THE HOPI SNAKE-DANCE 85 



That night fires flared from the villages on 

 the top of the mesa. Before there was a hint 

 of dawn we heard the voice of the crier sum- 

 moning the runners to get ready for the snake- 

 dance; and we rose and made our way to the 

 mesa top. The "yellow line," as the Hopis 

 call it, was in the east, and dawn was beautiful, 

 as we stood on the summit and watched the 

 women and children in their ceremonial finery, 

 looking from the housetops and cliff edges for 

 the return of the racers. On this occasion they 

 dropped their civilized clothes. The children 

 were painted and naked save for kilts; and 

 they wore feathers and green corn leaves in 

 their hair. The women wore the old-style 

 clothing; many of them were in their white 

 bridal dresses, which in this queer tribe are 

 woven by the bridegroom and his male kins- 

 folk for the bride's trousseau. The returning 

 racers ran at speed up the precipitous paths to 

 the mesa, although it was the close of a six- 

 mile run. Most of them, including the winner, 

 wore only a breech-clout and were decked with 

 feathers. I should like to have entered that 

 easy-breathing winner in a Marathon contest ! 

 Many of the little boys ran the concluding mile 

 or so with them; and the httle girls made a 

 pretty spectacle as they received the little boys 



