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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No 174 



breast of an eagle attached to it. These bahos are 

 prayers to the gods that the springs where they 

 are deposited may not dry up, but continue to 

 give an ever-increasing supply. We never saw 

 the ceremony of depositing bahos, if ceremony 

 there be, though on several occasions we reached 

 the spring while the hunters were there. 



At the end of each day the serpents collected 

 during that day were deposited in an estufa situ- 

 ated on the southern edge of the village, the 

 westernmost of a group of three. These estufas, 

 or, as the Indians call them, kivas, were under- 

 ground, or partly underground, chambers, a num- 

 ber of which are attached to each village, and 

 form a kind of combined church and court-house, 

 in which is transacted all the religious and civil 

 business of the tribe. They are of various di- 

 mensions. Those mentioned here are about twen- 

 ty-five feet long by twelve in width, and nine feet 

 high. Most of these kivas have a slightly elevated 

 dias, or platform, occupying a little less than one- 

 half of the ground space, generally the south end. 

 On this platform the women and other spectators 

 stand during the performance of those rites which 

 they are allowed to witness. There were a number 

 of young men who seemed to make this their head- 

 quarters during the period of preparation, living 

 in the kiva entirely, except when out on a hunt. 

 They usually sallied out during the forenoon, 

 armed with the various paraphernalia before men- 

 tioned, and returned to supper or feasting a little 

 before sundown. At one of our visits, on the day 

 before the dance, we found the floor of the kiva 

 strewn with buckskin sacks, some empty, others 

 containing snakes ; but the bulk of the snake- 

 suppk was contained in three large earthenware 

 vessels inverted on a slight bed of sand on the 

 floor. Each vessel had a small hole broken 

 through the bottom, through which the reptile 

 could be passed. These holes were closed by 

 corn - cob stoppers. During the visit, a man 

 brought in another pouch, and released on the 

 floor two small rattlesnakes. The younger men 

 of the band played with these, apparently from 

 simple amusement or curiosity, as there was no 

 ceremonial whatever. They handled the snakes 

 without taking any special precautions to get a 

 safe grip, even holding them occasionally by the 

 middle of the body. After a while they were put 

 into the j;irs with the others. While one of the 

 snakes was coiled on the floor for a movement, a 

 naked boy walked past it to the other side of the 

 room, passing within six inches of the snake. 



The easternmost of the three kivas is the snake- 

 kiva projwr. In this underground chamber, for 

 several days preceding the dance, various rites 

 and ceremonies were performed. On the lower 



portion of the floor was a peculiar altar, made of 

 various colored sands spread on the floor, and sur- 

 rounded by lumps of clay in which were stuck 

 small upright sticks with feathers attached. This 

 sand-painting on the floor represented a mass of 

 clouds from which descended four variously 

 colored figures representing either snakes or light- 

 ning, the sign for these being apparently the 

 same. Both the clouds and the other figures were 

 very much conventionalized. The colors used 

 were yellow, blue, pink, black, and white. It is 

 unnecessary here to describe the details of this 

 so-called altar or its construction, as the type is 

 already well known through the able descriptions 

 of Dr. Matthews and Col. James Stevenson. I do 

 not think the snakes appear in this estufa until 

 immediately before the dance. 



We reached the \ illage of Mashongnavi shortly 

 after four o'clock in the afternoon of the ap- 

 pointed day, and found that preparations had 

 been made to hold the dance in the middle court, 

 — an oblong space measuring about a hundred 

 and fifty feet by thirty or thirty five, and closed 

 all around by houses, with the exception of the 

 narrow passage-ways at the south end nearest the 

 kivas, and a large passage on the north, which, 

 however, was not used in this ceremony. Only 

 a part of the available space of the court was 

 utilized. The court had been swept clean ; and 

 near the middle, close up to the houses, on the 

 western side, a small conical hut constructed of 

 green cottonwood boughs had been erected. The 

 diameter of the hut, on the ground, was about six 

 feet ; and the tops of the highest branches meas- 

 ured about thirteen feet from the ground, though 

 the inside . height was probably under five feet. 

 On the east side, flush with the ground, was an 

 opening about two feet and a half square, cov- 

 ered with a piece of buffalo-hide, smooth side out. 

 A little before five o'clock three men dressed in 

 the snake costume came through the narrow 

 opening at the south end on a run. Each carried 

 in his hand a small red buckskin bag containing 

 sacred meal. They entered the hut one at a time, 

 remaining inside a moment. Immediately after 

 these men came two others, dressed also in the 

 snake costume, carrying between them a medium- 

 sized flour-sack nearly full of snakes. These were 

 deposited in the hut, and the whole party returned 

 through the passage by which they had entered. 

 A moment later the procession of dancers filed 

 into the court. 



There were two costumes, — that of the ante* 

 lope gens, under whose auspices the dance was 

 performed: and that of the snake order, the per- 

 formers. The legend of this dance is the legend 

 of the first arrival of the Mokis at their present 



