THE SNAKE DANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6505, 2 January 1882, Page 6

THE SNAKE DANCE.

, ' *! AS PEAOTIBBD BT TUB MOQUIB INDIANS ON NOBTQ-BASIEtN ABIZONA. First Lieut. Bourke, of the Third Cavalry, U.B. Army, oido-do-oatnp to General Crook, wm one of 'the officer* wleoted by Lieut.* General Sheridan, lame month* *inoe, to make xaveitigalion* into the habit*, &0., of the Indian* living within or oontiguoui to the Military Division of Missouri. The diitridt assigned to Lieut. Bourko was the southern half of the division. dourke ha* penetrated into a country never before traversed by a white man, and ha* written to General Sheridan a long letter, which contain* a graphic account of a curious and horrible religious ceremony among the remote and almost unknown Indian tribe, the Moqui*, of northeastern Arizona, a people whose identity hie been preserved *inoe they were first seen, and partially described by Spanish Catholic missionaries in 1586, The rite referred to is the snake dance. Lieut. Bourko says the Moqui* had a procession divided into two parts, one of the choristers and gourd rattlers, the other of forty-eight men and children, twenty-four of whom carried snakes, and the other twentyfour acted as attendants, fanning the snakes with eagle feathers. Toe horrible reptiles are carried both in the hand* and in the mouth. It waa a loathsome eight to see a long file of naked men carrying these sinuoue monsters between their teeth and tramping around a long circle to the accompaniment of

a funeral dirge of rattles and monotonous chanting. After* snake had been thus carried around the circle it wee deposited in a sacred lodge of cottonwood saplings, covered with * buffalo robe, and its place taken by another. Thus it was not hard to calculate the number used, which was not far from 100, rather over than under, and half the number were rattlesnakes. Tho procession entered through an arcade, marching in the line of arrow heads four times around the great circle, embracing both the sacred lodge and the sacred rook, and then formed in two single ranks, the choristers facing towards the precipice and the dancer* facing the sacred lodge. Tho "High Priest," as 1 call him, took station directly in front of the sacred lodge, and between it and the sacred rook, which latter is a grim-looking pile of weather-worn sandstone, twenty or thirty feet high, having a slight resemblance to|a human head. At the foot of it is a niche in which is a piece of black stone bearing a very vague appearance of the human trunk. At the base of this idol are many votive offerings to propitiate the deity to send plentiful rains. As the procession files around the little piaza the High Priest sprinkles the ground with water, using an earthen bowl and an eagle’s feather as a sprinkler. A second medicine man twirls a peculiar sling and makes a noise like the falling of copious showers. When the two lines are halted facing each other, the dancers, who are at first, provided with eagle feathers, wave them gently downward to tne right and left, while the oboristere shake their rattles, making a noise like a rattlesnake, and at the same time sing a low and pot unmusical chant. When this is finished the High Priest holds the bowl towards the sacred lodge, utters a low but audible prayer and sprinkles the ground again with water. The singing and feather waving are repeated and the first scene is over.

Nothing at all.horrible ha* occurred jet. But no time is lost before the «eoond part of the osremony commence*. The choristers remain in their places with the High Priest, while the dancers two by two and arm in arm, tramp with measured tread in a long circle, embracing the sacred points already mentioned. Your blood chills as yon see hold by the men on the left snakes of all kinds, wriggling, while the right hand man keeps the;reptile distracted by fanning its head with eagle feathers. There is no discount on this part of the business. The snakes are carried in hand and in the mouth, and as I hare already said, some of the rattlesnakes were so large over At* feet, that the dancer could not grasp the whole diameter in bis mouth. As the procession filed past the squaws at S, the latter threw corn meal before them on the ground. These snakes, when thrown to the earth, showed themselves in most oases to be extremely vicious, and struck at any one coming near. In such an event, a little com meal was thrown upon them, and tke assistants running up fanned them with the eagle feathers until they coiled up, and then he quickly seized them by the back of the head. After all the snakes had been put under the buffalo robe covering the sacred lodge, there was another prayer and the second scene ended. The third scene commenced almost immediately, and was as follows:—The snakes were seised by ones, twos, and half-dozens and thrown into the circle, at B, where they were covered over with corn meal. A signal was given, and a number of fleet young men grabbed the snakes in handfuls. . »»» at full speed down the almost vertical paths in the face of the mesa, and npon reaching its foot, let them go free to the north, the aonth, the east and west. The young men then eame back at a full run, dashed through the crowd and on to one of the estates, where we were told they had to swallow a portion to induce copious vomiting, and to undergo other treatment to neutralise any bite* they might have received. Of one thing lam assured, the Hoquis medicine man knows more about snakes than any people on the earth, the Asiatic snake charmers excepted.