108 SUMMER CEREMONIALS 



basket of sacred meal. On his head he wore two horns, 

 one on each side. A second carried a bowl of water and 

 a feather wand. Two women and a boy followed. 



The participants who followed the priests were scantily 

 clad and many of them were painted. In their hair, on 

 either side of the head, sunflowers were placed and around 

 their loins there were sacred dance kilts or blankets. 

 White streaks or bands were daubed on the body and along 

 the sides of their legs. Each dancer carried in his hand 

 a corn stalk with corn upon it. There were several naked 

 boys in the procession who wore a profusion of shell beads, 

 had horns tied to their heads, while their bodies were 

 daubed with streaks of white. Behind the procession came 

 two persons who carried bows in their hands and over their 

 shoulders hung quivers filled with arrows. There was 

 carried, likewise, a whiz/er or a flattened slab tied to the 

 end of a string, by revolving which they made a whizzing 

 or buzzing noise. These men are said to correspond with 

 the Pith-la- si he-wa-ney or Priests of the Bow at Zuiii . They 

 are known as the Ra-lek-ta-ka . The priests and boys with 

 horns on their heads are called A-lou-sa-ka. 



When the procession arrived at the open space which 

 surrounds the pinnacle of rock where the snake dance is 

 celebrated, it formed in lines with several abreast lacing the 

 rock and sung a low song without dance, the leader beating 

 time with his foot. The song was accompanied with rat- 

 tles and horns. The Ka-lek-ta-ka contributed to the song 

 the noise of their whizzers which they whirled about the 

 head. After the participants had sung their song at the 

 edge of the open space around the rock pinnacle, they ad- 

 vanced a few paces and repeated the song and ceremony. 

 This they did four times until they advanced to a lodge or 

 bower, She-hep-kee, built of cotton-wood in the middle of 

 the place. Upon the rock upon which they stood the 



