FEWKES) SYMBOLISM OF THE DANCE 307 
root of tciibio, antelope! A study of the Oraibi altar effectually 
silences all doubt on that score, for the effigies of antelopes’ heads 
form part of its paraphernalia. I have no satisfactory explanation of 
the connection of the two priesthoods, but offer this suggestion: The 
Ala or Horn people, now identified with the Flute, originally lived 
with the Snake people, possibly as two phratries. When they sepa- 
rated, in an ancestral home, a majority wandered off with the Flute 
people, but a few remained with the Snakes. The predominating clans 
gaye their names to the two groups, but although a number of the 
Ala people remained with the Snakes, it was not large. These Ala 
or Horn people were Auntelopes, and their sacerdotal descendants are 
the Antelope priests; but the clans were small and became extinct, and 
the chiefs came from the predominating Snake family. The old name 
of Antelope remained, and their symbol in effigy persists on the Oraibi 
altar, but the clan was lost for a time. 
Among the Flute branch the Ala people were vigorous, and retained 
both blood and name, so that when Snake and Flute people came 
together again, in Tusayan, they recognized each other as kin. At 
that time, indeed, the Horn family existed in Walpi in Alosaka, and 
he was naturally sent to spy out the character of the Flute men when 
they came. This personage is still represented in the Flute dance at 
that pueblo, as I have elsewhere described.’ 
Summing up the foregoing speculations, I am led to state the follow- 
ing probabilities which may be used as suggestions in future attempts 
to divine the meaning of the Snake dance. That the ceremony is a 
rain-making observance can not be doubted, and the nature of many 
acts shows that it is likewise tinged with sun worship. To these must 
now be added corn or seed germination, growth and maturity, implied 
in the somewhat misleading name “‘ Corn-dauce,” a dominating influence 
in every great rite of Tusayan. Iam inclined to believe that the Snake 
dance has two main purposes, the making of rain and the growth of 
corn, and renewed research confirms my belief, elsewhere expressed, 
that ophiolatry has little or nothing to do with it. If there is any 
worship of the snake, it is of such a nature that it may be more cor- 
rectly designated ancestor worship. Nor does it appear to me that the 
snake, as here used, is wholly a symbol of water, as the frog, tadpole, 
or dragonfly. The reptile is introduced as a totemic personation by the 
society of the Snake phratry to reproduce ancestral conditions in which 
the ceremony was performed as the legend indicates. The same 
thought is expressed in a similar way in widely different Tusayan cere- 
monies. ‘Take any one of the katcinas, for instance; they do not intro- 
duce the totemic animal, to be sure, in the MKatcina dance, but they 
personate it by wearing masks. They thus attempt to resurrect the 

1Note likewise the element feii in Tciiawympkiya. Snake priest, and Tetibwympkiya, Antelope 
priest. 
2 Journal of American Folk-lore, Vol. vil, No. xxvii, p- 287. 
