The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1921-09-30
Gen. SCOTT Sees
INDIAN DANCERS
Weird Hopi Snake Rites In
Underground Sanctuary
For Officer.


Gallup, N. NJ, Sept. 24-Gen
Hugh l.. Scott, hero of many Indian
battles, encountered his strangest ex-
perience among the red men when he
witnessed the wierd Hopi SNAKE
dance" at the Hopi Indian reserva-
ton, in Arizona, just across the New
Mexico-Arizona boundary line, ac-
cording to information reaching this
city today
General Scott, accompaniedNby Gen.
John A. Johnson and Col. j. II.
Slocum, visited the reservation re-
Gently when the SNAKE dance" most
weird of all pagan rites on this con-
tinent was in prograss. The party
was on a tour Of inspection of govern
ment properties and was en- route to
Fort Defiance, west of this city.
Twenty feet beneath the surface
of the ground, in a small room hewn
from the raw earth and lighted only
by a Pickering torch at the far end,
above sacred sand picture, sat the
three white men and half-a-dozen
Hopi Indian medicine men. In pit
ut one side of the SACRED Xiv, for
these men were gathered in the Hopi
holy of holes, were nearly 200 rat
tlesnakes, the Whirr of their rattles
morbidly breaking the underground
silence.
Bites NpninfcCtiOus.
One of the medicine men rose
and mumbled prayer over an earth
en- jar of Indian oatmeal. His naked,
body appeared CHASTITY
as he passed the sacred cornmeal to
General Scott and motioned him to
1t. The general touched bit OF
it to his lipsAnd passed II to his two
aides, who followed his example. The
army officers mumbled Hopi words,
syllable Tor syllable. after the snake
priest" and then climbed the rude
ladder to the open air above.
A solemn seriousness marked the
entire proceedings.
General Scott, General Johnson and
Colonel Slocum, it is believed, are
among the few white men who have
been accorded te privilege of wit
Messing te sacred rite Of the Hopi
snake dance. The late former Presi-
dent. Col Theodore Roosevelt, is
said to have witnessed the ceremony
Worship Rattlers.
The Hops worship rattlesnakes.
They believe them TO be in close COM
with the gods that con-
troll the weather elements. Each year
several hundred snakes are gathered
for the ceremony and imprisoned. in
the kiva for two weeks, where pray
ers are said over the reptiles and
messages" given them for delivery
to the gods. Then the snakes are
brought to the surface by the snake
priests" and the dance begins, to the
of huge tom toms.
The priests grip the snakes in their
teeth, just back of the heads, and
thus hold them and dance for hours
at time.
A majority of the dancers are bit
ten during the ceremony, but none
have ever been known to suffer or in
any way become affected by the bite.
The Indians are extremely reticent
about discussing thir apparent i'm
munity from the snake bites, laconi-
cally answering questions by saying
that the rattiers are friends of the
snake priests"
Immunize Self.
Several theories have been advanc-
ed in explanation of the non-infes-
lion of the snake bites, but the most
accepted one is that the
dancers rub tiny bits of the venom
into their skins before the dance and
increase the quantity un-
III they are completely immunized.
Il is known that neither the rattlers
nor the venom sacs are removed from
he snakes before the weird ceremony
IS started.
Upon completion of the dance the
snakes are released and according to
Hopi tradition, they return to the
gods beneath the earth with their
messages from the PRIESTS