298 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. III. 



witness, who once played a conspicuous part in the Oraibi Snake 

 ceremony and whose information it is believed is correct. It is in 

 substance as follows: 



"When kel^hoyas were to be initiated it was done in this way: In 

 the forenoon, a sand picture ' was made on the floor of the Snake kiva 

 in front of the effigies. The latter were placed close to the north 

 side of the mosaic, which was made by the chief priest or others. 

 When it was finished, some one was sent to the Antelope kiva after the 

 crooks, which were then placed around the sand mosaic in the saipe 

 manner as they are arranged in the Antelope kiva. As soon as the 

 altar was completed (see PI. 161), the novices were brought into the 

 kiva by their "fathers" (sponsors or godfathers), who gave to each a 

 corn-ear and tied a small white eagle feather (nakwa) into their hair 

 and assigned seats to them on the floor east of the altar. Hereupon, 

 the Antelope priests were called. When they entered, each one 

 sprinkled meal to the altar and then all squatted down on the elevated 

 or spectators' part of the kiva, i.e., the part south of the ladder. All 

 now smoked cigarettes, previously prepared of corn-husk, leaves, and 

 native tobacco, by the pipmongwi, or tobacco chief. In the mean 

 while, two members of the Snake Fraternity had dressed up in a small 

 inclosure that had been prepared with blankets in the south-east part 

 of the kiva. One was dressed up in exactly the same manner as the 

 Antelope priest who dances with the vines in his mouth on the plaza 

 in the afternoon of the ninth day,^ only his body is not painted up, 

 and the wreath he wears on his head consists of yucca leaves instead^ 

 of Cottonwood twigs. The other man is painted up and costumed in 

 exactly the same manner as the Snake dancers are in the public dance 

 on the ninth day. After all had smoked, they comnienced singing. 

 Soon the man dressed up in Snake costume, whom we shall call, for 

 brevity's sake, 'Snake,' emerged from the before-mentioned inclos- 

 ure, but backward, and dancing in a squatting position. With his 

 hands he made the same motion from one side to the other that the 

 Snake dancers make in the public dance on the last day, when they 

 move the snakes which they are holding between their lips to the time 

 of the singing. As soon as he had emerged from the curtain, he threw 

 with each hand some corn-meal into the kiva, backward of course. 

 He then danced in a squatting position backwards toward the sand 

 mosaic, described a circuit behind it, danced over it from the rear side, 



' From the description hie gave it was very nearly the same as the one figured in the mono- 

 graph of the WAlpi Snake ceremonials by Dr. J. W. Fewkes. In fact, other members of the irnake 

 Fraternity to whom I have shown that plate aver that the Or&ibi mosaic is the same, which does not 

 exclude the possibility, however, of small variations. 



^ See description of the ninth day. 



