USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. VII > Part 13
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then faced toward the snake bosky, in front of which is a deep hole, said to lead down to the 'under world'; it is covered with a very thick plank, upon which each one of the performers stamped with great force as they filed over it. A belief exists among them that whoever breaks this cover by so stamping upon it during a cere- monv will succeed to a grand fortune of some kind.
"After the three circuits had been made they took position in line facing the snake bosky, on the two flanks of which stood their brothers of the antelope order, who joined them in a weird song, the time being kept by the snake men tak- ing a half step backward with the right foot, bringing the heel down with a quick movement, which caused the turtle shells and sheep toes to give, in their combined rattle, a noise not unlike the warning of the rattlesnake. The movement is measured and effective. As soon as the song was through the snake men again made the cir- cuit of the small space between the houses and the east edge of the mesa, going around the sacred rock from left to right, near which stood a number of maidens arrayed in ceremonial dresses, who carried bowls of sacred water, with which they sprinkled the dancers as they passed, using the eagle feathers in the manner of the priests of the antelopes.
"Now the thrilling part of the performance or ceremony began. As the men returned by the same circuitous line and reached the space in front of the snake bosky, the bag having been opened and the snakes bountifully sprinkled
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with sacred meal by the priest, each dancer, as he came up, was handed a snake by the priest; the dancer then, after placing in his mouth a quantity of blue clay, which he carried in his left hand for the purpose, as a bed for the snake, placed the snake (some ambitious dancer would take two small snakes) between his teeth, the head always toward the right shoulder and about four inches from the corner of his mouth.
"There were a hundred snakes in all, many of them rattlesnakes, but there were bull snakes, racers, and others, in size from six inches to four feet long, and they squirmed actively, doing their best to get away. As soon as the snakes were in the dancer's mouth he would be joined by an attendant from the antelope order, who placed himself upon the right of his brother, the right arm of the latter and the left arm of the former about each other's backs. The antelope attendants carried in their right hands large ba- hoos (prayer sticks), with which, the feathers waving backward and forward, they kept the snakes busy and, watching their movements, pre- vented them from striking. In the above man- ner, by twos, they continued the strange march, going round and round the sacred rock, from left to right, receiving baptisms of sacred water and meal from the maidens as they passed them. This they did six or seven times. The snake dancers threw their heads back and kept them as high as they could.
"Now and then a snake got loose and fell upon the ground and began to glide away or coil to strike, but the attendant was ever watchful and
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never failed to so attract the snake's attention with the bahoos as to enable the dancer to pick it up and replace it in his mouth. The dancer was always careful to seize the snake just back of the head.
"Each dancer kept the first snake handed to him. If it was a small one, the next time around he would obtain another small one, and thus have two in his mouth, and one man I saw with three long slender snakes. Another man had but one small snake, which was entirely in the mouth except the head, neck, and just enough of the body to resemble a twisted cigar. Sometimes a dancer carried one or two snakes in his hands while he danced.
"The incessant shaking of the rattles in the hands of the men was done apparently to attract the attention of the snakes and confuse them.
"Near the conclusion of the ceremony one of the priests made a large circle on the ground in the plaza, or square, and when completed the dancers, as they passed it, deposited the snakes within its borders, where they were permitted to remain for a short time. It can be easily imagined that the mass of writhing snakes thus suddenly released and piled together, made rather a hideous and forbidding spectacle, but not more so than when they were making vain endeavors to release themselves from the dan- cers' jaws; still all this is not more repulsive than the performance given by so-called snake charmers, women particularly, who travel with shows and exhibit in museums in civilized life.
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"At a signal, a rush was made, and the actors in this strange drama, men of the snake order, grabbed the snakes with quick and dextrous movements, some with two and three in each hand, holding them aloft, and in the 'twinkling of an eye' they disappeared from the mesa, going north, south, east, and west; once in the desert their strange companions were freed.
"From the time of departure with the snakes to the desert and return of the men the space seemed incredibly short. Some of the specta- tors attempted to follow them, but were obliged to desist owing to the precipitous descent and danger attending it. I followed out to the south end of the mesa, only to find that the snake men had already reached the desert; some of them were on their return. As they came up over the top and were entering the pueblo I took sev- eral kodak shots at them as they passed me. When they had all gotten back they quickly removed their dancing costumes and donned the modern trousers, waistcoats and hats. From fierce-looking savages they were transformed into meek and gentle-looking Moquis, and among them I recognized my old friend 'Adam,' who had been interpreter at the school in Keams Canyon, whose kindly disposition is well known. A laughable scene followed the dance. As is their custom, all the snake order, who had fasted for four days, partaking of nothing but a liquid prepared for them by the snake priest, to whom and the snake priestess only the decoc- tion is known, assembled at a point just beyond the snake keva, where each drank of a liquid
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which produced violent vomiting. This final act closed the ceremonies.
"They handled the snakes with great care so as not to hurt them and religiously returned them to their natural haunts when the dance was over, refusing many offers of money for some of the specimens; offers which would have tempted some so-called civilized people.
"During the entire time, from the moment when the snakes were taken out of the bosky until they were thrown into the mass or pile on the ground within the ring of meal made by the priest, all was intense action. The participants and the attendants never for one moment let the interest relax, but drove everything on with force. The celerity of the proceedings evidently kept the snakes muddled. The snakes were not, to my knowledge, doctored for the occasion.
"During the dance two of the snake order were struck by rattlesnakes, one in the nose, the other in the upper portion of the arm. They drew back for a moment, but continued the dance, and no ill effects were afterward noticed from the bites. The man struck in the nose had some difficulty in getting the snake off, and only did so with his attendant's assistance.
"The snake order is spreading among the Mo- quis. Their chief religious ceremonies have been confined to Walpi for untold time. Now branches of the order have been established at Oraibi, Shimopavi, and, I believe, in Shipau- lavi. The ceremonies occur every two years. Next year it will take place at Oraibi, two years from now again at Walpi and Shimopavi. The
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day for its celebration is selected by the chief priest, and the date of its occurrence is approxi- mately established by watching the sun's decli- nation toward the south. They note the shad- ows that fall in the crevice of a rock, and in the same way reckon the day for their Christmas dance, the occasion for a dance to their sun god, which is about December 22d.
"The Moquis have been told that the govern- ment intends to stop the snake dance, and they say that it will be a great wrong, since it is a part of their religion, and they feel that their rights will thus be taken from them by denying them the privilege of worshipping after the manner of their fathers, which is not denied the white people of the country. This snake dance is a religious ceremony and most solemnly con- ducted.
"The liquid which the members of the snake order drink during the four final days of the ceremony is an antidote to the poisonous effect of the rattlesnake bite, and I have been assured that it never fails. I saw a Moqui who had been bitten while in the fields who did not get the aid of the snake priest for an hour later, but who recovered, although his arm was greatly swollen before he received the antidote. He was unable to do much for several days."
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CHAPTER XI. THE HOPI (OR MOQUI) (Continued).
THE SNAKE DANCE ( CONTINUED. )-DESCRIPTION OF BY CAPT. JOHN G. BOURKE-ORDER OF THE PROCESSION-THE FEMALE DETACHMENT- THE SNAKE CARRIERS - BEHAVIOR OF THE SNAKES-CONCLUSION OF THE DANCE.
Captain J. G. Bourke's description of the snake dance, mentioned above, is not given in the Extra Census Bulletin on the Moquis by Mr. Donaldson, but is contained in Captain Bourke's work, "The Snake Dance of the Moquis," writ- ten by him in 1884, and follows:
"A whirring sound resembling that of rain, driven by summer gusts, issued from the arcade; with this came the clanking of rattles and gourds filled with corn. The dancers were moving down toward us.
"First came a barefooted old man, crowned with a garland of cottonwood leaves, holding in his hands in front of him a flat earthen bowl, from which he sprinkled water upon the ground, very much as a Catholic priest would asperse his congregation.
"The second old man carried a flat basket of fine cornmeal.
"The third held his left hand up to a neck- lace of bears' claws, while with his right he gently rattled an instrument shaped thus, T, painted white.
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"The next five men were armed with the same odd-looking rattles, but as they marched close behind one another in single file they were not considered as holding the same rank or as dis- charging functions of an importance equal to those of the old men who advanced alone.
"Numbers 9 to 17 inclusive were little boys, from four to seven years old, marching in single file, each bearing one of the T-shaped rattles.
"An interval of five paces separated them from the grown men who had preceded them, and a like distance intervened between them and an old man who bore aloft in his left hand a bow (one of those so gayly ornamented with feathers and horsehair which had been noticed upon the upper end of the Estufa ladders).
"With his right hand this old man rapidly twirled a wooden sling, which emitted the shrill rumble of falling rain so plainly heard as the head of the procession was emerging from the arcade.
"This was the first division of the dance.
"The second and last was composed of forty- eight persons, two of them children, and all males; each bore wands of eagle feathers in both hands. The last man of this division bore a bow, the counterpart of that carried by the sling-twirler of the first division.
"All the dancers wore, tied to the right knee, rattles made of tortoise shells and sheep or goat toes, which clanked dismally whenever the leg or body moved. Small bunches of red feathers were attached to the crown of the head, their long black hair hung loose down their backs,
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their faces were blackened from brow to upper lip, while mouth, lower lip, and chin looked ghastly by contrast with the kaolin daubed over them. Collars of the white seashell beads of their own manufacture hung around their necks, and nearly all wore abalone shells glistening on their breasts. Sashes of seashell beads covered their bodies from the right shoulder to the left hip.
"Their bodies, legs, and arms were naked and greenish-black, without mark or design. Kilts of painted cotton cloth hung from waist to knee, and dangling down to the heels in rear were skins of the fox and coyote. Red buckskin fringe hung from the waist in most cases; and in others, again, cotton-ball pendants orna- mented the girdles. The feet were covered with red buckskin moccasins, fringed at ankles, and broad white armlets encircled the elbows.
"Each division marched solemnly around the sacred stone and between it and the sacred lodge and tree, the first division completing this for- mula shortly before the second.
"The first division aligned itself with back to houses, but quite close to them, and with its right abutting against the lodge and tree.
"The old 'medicine-man,' or priest, whom for the sake of convenience we have called No. 1, stood in front of and facing the lodge, holding well before him the platter of water and eagle- feather wand.
"When the second division had finished its tour it formed in two ranks facing the first divi- sion, and not more than four paces from it.
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When this alignment was perfected the men and boys of the first division shook their rattles gently, making the music of pattering showers. This movement was accompanied by the men of the second division who waved their eagle feathers from right to left in accord with the shaking of the rattles.
"This was repeated eight or ten times, all singing a refrain, keeping time by stamping vigorously with the right foot: 'Oh-ye-haw, oh-ye-haw, ha-vee-ha-ha-yee-ha-ha-vi-ha-a-a-a,' chanted a dozen times or more with a slow mea- sure and graceful cadence.
"This part of the ceremony over, the old man in front of the cottonwood tree and lodge began to pray in a well-modulated and perfectly dis- tinct voice, and sprinkled the ground in front of him with more water, while the second medi- cine-man scattered cornmeal from the platter he was bearing.
"Except the water sprinkler, No. 1, and the sling-twirler, No. 8, all the first party wore red plumes in hair, red moccasins, and white cotton kilts; and their bodies, as already stated, were naked and greenish-black.
"The first division remained in place, while the second, two by two, arm in arm, slowly pranced around the sacred rock, going through the motions of planting corn to the music of a monotonous dirge chanted by the first division.
"A detachment of twenty squaws, maids and matrons, clad in rich white and scarlet mantles of cotton and wool, now appeared, provided with
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flat baskets and platters, from which they scat- tered cornmeal in every direction.
"This ended the first act.
"The first division remained aligned upon the sacred rock, the head priest, No. 1, intoning a long and fervent prayer, while the second divi- sion quietly filed off, going through the arcade. The interlude was very brief. The second divi- sion re-emerged from under the arcade, march- ing two and two as before; but in this section of the programme the left hand files carried snakes in their hands and mouths. The first five or six held them in their hands with the heads of the reptiles to the right. As the pro- cession pranced closer and closer to where we were seated we saw that the dancers farther to the rear of the column were holding the slimy, wriggling serpents between their teeth! The head of the animal in this case also was held towards the right, the object of this being very manifest. The Indians in the right file of the column still retained the eagle wands which their companions had discarded. With these wands they tickled the heads, necks and jaws of the snakes, thus distracting their attention from the dancers in whose teeth they were grasped so firmly.
"The spectacle was an astonishing one, and one felt at once bewildered and horrified at this long column of weird figures, naked, all ex- cepting the snake-painted cotton kilts and red buckskin moccasins; bodies a dark greenish- brown, relieved only by the broad white armlets and the bright yellowish-gray of the fox-skins
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dangling behind them; long elfin locks brushed straight back from the head, tufted with scarlet parrot or woodpecker feathers; faces painted black, as with a mask of charcoal, from brow to upper lip, where the ghastly white of kaolin began, and continued down over chin and neck; the crowning point being the deadly reptiles borne in mouth and hand, which imparted to the drama the lurid tinge of a nightmare.
"With rattles clanking at knees, hands clinched, and elbows bent, the procession pranced slowly around the rectangle, the dancers lifting each knee slowly to the height of the waist, and then planting the foot firmly upon the ground before lifting the other, the snakes all the while writhing and squirming to free themselves from restraint.
"When the snake-carriers reached the eastern end of the rectangle they spat the snakes out upon the ground and moved on to the front of the sacred lodge, tree, and rock, where they stamped strongly with the left foot twice, at the same time emitting a strange cry, half a grunt and half wail.
"The women scattering the cornmeal now de- veloped their line more fully, a portion occupy- ing the terrace directly above the arcade, two or three standing on ladders near the archway, the main body massing in the space between the sacred rock and the sacred lodge, and two or three, reinforced by a squad of devout old crones, doing effective work at the eastern end of the rectangle. Nearly all carried the beautiful, closely-woven, flat baskets, in red, yellow and
VII-14
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black, ornamented with the butterfly, thunder bird or deer. These baskets were heaped high with finely-ground corn-flour, which from this on was scattered with reckless profusion, not, as previously, upon the ground, but in the air and upon the reptiles as fast as thrown down.
"This cornmeal had a sacred significance, which it might be well to bear in mind in order to thoroughly appreciate the religious import of this drama. Every time the squaws scattered it their lips could be detected moving in prayer. "In the religious exercises of the neighboring Indians, the Zunis, the air is fairly whitened with the handfuls of the 'Cunque,' as they call it, flung upon the idols, priests and sacred flute- players. In all the Pueblos along the Rio Grande, or near it, the same farinaceous mix- ture (since it is generally a mixture of corn- meal, pounded chalchihuitl. and other ingre- dients) is offered as a morning sacrifice to the god of day. Go into any house in Jemez, Zia, Santana, San Felipe, Acoma, or Zuni, and you will find in a convenient niche a small bowl or basket filled with it to allow each person in the family to throw a small pinch to the east upon rising in the morning. The Zunis and Moquis are never without it, and carry it in little bags of buckskin tied to their waist belts.
"The use of this sacred meal closely resembles the crithomancy of the ancient Greeks, but is not identical with it. Crithomancy was a divi- nation, by throwing flour or meal upon sacred animals, or upon their viscera after they had been sacrificed ; the forms or letters assumed by
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the meal gave to the soothsayer the clue to the future of which he was in quest. While the Greek priest scattered meal upon the sacred vic- tims, it goes without argument that he prayed, and up to this point the resemblance is perfect ; beyond this it would be rash to say that any par- allelism exists. The Moquis do not attempt to foretell the future by this means, or at least if they do, my researches have been misleading.
"After a snake had been properly sprinkled, it was picked up, generally by one of the eagle- wand bearers, but never by a woman, and car- ried up to the Indians of the first division, which, as was remarked, had preserved its alignment near the sacred lodge. Most of the snakes were transferred to the infant grasp of the little boys who had come in with the first division. One five-year-old youngster, in the fearlessness of infancy, stoutly and bravely upheld the five-foot monster which, earlier in the day, had so nearly scared me out of my senses.
"This part of the ceremony lasted scarcely a moment; the serpents were at once taken away from the boys and handed to the first old man whom we have learned to regard and designate as the head priest; and by him, with half-audible ejaculations, consigned to the sanctuary of the sacred lodge.
"From this the reptiles made no attempt to escape, the hairy coating of the buffalo skin which lined it keeping them from crawling up- ward or outward. As fast as the members of the second division had dropped the first invoice of snakes they returned with more, repeating
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precisely the same ceremony following their first entrance, the only discrepancy being that in their subsequent appearances every man car- ried a sinuous, clammy reptile between his teeth; one of the performers, ambitious to excel his fellows, carried two; while another struggled with a huge serpent too large to be pressed be- tween his teeth, which could seize and retain a small fragment of the skin only, the reptile meanwhile flopping lazily, but not more than half-contentedly in the air.
"The devotion of the bystanders was roused to the highest pitch; maidens and matrons re- doubled their energy, sprinkling meal not only upon the serpents wriggling at their feet, but throwing handfuls into the faces of the men car- rying them. The air was misty with flour, and the space in front of the squaws white as driven snow.
"Again and again the weird procession cir- cled around the sacred rock. Other dancers, determined to surpass the ambitious young men whose achievements have just been chronicled, inserted two snakes in their mouths, instead of one, the reptiles in these cases being, of course, of small size. I must repeat that no steps had been taken to render these snakes innocuous, either by the extraction of their fangs or by drugs, and that if they were quiescent while be- tween the teeth of the dancers, it was as much because their attention was distracted by the feather wands plied so skillfully by the attend- ants, as from any 'medicine' with which they had been bathed or fed; that as soon as they
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struck the ground, most of them began to wriggle actively and coil up, to the great consternation of the spectators in closest proximity, and that when so moving, the attendants first sprinkled them with cornmeal and then began to tickle them with the eagle wands to make them squirm out at full length, when they would pounce upon them behind the head, and carry them, held in this secure manner, to the little boys, who, grasp- ing them in the same way, seemed to have no apprehensions of danger.
"Once or twice snakes of unusual activity had coiled themselves up in attitudes of hostility, from which they were driven, not by the ordi- nary eagle wand-bearing attendants, but by older and more dextrous manipulators, whom, it is fair to assume, were expert charmers. This impression, or assumption, will be strengthened by instances to be recorded later on in the drama.
"Two or three serpents struck viciously at all who approached them; one quickly wriggled his way in among the men packed on the outer line of the rectangle, at the crest of the preci- pice, and another one darted like lightning into the midst of a group of women corn-throwers. raising, especially in the latter case, a fearful hubbub, and creating a stampede, checked only by the prompt action of the charmers, who, with- out delay, secured the rebellious fugitives and bore them off in triumph, to be deposited in the buffalo skin sanctuary. After the snakes had all been carried in the mouths of dancers. dropped on the ground, sprinkled with sacred cornmeal, picked up, held by the small boys, passed to the chief priest, and by him been
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prayed over and deposited in the buffalo lodge or sanctuary, a circle was formed on the ground in front of the sacred rock by tracing with corn- meal a periphery of twenty feet diameter.
"The snakes were rapidly passed out from the sanctuary and placed within this circle, where they were completely covered up with sacred meal, and allowed to remain, while the chief priest recited in a low voice a brief prayer. "The Indians of the second division then grasped them convulsively in great handfuls, and ran with might and main to the eastern crest of the precipice, and then darted like frightened hares down the trails leading to the foot, where they released the reptiles to the four quarters of the globe.
"While they were running away with the snakes, the first division moved twice around the sacred rock and buffalo lodge, the old man armed with the sling, twirling it vigorously, causing it to emit the same peculiar sound of rain driven by the wind which had been heard on their approach. In passing in front of the sacred rock the second time each stamped the ground with his right foot.
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