THE HOPI SNAKE-DANCE 87 



and half a dozen of them were in the immediate 

 neighborhood of a very big, ornamented wooden 

 bowl of water, placed on certain white-painted 

 symbols on the floor. Two of these Indians held 

 sacred rattles, and there was a small bowl of 

 sacred meal beside them. There was some 

 seemingly ceremonial pipe-smoking. 



After some minutes of silence, one of the 

 squatting priests, who seemed to be the leader, 

 and who had already puffed smoke toward the 

 bowl, began a low prayer, at the same time hold 

 ing and manipulating in his fingers a pinch of the 

 sacred &quot;meal. The others once and again during 

 this prayer uttered in unison a single word or 

 exclamation a kind of selah or amen. At 

 the end he threw the meal into the bowl of 

 water; he had already put some in at the out 

 set of the prayer. Then he began a rhythmic 

 chant, in which all the others joined, the rattles 

 being shaken and the hands moved in harmony 

 with the rhythm. The chant consisted seem 

 ingly of a few words repeated over and over 

 again. It was a strange scene, in the half- 

 light of the ancient temple-room. The copper- 

 red bodies of the priests swayed, and their 

 strongly marked faces, hitherto changeless, 

 gained a certain quiet intensity of emotion. 

 The chanting grew in fervor; yet it remained 



