980 TUSAYAN FLUTE AND SNAKE CEREMONIES (ETH. ANN. 19 
PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE WALPI SNAKE DANCE 
During the last five performances the Snake dances in the Hopi 
pueblos have been photographed again and again, with varying suc- 
cess. Although the conditions of light at the time of the dance are 
poor, there has been a steady improvement at each successive pre- 
sentation, and fine views can now be purchased from yarious photog- 
raphers. The author has made a collection of these views, most of 
which were presented by the photographers, and has selected some of 
the more instructive for illustration in this article. 
Tore Wart ANTELOPE ALTAR 
The accompanying illustration (plate Lim) shows the Antelope altar 
at Walpi on the ninth day of the Snake dance. It was based on an 
excellent photograph made by Mr George Wharton James, who has 
kindly allowed me to make use of his photographic work. The plate 
differs from the photograph in several respects, for on the day (Totokya) 
on which the latter was taken several objects, as the two tiponis, were 
absent, and the sand mosaic was imperfectly represented. These two 
features are restored in the illustration. 
TIPONIS 
Of all objects on a Hopi altar perhaps the most important and con- 
stant is the badge of office or palladium, known as the tiponi, of the 
religious society which celebrates the rites about it. The Antelope 
altar has for the first seven days two tiponis, the Snake and Antelope. 
When the Snake altar is constructed the Snake tiponi is taken from 
the Antelope kiva to the Snake kiva, where it forms the essential 
object of the new altar. The two tiponis are shown in plate Lit at 
the middle of the side of the altar, on the border of the sand picture 
next to the kiva wall. The two tiponis are separated by a stone 
fetish of the mountain lion. These two objects of the societies, called 
‘*mothers,” are the most sacred objects which the altars contain, and 
their presence shows that the altars are the legitimate ones. Each is 
deposited on a small mound of sand upon which six radiating lines of 
sacred meal are drawn by the chief. 
STONE IMAGES OF ANIMALS 
There were several stone images of animals on the Antelope altar 
at Walpi, which were distributed as follows on the western border of 
the sand mosaic near the tiponis: the largest, representing a moun- 
tain lion, stood between the two palladia of the society. It was upon 
this fetish that Wiki rested his conical pipe when he made the great 
rain-cloud smoke after the eighth song in the sixteen-songs ceremony, 
as elsewhere! fully described. 
1Journal of American Ethnology and Archeology, vol. 1v. 
