THE HOPI SNAKE-DANCE 89 



snakes should have been quiet and inoffensive 

 under the influence of the slow movements and 

 atmosphere of calm that had hitherto obtained 

 was understandable; but the unexpected vio- 

 lence of the bathing, and then of the way in 

 which they were hurled to the floor, together 

 with the sudden screaming intensity of the 

 chant, ought to have upset the nerves of every 

 snake there. How^ever, it did not. The snakes 

 w^oke to an interest in life, it is true, writhed 

 themselves free of one another and of the upset 

 lightning-sticks, and began to glide rapidly in 

 every direction. But only one showed symp- 

 toms of anger, and these were not marked. 

 The two standing Indians at this end of the 

 room herded the snakes w^ith their eagle feathers, 

 gently brushing and stroking them back as they 

 squirmed toward us, or toward the singing, 

 sitting priests. 



The process w^as repeated until all the snakes, 

 venomous and non-venomous ahke, had been 

 suddenly bathed and then hurled on the floor, 

 filling the other end of the room with a wrig- 

 gling, somewhat excited serpent population, 

 which w^as actively, but not in any way ner- 

 vously, shepherded by the two Indians stationed 

 for that purpose. These men w^ere, like the 

 others, clad only in a breech-clout, but they 



