore Roosevelt, the great Whlte chief. who was initiated into the Eagle Clan last fall, were all the rites made known. MT. Roosevelt did see, how ever. the washing of the snakes, cere- monv in which the initiate handled the deadly reptiles as though they had been harmless. Said MT. Roosevelt i'm mediately after climbing out of the khiva. "They were real rattlers and had not been deprived of their fangs
 On the morning of the dance, the Hopi runners-those lithest of human beings-are gathered at the edge of the river-or arroyo, where the scant corn matches of the Hopi battle against the heat of the painted desert-and are started off on a, heart breaking race to the top of the Mesa In the opinion or experts in training, this two mile grind m, the rock sides of the almost un- climbable butte is the most strenuous short contest man can engage Tn, ana the preparation for the event must oc- cupv months of the hardest sort of training
 Early in the afternoon of the dance the ceremonial place is cleared, and hideously painted warrior conceals two bags of snakes in a clump of fresh cut cotton wood boughs. Before this clump is always a hollow cavern, with a plank fastened over its narrow mouth. This symbolzes the hole, from which legend SAYS the Hopi sprang in the be- ginning of time.
 The Antelope priests come forth from the khiva first and circle the plaza. swinging those swishy sand filled eourd rattles and chanting in low voic- es. Then comes a line up along the side. and a long monotOnous stamping, all the time accompanied by the swish of the gourd and the guttural sing song.
 Suddenly, like the eruption of vol cano, come the snake priests, bursting forth from the khiva-top. They too parade around the plaza, but in sil- enee, and finally come to rest behind the Antelope priests who are still sing ing and stamping their right feet At last the monotone is interrupted, and with shrill wells, the snake men leap upon the bundle of cottonwoods, and seize their writhing serpents. In pairs then, they circle the plaza, one man carrying the snake in his teeth and the other irritating the serpent with an eagle feather switch. For half an hour does this continue, then suddenly at signal. the priests dump the wrigging snakes in a heap. Another rushes out and sprinkles a perfect circle of corn meal about the pile, and more atop the
 '--'., .'.g.=. ~~rs rattlers.
 Priests are in waiting, and at another signal, rush in seize great fistfuls oi snakes and then proceed to tear away in the four directions. Casting tho snakes upon the rocks at the Mesa edge concludes this part of the dance
 Of what comes later, Peter Clari Maefarlane, writing in Golfers las year says, "It is purification, and is to' thorough to be described here" The process includes a brief and Indian -lik' bath z and the administration Of strong emetic This is thought to pre- vent the poison of the snakes iron harming the dancers, though fev enough of them are bitten.
 The writer saw one old Hopi receiv' the fangs of a good sized side winde in his cheek When he yanked tn snake away, little flake of skin ant flesh was torn out between the fan; bites.