CHAPTER III 

 THE HOPI SNAKE-DANCE 



ON our trip we not only traversed the 

 domains of two totally different and 

 very interesting and advanced Indian 

 tribes, but we also met all sorts and conditions 

 of white men. One of the latter, by the way, 

 related an anecdote which dehghted me be- 

 cause of its unexpected racial implications. 

 The narrator was a Mormon, the son of an 

 English immigrant. He had visited Belgium 

 as a missionary. While there he went to a 

 theatre to hear an American Negro minstrel 

 troupe; and, happening to meet one of the 

 minstrels in the street, he hailed him with 

 "Halloo, Sam!" to which the pleased and aston- 

 ished minstrel cordially responded: "Well, for 

 de Lawd's sake ! Who'd expect to see a white 

 man in this country.^" 



I did not happen to run across any Mormons 

 at the snake-dance; but it seemed to me that 

 almost every other class of Americans was rep- 

 resented — tourists, traders, cattlemen, farmers, 



