L000 TUSAYAN FLUTE AND SNAKE CEREMONIES [ETH, ANN. 19 
kisi, in front of which they sang for some time. After the first 
platoon had sung their songs before the kisi, they handed the offer- 
ings borne by the boy and the girls to a man within it,’ and retired 
to the chamber where their altar stood. The second platoon followed, 
doing the same, after which they likewise retired and the ceremony 
closed with purification and the dismantling of the altar. 
During the march to the pueblo, and later, before the kisi, the 
priests sang Flute songs, accompanied by the flutists. These songs 
are among the most melodious in Hopi ceremonies, and are worthy of 
special study. The songs at the kisi were especially pleasing, and as 
ach division stood before the cottonwood bower and sang, it made a 
fine exhibit of aboriginal worship. 

FLUTE CEREMONY AT WALPI IN 1896 
The exercises of the Flute priests at Walpi in 1896 began on 
August 12 and continued until August 21, when they closed with 
the public dance. The author was able to witness the rites celebrated 
on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of the month, finding in them considerable 
variation from those performed on the same relative days of 1892.? 
The significance of these 
variations is not known, 
but as material for an ulti- 
mate explanation it has 
been deemed advisable to 
record them. 
fe) 
The secret observances 
of the Walpi Flute cere- 
mony occur in a large 
house on the north side 
of the pueblo, about oppo- 
Risen site the passageway open- 
ing northward from the 
FuuTe Room plaza in which the Snake 
dance is celebrated. This 
house (figure 45), the an- 
cestral Flute chamber, has 
an open balcony in front and exemplifies an ancient form of architec- 
ture which has well-nigh been abandoned on the East mesa. It was 
the first home of the Flute clan after it moved to the mesa summit, 
the ancient home of the Snake clan being just above the so-called Snake 

Fic. 45—Plan of Flute room at Walpi. 
rock, which rises from the south end of the main plaza. The two houses 
1The Flute chief crawled into the kisi, and certain objects, as pahos, water gourds, and meal were 
passed in to him, but what occurred within was concealed from view. The small netted gourds of 
water which the boy and girls carried (plate Lx11r) are the same as those used in the Snake dances. 
1 For an account of the Walpi Flute ceremony of 1892 see Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. vi, 
number 26. 
