Nov., 1903. Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony — Voth. 293 



it and begin to smoke, blowing the smoke towards it.' Should a cer- 

 tain party absolutely fail to take such a coiled snake, he infers that his 

 "heart is not good," and that the snake is angry. Another man is 

 then called to try the experiment, and if he fail, another one, etc. 



It has already been stated that in 1896 no snakes were found on 

 this day. The hunters came back in the evening, tired and discour- 

 aged. They again complained a great deal about the hard crust on 

 the ground. But when they had assembled around the fireplace and 

 were smoking, some one was heard stamping his foot on the roof of 

 the kiva, a sign that he had something to communicate to the inmates 

 of the kiva. Puhtinomtiwa ascended the ladder and was handed a 

 shirt, one sleeve of which contained a snake. This Puhtinomtiwa took 

 out, placed it into a snake bag, chewed a small piece of hohdyaonga, 

 and spurted it on the shirt, to cleanse it of the snake charm, and 

 handed it back to the owner, who had been waiting outside. Pres- 

 ently another man announced his presence in the same manner, and 

 handed in a pair of pants. One leg of these, which, like the shirt sleeve, 

 had been tied up at one end, also contained a snake. It was also 

 taken out, the pants treated in the same manner as the shirt, and 

 handed back to the owner. Both of these men were members of the 

 Snake Fraternity, but for some reason, did not participate. I was told 

 that if any member of the Snake Fraternity happens to find a snake 

 while the ceremony is in progress, he is at liberty to bring it in. 

 These men had been working in their fields, and not having with them 

 a regular snake bag when they found the snake, had improvised a bag, 

 the one of his shirt sleeve, the other of his pant leg. It has been 

 stated on a previous page that none of the liberal faction now partici- 

 pate in the Ordibi Snake ceremony, but it may be remarked in this 

 connection that not nearly all of the members belonging to the con- 

 servative faction participate either. I took occasion to question some 

 of the latter as to the reasons why they stayed away. One said, 

 because his wife, another because his child, had died not long previ- 

 ously, and hence their "heart was not good," i.e., they were not in a 

 proper condition to take part. Others stayed away for other reasons 

 (for instance, on account of having a quarrel with some one, etc.). 

 Not a few frankly admitted that they did not participate because they 

 were "mdmkashi" (afraid). On one occasion I noticed that every 

 Snake priest, after he had finished eating supper, chewed a little 

 hohoyaonga and spurted it into his food bowl. 



• I have never seen the individual hunters take tobacco and pipes with them, but this smoking 

 towards a rebellious reptile has been mentioned to me several times. It is possible that on those 

 occasions where my informants saw it done, either the chief priest was in hailing distance or the 

 hunters happened to have a pipe with them. 



