354 Field Columbian Museum — AJithropology, Vol. III. 



have not yet been published is the delay which has been caused by 

 various circumstances in the publication of this paper. 



Repeated mention has been made in the course of this paper of 

 the herb hohoyaonga (Physaria Newberryi), which is used during the 

 ceremony, but more as a charm than as a "medicine." This herb is 

 also used in case of a snake bite, but in the same manner, it seems, as 

 in the ceremony; i.e., not so much as a drug, but rather as a charm. 

 Another remedy used is the so-called prayer-beetle or tumble-bug 

 (Asida rimata), in Hopi hohoyaowu, from which the above-mentioned 

 herb derives its name. This beetle is either eaten raw or it is cooked 

 in water and the liquid administered. Neither of these two remedies 

 is considered to be a secret, and almost any Hopi, when asked what 

 remedy they use in case of a snake bite, will rhention them. But 

 usually they will add that there are others which, however, are known 

 to the Snake Society only. 



The secret antidote consists of a decoction made of two herbs: 

 Masl (gray) lachi (Suaeda Torreyana Watson) and pivdnnga: weasel, 

 medicine (linum rigidum Pursh), one of the so-called yellow foxes, 

 both of which I have had in my possession for several years, and 

 since being acquainted with them have collected myself.^ 



While it is true that only comparatively few Hopis are aware of 

 the fact that these well-known and common herbs are the jealously 

 guarded snake antidote, the statement, sometimes seen in print, that 

 only the chief priest or only one woman in the tribe, besides the Snake 

 priest, knows this secret is certainly erroneous. I have good reasons 

 to believe that at least all the older rhembers of the Snake Fraternity 

 are acquainted with it. 



The names of the herbs were first given me by one of the older 

 members of the Snake Society, whom I had befriended on various 

 occasions. He also brought me the herbs and referred me to an old 

 priest, of whom he knew that he had gathered the plants on various 

 occasions. He begged me, however, not to mention his name to any 

 one. When later, on one occasion, this old priest related and explained 

 to me a number of facts concerning a certain ceremony, I turned the 

 conversation on the subject of the snake antidote. He stopped short 

 and wanted to know who had told me about it. I replied that I had 

 promised our mutual friend not to divulge his name, but that if he was 

 really as great a friend of mine as he always claimed to be he should 



• For the identification of these plants, as well as for other courtesies, 1 am indebted to Dr. C. 

 F. Millspaugh, Curator of Botany of this museum. Dr. Walter Hough mentions in his paper on "The 

 Hopi Relation to their Plant Environment" (American Anthropologist, Feb., 1897,) a " mashilashi," 

 which, however, he identifies as solidago missouriensis \utt. The herb piwa'nnga 1 had also iden- 

 tified by Prof. F. D. Kelsey, then Professor of Botany in the college of Oberlin. Ohio, and he also 

 railed it linum rigidum. 



