FEWKES] PREVIOUS ACCOUNTS 965 
This article is a record only of what was seen, and lays no claim to 
completeness, introducing no rites which were not studied, even when 
there is ample proof of their existence (and the same may be said of 
the previously cited accounts of the Snake dances at Oraibi and the 
Middle mesa). Like the preceding accounts, it is simply a prelimi- 
nary record to aid investigators in future studies until enough material 
has been accumulated to adequately fathom the meaning of the rites. 
The portions of the Snake ceremony to which special attention was 
given were the altars, the washing of the reptiles, and the public Ante- 
lope and Snake dances. There still remain to be investigated several 
important episodes, such as the rites and songs about the altar. It is 
expected that this and other fragmentary contributions to the subject 
will lead to an exhaustive account of the Hopi Snake dance, which the 
author has had in preparation for the last eight years. 
The only known description of the Snake dance at Mishongnovi 
(plate xLv) was published in Science in 1886, by Mr Cosmos Mindeleff, 
who witnessed the festival at the pueblo named on August 16, 1885, 
and saw the presentation at Walpi on the following day. He found 
the two performances “‘ essentially the same, the only difference being 
in the greater number of performers at Walpi, and in the painting 
of the body.” In a general way this is true, but there are impor- 
tant differences in the kiva paraphernalia and performances, which 
are characteristic and instructive in comparative studies of the dance. 
Mr Mindeleff noticed the sand altar, and gave a brief description 
of it without illustration. He confused the two kivas used, for he 
speaks of a sand altar in the *‘Snake kiva proper,” or ‘* easternmost 
kiva.” The room where the Snake priests meet and where the rep- 
tiles are confined has no altar, which in Mishongnovi is always made 
in a neighboring room, the Antelope kiva. While observations on 
the public dance agree with Mindeleff’s descriptions, there are signifi- 
cant differences in interpretation, due to enlarged acquaintance with 
the Hopi ritual. ‘*The Snake gens,” he writes, ‘has nothing to do 
with the dance, and contrary to the opinion of Captain Bourke it is 
not referable, I think, to ancestor worship, at least not directly.” On 
the contrary, no one can now doubt that the Snake dance was pri- 
marily a part of the ritual of the Snake clan, and that ancestor wor- 
ship is very prominent in it. We need only look to the clan relation 
of the majority of priests in the celebration to show its intimate con- 
nection with the Snake clan, for the Snake chief, the Antelope chief, 
and all the adult men of the Snake family participate in it. The rever- 
ence with which the ancestor, and particularly the ancestress, of the 
Snake clan, viz, Tcitamana, is regarded, and the personation of these 
beings in kiva rites, certainly gives strong support to a theory of 
totemistic ancestor worship. 
