160 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
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B-MEDICINE BOWL NI-MEDICINEMEN 
N-HEADOFSNAKESOCIETY I- Iarikos 
4 CKa’towe 2-Gaepana 
Figure 15.—Adobe house: Snake society initiation 
On the ground surrounding the cornstalk house melons, fruit, 
melon vines, and vegetables of all kinds have been placed (fig. 16). 
These had been stored in excavations in a nearby arroyo bank until 
the time came to lay them out. The head of the Snake society is 
sitting in the cornstalk house with the bowls of live snakes. When 
the singing begins Snake nawai hands the snakes to the medicinemen 
outside who dance with them. The songs tell the dancers how to 
hold the snakes: now with the right hand, now with the left; by the 
neck, by the tail, etc. If anyone is bitten during the dancing a 
medicineman will rub a bit of snake medicine on the bite and nothing 
will come of it. The candidate and his father also dance with snakes. 
After all the snakes have been danced with, they are returned to the 
nawai who puts them back into the bowl. Then the spectators are 
