48 HOPI KATCINAS [eth. ann. 21 



enicryod the heads of two artiticial serpents drawing their bodies 

 ))ehind them. These efl'ects were produced by hidden strings placed 

 over the kiva rafters, and the images were made by this means to rise 

 and fall, move backward and forward, or to approach each other. 

 Their heads were drawn down to the floor and swept over the minia- 

 ture cornfield, overturning it as in the fii'st act, when a sun screen 

 was also employed. They struggled with each other, winding their 

 heads together, and performed various other gyrations at the wish of 

 the manipulators. The efl'ects produced with these strings were 

 ett'ectivc. and the motions of the men who held the strings and manip- 

 ulated the etfigies were closely concealed. It is probable that some of 

 the strings were attached to the rattles used by the chorus. 



The performance was a very realistic one, for in the dim light of 

 the room the strings wei'e invisible, and the serpents seemed to rise 

 \-oluntarily from the vases. At its close the effigies sank into the cavi- 

 ties of the vases and the song ceased. In the darkness the para- 

 phernalia were wrapped in blankets, and the actors left the room, 

 passing to another kiva, where the performance was repeated. The 

 personators of this act were from the Tcivato kiva of "Walpi, and their 

 chief was Pautiwa. 



While we were witnessing these six exhibitions in one room shows 

 were sinmltaneously being enacted in the other eight kivas on the 

 East mesa. The six sets of actors, each with their paraphernalia, 

 passed in turn from one room to another, in all of which spectators 

 awaited their coming. Each of the performances was given nine 

 times that night, and it may safely be said that all were witnessed by 

 the 5(K) people who comprise the population of the thi-ce pueblos in 

 one kiva or another." It was midnight when this primitive theater 

 closed, and the efligies were disjointed and carried to hidden crypts in 

 the houses, where they were luted in jars with clay, not to see the 

 light again until March of the next j'ear. 



ADDITIONAL ACTS SOMETIMES PERFORMED 



Although the sixth act closed the series of theatrical cxliil)itions in 

 1900, it by no means exhausts the dramatic resources of the Hopis in 

 the presentation of their Great Serpent exhibition. This year (1900) 

 was said b\^ all to be one of abbreviation in all winter ceremonies and 

 dramatic performances, but in more elaborate exhibitions, in other 

 years, instead of six there are, w^e are told, as many as nine acts in this 

 continuous show, employing one set of actors from each kiva on the 

 mesa. Our account would be more comprehensive if it included short 

 references to one or two of the important additional acts which occur 

 in the more elaborate performance.* 



"On such occasions each clan assembles in a certain kiva, which is said to be the kiva of that clan. 



l) The sun screen and serpent effigies used by men of the Naeab kiva have been described in a former 

 article (The PaUiliikoiiti..rournal of American Folk-Lore. vol. ii, 1893). This performance has many 

 points of likeness to that of actors from the pliizii kiva of Hano, described in the first act. 



