Nov., 1903. Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony — Voth. 357 



lies more in the fact that the whole system of the patient is so thor- 

 oughly saturated with it, than in the medical properties of the plants 

 as such. 



For three days the patient is not permitted to associate with any 

 one except those who treat him and take care of him; generally, I 

 believe, only the Snake priest and the woman who prepares the food. 

 On the fourth day he washes his head in suds, made of water and 

 crushed roots of the yucca plant, whereupon he returns to his home. 



There seems to be a deep-rooted conviction among the members 

 of the Snake and Antelope Fraternities that they are immune from the 

 effects of snake poison and from the snake charm while they are 

 engaged in the ceremony. One of the Snake priests, now an old man, 

 was once struck by a rattler while he ran with handfuls of snakes from 

 the plaza at the conclusion of the ceremony. He says he held the 

 snake about midway of the body, and it swung back its head and 

 struck him in the hand. A young man was bitten on the plaza a few 

 years ago, which, however, I did not find out until lately. A third 

 man told me that he was once bitten — I think he said while trying to 

 take a snake from the pot in the booth. It has already been stated 

 on a previous page that formerly the snakes were kept in a covered 

 pot instead of a sack on the plaza. In none of these cases was any 

 special treatment resorted to, because, I was told, that was not con- 

 sidered necessary in the case of members of the Fraternity during the 

 time of the ceremony. Of course such immunity is claimed only for 

 those whose "hearts are good"; where this essential quality does not 

 exist the bite of a venomous reptile may prove just as dangerous, and 

 even fatal, as in the case of any other mortal. 



At any other time except during the ceremonial days the members 

 of the Antelope and Snake Fraternity seem to be just as much afraid 

 of a rattlesnake as other people. On several occasions it so hap- 

 pened that a member of the Snake Fraternity was near by when a 

 rattlesnake was found near the mission.' I challenged them to pick 



' I have frequently been asked whether in view of the fact that the Hopi kill so few snakes the 

 country around the village does not abound in them. 1 do not think that there are more snakes there 

 than we found for instance in Kansas when we settled there in 1874. Still we generally kill from four 

 to six rattlers close to the mission house nearly every summer, ."^nd in order to show that a rattle- 

 snake does not strike very quickly I may cite a few special cases. One time our little boy, then about 

 two years old, had been playing near a bush, when all at once a rattler crawled away only a few feet 

 from the child. On another occasion my wife stepped over some dry weeds near the house, and 

 almost on two rattlesnakes that were lying there partly coiled up. At another time our daughter 

 stepped through the door from the house, the threshold being about six or eight inches from the 

 ground. The little boy about two years old followed her, putting one foot after the other very slowly 

 over the threshold. I followed immediately after, and turning around saw a rattlesnake completely 

 coiled up, apparently ready to strike, not more than one inch from the place where the feet of the 

 little fellow had touched the ground. Had he touched the reptile the latter would in all probability 

 have struck. It is a well-known fact among people who have had some experience with rattlesnakes 

 that they will, as a rule, give timely warning with their eyokingpi (bell), as the Hopis call the rattles. 



