The copper era and Morenci leader., 1921-09-16
.HoPI INDIAN SNAKE DANCE FULL OF THRILLS. INTERESTING
 SIGHTS

A writer in a recent issue of the- Coconino Sun gives an interesting account of the recent Hopi Indian snake dance. Part of his article fol- lows:
 The Indians started off by dancing around. each in turn stamping on plank lying over a hole in the ground. This to remind their ancestors and the gods that old customs were not forgotten and that the present gener- ation still holds fast to the faith. Then a little shaver began han ire snakes to an old man, who in turr passed them on to the dancers, who worked in pairs, one to hold the snake, the other to tickle the snake with feather to keep him from biting the man carrying him. There were about 50 snakes, every kind, but mostly rat tiers.
 One of the snakes was giant bull snake. He was so big that the buck ! who drew him couldn't get a seg- ment into his mouth. The snake coiled around the mans neck and be- | gan to choke him. Before the Indian got the best of it he had bitten it's snakeship almost in two. Another rattler, a monster, bit his Indian i'll the cheek.
 The latter jerked his head to one side. throwing the snake 20 feet away. One of the dancers crowded close to the Indian ahead, and the latter got set of poison fangs in his back. There were three Indians bitten in the face and several on other parts of their anatomy. 1 The dance over, the snakes were | cast in a heap, where a lot of meal had been pressed down, with two lines drawn clear across it at right angles. pointing toward the four car dinal points of the compass. Then | the snakes were grabbed up by arms 1 full. by Indians who carried them to the east, the west, the north and the south and dropped them over the edge of the mesa to while away tnelr time as they pleased and, perchance be caught again next year
 Then off came the beads, the eagle feathers, the coyote hides, the various other ornaments with which eacn I dancer was covered except where ne wanted the paint to show, and women washed the dancers down and gave each a big bowl of the antldote. Eacl dancer gulped down his portion of the l ned to the edge of the mesa and vom tied enthusiastically and nightly out into the void.
 Any unwary wayfarer who had hap nened on the afternoon of last Thurs day to be climbing up the mesa II time to be showered first with snakes and then with the spouting antidote would. most truthfully and exactly ! of luck.
 Miss Ed.son,, of New York, was a the dance, dHessed entirely in in dian butterfly dance costume. She had been buying costumes by tht wholesale, preparatory to staging tht dance in the metropolis. She alst noted down the words and notes O the chants.
 On Friday came the butterfly dance the most beautiful dance of all. Blu only a few remained.
 The Indians at Oraibi, Walpi ant the surrounding villages, made pret ty good wages, taking everything int consideration. Some of them almos reached the capitalistic class haulin stranded cars.
 The floods were very good thin for Hotevilla. the village where th
 hostile" Hopis livs. The middle q the street being the public toilet an
 there not having been any rain 10 many moons, a flood was pretty nearl
 a necessity.
 | Hotevilla is about 15 years old.
 F. Anderson, superintendent of the Il
 dian school here, has a strenuous tim
 with his proteges, who are opposed
 schools and to pretty much everythln
 that means progress, cleanliness an
 modernity. On the other hand. Bac
 bi, near by, is progressive. Col. M
 Clintock, state historian, who didn