Nov , 1903. Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony — Voth. 323 



occasionally. At the starting-place the bahos, I understand, are 

 mostly deposited at one end of the line of racers. But if more than 

 the required number have been made, which is sometimes the case, 

 as has been mentioned in a previous footnote, they are deposited at 

 the other end. A number of men and boys have in the mean while left 

 the village and have gone to the cornfields in the valley to get green 

 corn-stalks, the disposition of which will be mentioned later on.' 

 While thus the race is being inaugurated in various ways, we direct 

 our attention to the Antelope kiva, where the necessary preparations 

 are made for the exercises that are to interlink with the race at the 

 proper time. 



At about five o'clock Tobengotiwa has made a new meal circle 

 around the kiva. The Antelope youth and maid are dressed and 

 painted up, the nine cigarettes ready, the four bahos that were made 

 the previous day deposited; in fact, everything prepared as usual. 

 At about half-past five o'clock the Snakes are called. Usually only 

 the chief priest and one or two of the older men come, as the younger 

 Snake members participate in the race, as explained, and two or three 

 of the older men, decorated and dressed the same as the two warriors, 

 have gone to the edge of the mesa in order to sprinkle the racers with 

 sacred meal upon their arrival on the mesa. Usually these men go 

 down the mesa, too, and return with a stalk of green corn. Whether 

 they get these from the fields themselves or obtain them from others 

 at the foot of the mesa, I am unable to say, but have reasons to 

 believe that the latter is the case. 



As soon as the Snake priests have seated themselves, the usual 

 smoking of cigarettes takes place, the crooks and snake whips are then 

 distributed, the tfponi and snake handed to the Antelope youth, the 

 bdtni, with its contents, to the Antelope maid, in fact everything is 

 made ready to begin the singing ceremony at a moment's notice, where- 

 upon all silently wait for the signal to commence the singing. The 

 manner in which this signal is given will be described presently. We 

 now again turn our attention to the race. I have never witnessed the 

 ceremonies at the starting-place, but have reasons to believe that the 

 following description, furnished me by participants, is correct: The 

 first one to arrive at the place'^ where the race is to begin is the mes- 

 senger who got the water in a mdngwikuru on the previous evening. 

 He has with him this vessel, a pdhu, and one of the long chochokpis 



> Some of the members of both fraternities also get cornstalks from the cornfields, others 

 swarm along the race track, and all join the racers as they arrive from the starting-place and race 

 along, but no participant in the ceremony is allowed to contend for the prize. 



' Usually he sleeps there, as has already been stated elsewhere. 



