394 THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [Vol. IX 



object of idolatrous worship. Ophiolatry is practiced by them ; 

 and so great is their reverence for serpents that they will not 

 permit one to be molested. They can name any indigenous ser- 

 pent without the slightest hesitancy, thus showing their great 

 familiarity with them. The revolting religious rites practiced 

 by them at the time of their annual Snake-dance are fully de- 

 scribed by Captain John G. Bourke, U. S. A., 1 and by Dr J. Walter 

 Fewkes. 2 Among the birds held sacred, or which represent their 

 clans or secret religious orders, are the eagle, parrot, macaw, 

 heron or sandhill crane, road-runner or chapparal cock, turkey, 

 and dove. Observers of Mold ceremonies have seen large wooden 

 tablets in their kivas or ceremonial chambers painted with a 

 green ground, ornamented with the rain prayer and some one of 

 the countless Mold gods, and have remarked that the little bird 

 in the clouds suggests the Thunder-bird of the Plains Indians. 

 Bourke states that " feathers appear constantly in religious cere- 

 monies " — chiefly those of the eagle and turkey. The wands, 

 made with eagle feathers, used for fanning living serpents at their 

 Snake-dance, cannot be bought, as they refuse to part with them 

 for an y pecuniary consideration, fearing to offend their ornitho- 

 logical deity. " In the early days of spring, when the fields are 

 to be tilled, the devout Molds prepare the sacrificial plumes of 

 eagle down attached to little sticks, which are buried in the 

 corners of their lands." 3 Bancroft, speaking of the natives of 

 Mexico, tells us (vol. n, p. 234) that eagles were furnished as 

 tribute to Montezuma, one town alone sending in forty each 

 year. He also informs us that a species of paroquet was a 

 sacred bird among the Zapotecs of Mexico, and as such wor- 

 shiped (vol. ii, p. 211). Bourke observes : " The feathers of the 

 parrot, which have to be brought up from the interior of the 

 neighboring Republic of Mexico, are treasured by all the Pueblos 

 as far north as Taos and Picuris, and west to Acoma, Zuni, and 

 Oraibi. They will always be found carefully preserved in pe- 

 culiar wooden boxes, generally cylindrical in shape, made ex- 

 pressly for the purpose ; with them is invariably associated the 

 soft white down of the eagle." He also notes having seen caged 

 parrots in the pueblo of Santo Domingo, New Mexico, which 



i The Snake-dance of the Moquis of Arizona, etc, New York, 1884, 



i Snake Ceremonials at Walpi : Jour. Am. Eth. and Arch., vol. iv, Boston, 1804. 



3 Bourke ; Snake-dance of the Moquis, p. 259. 



