FEWKES] THE SNAKE-WASHING AT MISHONGNOVI 971 
crowded together, completely surrounding the sand, save on one side, 
which was formed by the kiva wall (see figure 42). Three boys— 
novices—stood behind the line of seated priests, and if any of the rep- 
tiles escaped between the men while being released, they were 
promptly captured and returned to the sand by the lads. 
The bodies of all the participants were naked and were stained red 
with iron oxide, and each man wore a small red feather in his hair. 
Before taking their seats they hung bandoliers over their shoulders 
and tied one to the ladder pole. One of their number tied a white 
buckskin over his arm, and added other paraphernalia characteristic 



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Fic. 42—Diagram of positions of celebrants in the snake washing. 
of a kalektaka or warrior. It may be here noted that this personifi- 
cation does not appear in the Walpi snake washing. 
Two Snake kilts were spread on the banquette at the end of the 
kiva, and leaning against one of these was a row of snake whips. 
One of these kilts was decorated with a complete figure of the Great 
Snake. Ordinarily the head is omitted from figures of this serpent on 
Snake kilts, but the Snake priest at the Keres pueblo of Sia, as repre- 
sented in Mrs Stevenson’s instructive memoir, wears a kilt decorated 
with a complete figure of the Great Serpent. The figure of the zigzag 
body of the Great Snake on the kilts at the Middle mesa and Oraibi 
has two parallel bars extending entirely across the design; in the 
Snake kilts used in Walpi these lines do not join the border, but are 
parallel with it. 
The chief sat in the middle of the line and a man dressed as a war- 
rior wasat hisside. The former first drew with meal on the sand before 
