6o8 FEWKES 



wall of the room to the other and from the floor almost to the 

 rafters. On this screen were painted many strange devices, 

 among which were pictures of human beings, male and fe- 

 male, and of birds, symbols of rain clouds, lightning, and fall- 

 ing rain. Prominent among the symbols was a row of six 

 circular disks the borders of which were made of plaited corn 

 husks, while the enclosed field of each was decorated with a 

 S3^mbolic picture of the sun. Men wearing grotesque masks^ and 

 ceremonial kilts stood on each side of this screen, one dressed 

 as a woman and bearing in one hand a basket tray of meal 

 and in the other an ear of corn. He wore a helmet with a coil 

 of hair suspended on each side of the face, a bunch of feathers 

 on the top, and a bang made of red horse hair hanging before 

 the face. The helmet was painted black, and small crescents 

 indicated the eyes and the mouth. 



The act began with a song to which the masked men, except 

 the last mentioned, danced. A hoarse roar made by a con- 

 cealed actor blowing through an empty gourd ^ resounded from 

 behind the screen, and immediately the circular disks swung 

 open upward, and were seen to be flaps, hinged above, cover- 

 ing orifices through which simultaneously protruded six artificial 

 heads of serpents, realistically painted. Each head had pro- 

 tuberant goggle eyes, and bore a curved horn and a fan-like 

 crest of hawk feathers. A mouth with teeth was cut in one end, 

 and from this orifice there hung a strip of leather, painted red, 

 representing the tongue. 



Slowly at first, but afterwards more rapidly, these efllgies 

 were thrust farther into view, each revealing a body four or 

 five feet long, painted, like the head, black on the back and 

 white on the belly. When they were fully extended the song 

 grew louder, and the effigies moved back and forth, raising 

 and depressing their heads in time, wagging them to one side 

 or the other in unison. They seemed to bite ferociously at each 

 otlier, and viciously darted at men standing near the screen. 

 This remarkable play continued for some time, when suddenly 



' Representing the Rear Katciuas. 



'This gourd was decorated witli the symbolic marks of the Great Plumed 

 Snake. 



