A THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE AT WALl'I 609 



the heads of the serpents bent down to the floor and swept across 

 the imitation corn field, knocking over the clay pedestals, and 

 the corn leaves which they supported. Then the elligies raised 

 their heads and wagged them back and forth as before. It was 

 observed that the largest effigy, or that in the middle, had several 

 udders on each side of the belly, and that she apparently suckled 

 the others. Meanwhile the roar emitted from behind the screen 

 by a concealed man continued, and wild excitement seemed to 

 prevail. Some of the spectators threw meal at the effigies, of- 

 fering prayers, amid shouts from others. The masked man, 

 representing a woman, stepped forward and presented the con- 

 tents of the basket tray to the serpent effigies for food, after 

 which he held his breasts to them as if to suckle^ them. 



Shortly after this the song diminished in volume, the effigies 

 w^ere slowly drawn back through the openings, the flaps on 

 which the sun symbols were painted fell back in place, and 

 after one final roar, made by the man behind the screen, the 

 room was again silent. The overturned pedestals with their 

 corn leaves were distributed among the spectators, and the two 

 men by the fireplace again held up their blankets before the 

 fire, while the screen was silently rolled up, and the actors with 

 their paraphernalia departed. 



The accompanying plate (pi. xxxii) represents the cloth screen 

 tied in position to the roof of the kiva and the miniature corn 

 field on the floor before it. The six openings in this screen, 

 four of which are larger than the other two, are arranged in 

 a row, and out of five of these openings protrude serpent effi- 

 gies. The flaps which ordinarily cover these orifices are raised, 

 with the exception of that at the extreme right, which hangs in 

 place to show the sun symbol on its face and the tip of a ser- 

 pent's head near one margin. The central effigy {yuainu, their 

 mother), is knocking over the rows of clay pedestals which 

 form the miniature corn field. The masked human figure 

 standing at the left before the screen represents the mother of 

 the clan gods or Hahaiwilqti, who is holding forward a basket 

 tray of meal which she offers as food to the serpents. One of 

 the performers may be obscurely seen behind the screen, blow- 



iThis actor represented Hahaiwi'iqti, mother of Katcinas or clan ancients. 



