Pl. CLXI. The Snake Altar. 



This Plate shows the Snake altar as it is constructed when initiations take 

 place. The figurines have been described in the text and in connection with 

 Plate 157. The picture in front of the figurines is a sand mosaic, the inner border 

 being yellow, the color of the north ; the next one green, the color of the west ; 

 the next red, the color of the south ; the next white, the color of the east. The 

 borders are separated by black bands, black being the color of above, which is 

 represented by the north-east. In the centre of the mosaic is a figure of a puma 

 and around it drawings of four snakes. The crooks and sticks belong to the 

 Antelope Fraternity. 



On one side of the altar is seen the jar under which the snakes are kept, on 

 the other some snake bags and whips and a tray of meal. Unfortunately, the 

 negative seems to have been reversed in making the print for the half-tone, so that 

 what is now the right side of the altar should be the left. 



This Plate shows the Snake altar as reproduced by the author in the Field 

 Columbian Museum. 



