268 Kansas Academy of Science. 



ous thrust as they danced. Wheeling so as to face the west, both 

 hands were simultaneously elevated above the head, and five steps 

 were emphatically stamped by both men and women. Turning on 

 their heels so as to face the north, they began to dance as at first. 

 Thus they continued to perform throughout the whole "set," and 

 from set to^set, till the ceremonies were brought to their consum- 

 mation. 



At the close of each set the actors retired to their respective 

 estufas, and another set of performers, after they had been sprinkled 

 with the sacred dust in the presence of the symbolic paintings of 

 the sun edifices, came from those houses, similarly costumed, to take 

 their places. 



Just as the first set was breaking up the "funny men" came 

 tumbling and rolling into the plaza. They were the same black 

 and white clowns we have met with before ; but in this case their 

 bodies were decorated with corn strung on cords of buckskin and 

 hung over their shoulders like wreaths. They were not so funny 

 now as when we first saw them. Their principal duty at this time 

 was to present to the gods the wrong-doings of the tribe. This 

 they proceeded to do, in imitation, to the limit, as the lookers-on 

 shrieked and howled with mirth. When the next dancing set 

 formed, the clowns retired to the estufas or laid down to rest in 

 the shade of the grove till the set was danced through. Then they 

 became active again. 



Thus, throughout the whole day, dancing scenes alternated with 

 clown performances till evening claimed the land. Then all lined 

 up in double column, with columns facing each other. Between 

 these lines the caciques marched backward and forward and 

 sprinkled all with the sacred dust. Then the columns marched to 

 the inner room of the chief cacique's house and deposited the ears 

 of corn they carried in their hands or had suspended at their shoul- 

 ders. This corn they gave as an offering to the gods for the boun- 

 tiful crop they had raised. The dance closed with this scene. 



THE SNAKE DANCE. 



This dance was seen at Zia pueblo, but the Jemez have it also. 

 It is there a secret ceremony, performed at night, the same as at 

 Zia. 



Just at dusk, at the full of the moon, in August, in 1899, the 

 antelope priests went to the place where they had collected snakes 

 of every kind to be found in the region. These snakes they fed 

 till they would eat no more. Then, after they had sprinkled them 

 with sacred meal, they took snake canes having feathers suspended. 



