White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 159 
into him or say something mean to him and it might hurt him.” It 
is to guard against this sort of injury that the candidate is accom- 
panied by a relative. If, however, someone should ‘‘do something 
mean” to the candidate, the offender himself might be compelled to 
join the Snake society. 
On each of the first 4 days a Snake tcaiyanyi goes out into the country 
to collect snakes. On the first day one goes to the north; on the 
second day to the west; on the third day to the south; and on the fourth 
day to the east. They bring back alive all the snakes they see and 
can catch and put them into two large ceremonial pottery bowls. 
The Snake nawai does not go on the hunts, but remains in the cere- 
monial house. ‘Tsityostinako has something to do with the snake 
hunts, but it is not clear what. ‘If she wants the tcaiyanyi to have 
snakes she will provide them; if she does not she will withhold them.” 
On the morning of the fifth day, right after sunrise, the Snake 
tcaiyanyi go to their ceremonial house in the country. This is a 
little adobe house located about 2 miles west of Sia. Stevenson 
(1894, p. 90), who saw and described the house, states that it was 6 
miles from the pueblo, but my informant denied that a new house had 
been built within recent decades: “it has always been there where it 
is now.” Also, on the morning of the fifth day, very early, a member 
of the Snake society goes to the house of the candidate and conducts 
him to the ceremonial house in the country where he presents him to 
the head of the society. Nawai ‘gives the candidate the right” to 
choose a ceremonial father. ‘‘If the person is too small or too bashful 
to speak for himself,” a close relative will choose a father for him. The 
father will accompany the candidate until the ceremony of initiation 
is over. 
A ceremony is now held in the little adobe house (fig. 15). It 
consists of singing, for the most part, but a medicineman, the one who 
ranks next to the head of the society, goes out and dances before the 
altar. He is the only one to do this. Finally the time comes for 
the candidate to go before the altar. His ceremonial father goes over 
to where he is sitting, raises him up with his hicami (eagle wing 
feathers) and leads him over to the altar and stands there with him. 
The singing is resumed. A medicineman comes out and gives the 
father and the candidate each a live snake; or, possibly, only one snake 
is used. ‘This indicates that the candidate has now become a member 
of the Snake society. The candidate and his father dance with the 
snake, or snakes, for a time. This concludes the ceremony in the 
adobe house; the next stage of the initiation takes place in front of a 
little conical ‘‘house”’ of cornstalks which has been built near the 
adobe house. Anyone from the pueblo may witness this part of the 
ceremony, and a goodly number of people attend. 
