Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 284, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1920 — Page 3

Bolshevists Invade Mexico’s Presidential Palace

Crowd of Bolxnevists outside the presidential palace In Mexico'City. They were bold W Invade i the palace, and the man in the center on horseback, holding the “Red” flag, is reported to have waved it from one of the balconies.- ‘ . .' ■ ■■

MOKIS DANCE; WOULD APPEASE RAIN GOD

Arizona Indians, Far Removed From Civilization, Cling to Ancestral Customs.

AS IN DAYS BEFORE COLUMBUS —— Mokiland Is the Richest Part of the Union for Prehistoric Exploration * —Medicine Man Determines ' Dato for Snake Dance.

Smithsonian archeologists say that - the most Interesting aboriginal ceremonies performed nowadays In America take place in midsummer days among the Moki Indians, who live in northeastern Arizona. Scarcely touched by our dlvlllzatlon and clinging to ancestral customs, H. G. Tinsey tells the Dearborn Independent, the Mokis perform during the last days of each August dances and rites In propitiation es their god of rain, Identical with those of their ancestors ages before sailed from Spain, Mokiland, or the province of Tusuyan as the Spanish named it in the early part of th? sixteenth century, is the richest part of the Union for prehistoric exploration. Cities of strong, intelligent people flourished here in the time pf the Caesars. Ruins of heathen temples, which crumbled before the Montezuma dynasty began, lie among the drifting sands. The land of the Mokis abounds in ancient traditions still kept in their pristine freshness. Studying Mokis’ Customs. This month two score of American and archeologists, besides some from Europe, have gathered In the Moki pueblos to study the customs, habits, thought and traditions of man in prehistoric America, as they have come down through' generations of Mokis. Spanish adventurers under CornnadO' reckoned in 1542 that there were about 13,000 souls in the Tusuy?n confederacy of Moki tribes. Now there are but a few hundred Mokis. They are known also as Hopis; and their name signifies “peace loving.” They have a tradition that several hundred years ago the ' warlike Apaches waged a. terrific war against the tribe. The remnant of the Mokis fled in terror and took; refuge on the two great tablelands of red sandstone which rise sheer some 70 feet out of a vast sea of sand. The great rocky formation has been a veritable Gibraltar of defense to the tribe and from the day the ancestral Mokis fled they and their descendants, have dwelt there isolated. Rain is the all-essen-tial elemest in the success of Moki agriculture, and in the desert region rains come capriciously. The date of the Moki snake dance Is determined by an old medicine man |n the tribe, When during August the sun at its setting glints this sacred rock that stands before the door of the tribal kiva, the old medicine man, Honi, mounts the highest point at either Walpl or Oraibl and solemnly gives notice that 16 sunsets hence the solemn snake ceremonies will take place. He ends by invoking all to begin immediate preparation for the occasion. The women are to bake for a tribal feast, to dress, themselves and their childrep in their best garments, and the men are to perform their several parts in the ceremonies. A certain number of young men, appointed for the purpose, start out at next dawn to perform their part of the preparation for the dance. • They are jakulali (snake gatherers). They roam over the desert with a forked stick in one hand and a bag-made of skins in the other. They know where to look for rattlesnakes and sometimes they get more than 200 serpents tn a week. They plant the, forks at their sticks over the neck of the recumbent snake, and by an ydrolt movement threw the reptile into the bag. The seibents are brought to the pueblo and . over to the dd snake

ment of the annual snake ceremonies, mysterious rites among 27 of the foremost men in the Moki tribe begin in a chamber hewn into the rock down below the pueblo. This is the kiva, the holy of holies of Moki belief. Dr. J. Walter Fewks of the Smithsonian institution is the only white person who has ever entered the kiva, and he says that the ceremonies there consist In washing the serpents captured and thought there by young men. The old men engage In barbaric Incantations, and chant appeals to the serpents to bear messages of devotion and friendship to the powers that rule the rain clouds. The snake priests wear nothing to protect themselves from the reptiles’ fangs. Each day they wash the rattlesnakes, sprlhkle sacred cornmeal on the serpents’ heads, and deposit the creatures in jars. Meanwhile the Moki housewives cook and bake In preparation for the event, of the year—the snake dance on the plaza of the -pueblo. /The gaudiest tribal finery is brought forth and made ready. White and Navajo Indian visitors coipe across the desert to see the public ceremonies and for & week all Mokiland bustles and buzzes.

At the setting of the sixteenth sun from the official announcement by old Honi the snake dance takes place. Late in the afternoon the spectators arrange themselves in vantage spots overlooking the plaza where the dance is performed. Some 2,500 persons are generally on hand to see the ancient marvelous ceremony. The roofs of the squat stone houses are crowded. Moki children with scarcely a stitch on them sit along the cornices with their brown legs hanging down. There are cowboys from all ov.er’the territory, reporters /rom newspapers, scientists from the cities, and hundreds of Indians in brilliant and quaint It Is a rare scene; “one fit for a salon picture," said an enthusiastic artist. The white people laugh, the dogs and children make tumult, while every । one awaits the opening of the dance. At just about six o’clock, when-the sun is dropped into the yellow desert away to tfie west, some one calls: “Here they come." Instantly there is silence. Everybody knows that the antelqpe men —young athletic snake dancers —are at last Issuing from their stone chambers. The braves are scantily clad, and on each leg is a small terrapin shell, in which are placed small pebbles, which rattle as the warrior moves, and make of him, in sound at least, a human rattler. The dancers are smeared with, red, white and black paints. Around each brow is bound a flaming handkerchief, the upper forehead being painted a deep black, and the lower half with black and white bands. Live Snakes In Their Mouths.

The band forms In a circle and a sack of serpents ls> brought forth and is placed in the branches of a cottonwood shrub known as the kisi just where it has stood on Moki dance days for countless generations. A chief, hideously painted, opens the sack and as each brave marches past thrusts bib naked arm within and jerks from it. several writhing serpents, which he hands to the buck. The snake dancer bends and seizes /the snakes by their middle with his teeth, while he bolds one or two serpents in each hand. The eerpents rattle, hiss. and struggle while the human captors, gesticulating and stamping, join in a solemn rhythmic movement, in which, after each man has been supplied with serpents, the whole band Is soon participating. 1V The Moki women and the several hundred Moki bucks who do not participate in the dancing at first sit in mute awe. As the sance proceeds the red-skinned spectators start a low humming, which gradually develops. Louder and louder rises the din of discordant voices until • the women become wildly excited, and leap to their feet Meanwhile the dance goes on. The dancers glisten with perspiration and the paint on their bodies runs down their bare backs and legs. Some of the older ones, so show their prowess with venomotw reptiles, carry three and five rattlesnakes about iHth them. They

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

Spanish Coin of 1709 in Delaware Bay Fish

Cape May, N. J.—Frank W. Hughes of Cape May Point caught a nine-pound weakflsh In Delaware Bay. When he cleaned the fish Hughes found in it a Spanish coin dated 1709. It is supposed that this came from one of the Spanish ships of that time which was wrecked off the Delaware capes. Hughes was accompanied when he caught the fish by Horace Carson, who some time ago found a pearl valued at SSOO in a clam that he caught off the Fishing Creek clam beds.

weave the snakes about their heads, they coll them in huge balls and tosd them up and down; they twine them about their necks and tuck them between the belts of their kilts and their nude waists, and carry them, held at the middle, in their mouths. All this time they are, hopping about the sunbaked plaza. Now they circle about the klsi with their burden of, serpents in their hands. Then at a signal by old Kopali, the snake thief, the dancers form in threes, and with the snakes wriggling for freedom in their hands, they march backward and forward. Another signal and they form in a row and toss the serpents to and fro. Then the dance starts anew. More circling, marchings and counter-marchings in ones, twos and threes. Occasionally a reptile wriggles Itself loose from an Indian’s hand. It Is, however, Instantly picked up like so much rubber hose.

An Hour of Horror. ‘The snake dance lasts about fifty minutes. At its close the Indian spectators have risen to their feet, and arc weaving their arms and bodies back and forth in time to the rapid chorus they are shouting over and over again. The dancers are dripping with perspiration. The white visitors are dazed at the Incredible scene. No one who has not seen it would believe these men can be so thoroughly indifferent to the serpent’s venom. . Suddenly at a signal from wrinkled Kopali the dancing ceases and the high snake priest advances to an open place. He solemnly sprinkles meal in a ring, denoting all compass points to which serpent messengers are to convey the Moki petitions. At another signal the rattlesnakes are thrown in a heap within the circle. Meal is hastily thrown upon the wriggling heap, while a guttural invocation is pronounced. In a momept each of the dancers snatches several of the serpents in bis bands, and starts at full speed for the narrow trail which leads down from the mesa to the plains below. There the gruesome burdens are thrown upon the sands and permitted to go their way in peace. The dance is over, but there’S another scene. When the athletic dancers have come running back to the plaza they hasten to the sacred kiva, where they remove all the trappings - of the ceremony. Then they come out and drink deeply from a bowl of mysterious decotion of herbs brewed only by Salako, the oldest Snake woman in Mokiland. /

Then the Mokis go home in silence. They have performed the most important service in their lives and have propitiated the rain god as sacredly as they know how. Their wives and sweethearts wait upon them and wash them of their paint. On the morrow the pueblo feast takes place, and the new green coA and melons are eaten without stint.

’ Very naturally the question Is asked: Are not the rattlesnakes used in the Moki ceremonies drugged or deprived of their fangs? If not, why are not the half-nude snake dancers and priests bitten? White people who have seen several Moki snake dances say they have never known ■ a Moki to confess he was fanged, but every year spectators snake dancers pull away from their arms serpents that have fastened there. Every year some of the reptllei coll arid strike at their captors. The best-posted scientists who have looked upon Moki wake dances say that the priests and dancers have < certata manner of handling the creatures, and that the strange broth which the snake handlers drink renders venom harmless. At any rate it is unique aman| barbaric customs, .

Chess is a compulsory subject in the schools in the village of Strobeck, Germany. The photograph shows that school children of Strobeck carrying their chess boards and men to the school.

Desert Is Safe for Travelers

Government Issues Guide to Springs and WeHs in Salton Sea Region. PROSPECTOR STARTS MOVE United States Geological Survey In Cooperation With Engineering Department of California University Makes Survey of Desert.

Washington.—The repellant though interesting phrase "Great American Desert” was sprawled across a large part of some of the'earlier maps of our western and southwestern territory, and though the area of supposed desert land was thus exaggerated, enough real desert remains to justify targe studies of methods of utilizing it and special studies of its water resources and watering places in order to make journeys across it safe for travelers. Travelers in the desert region of the Southwest must depend for their existence on “water holes" (springs, wellsor natural tanks), many of which are separated from one another by a hard day’s journey with team and wagon. The water holes in most of this region have never been ly mapped or described, no systematic provision has been made for maintaining them, and the roads leading to them have not been marked with substantial and reliable signs, so that travel in the parts of the region that are remote from settlements has been precarious and even perilous. A Pioneer for Safety In the Desert. The movement for the protection of prospectors and travelers on the arid desert plains of his country was begun many years ago by George W. Parsons, a prospector and desert expert of Los Angeles, Cat In 1901 Mr. Parsons made a trip across the desert region of California with Prof. W. L. Watts, state mineralogist, and, on his return, urged upon the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce the necessity of placing guide posts and- of developing water holes in the desert. Mr. Parsons’ work led to an appropriation by congress, as a result of which the United States geological survey, Department of the Interior, in co-operation with the department of engineering of the state of California, surveyed the southern California desert and has recently Issued a report, entitled “Routes to Desert Watering Places in the‘Salton Sea Region, California ” by John S. Brown.

Region Covered by the Report , The region covered by this guide is tn the southwest corner of California and is about one hundred miles hf length and breadth, covering about ten thousand square miles. Its northern limit is the thirty-fourth parallel and its southern is the boundary between the United States and Mexico; Its eastern border is marked by Colorado river, which separates California

archers front. The annual five £ _lf,- _ In g. 1 O*j DUviUmIUVII Olav w** miv ** . •••’“ ” - ■ .. 5,- ~_;•< ■•• Mac csxowau mvsaf-m tr —— j.V«-• “iw

Chess Is Compulsory in German School

Archen Hold Championship Tournament

and Arizona, and Its western by the meridian of 116 degrees 40 minutes. It therefore Includes Imperial county and the most arid parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. In addition to maps showing the roads and the watering places, the guide contains road logs and brief descriptions of the watering places. For the convenience of travelers coming and going, the logs of nearly all the roads are given In two directions. Ih-

Indian Sells Land for Plane; Heap Big Chief

Hiawatha, Kan.—Chief Harrison Connell, an Indian,. bought an airplane In Kansas City several months ago to give exhibition flights. He brought the plane to his home here, where scores ।of redskins assembled to see their chief fly. Chief Connell had sold his last eighty acres of Indian land and was preparing to fly high when the plane came down with a sickening thud. Chief Connell had $2,700 Invested in the machine, but sold It for SIOO to an oil man from Texas. . / A.

Use Film in Surgery

Preparation For and Carrying Out of Operation Shown. I* Especially Useful for Students as Instructor Can Explain Every Move Made. New York,— Many prominent physicians and the student body of the New York Homeopathic Medical College attended the unique celebration of National Homeopathic day at the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital, Avenue A, between Slxty-thlrd and Sixty-fourth streets. Interest centered around the exhibitions of herniotomy under local, anesthesia- by Dr. Fred A. Kelly of Detroit, surgeon of the Grace hospital of that city and President of the Michigan*' State Homeopathic society. The application of local anesthesia* which means the deadening of the nerve centers in the region of the operation without causing the patient to lose consciousness, to herniotomy, which included operations for hernia and rupture, is something entirely new in medical science. The first demonstration was a four-reel moving picture showing every detail of preparation and actual carrying out of the operation as performed by Doctor Kelly and ids assistants in the Grace hospital in Detroit This moving picture

formation and sketch maps are included for certain roads that extend somewhat beyond the northern boundary of the region as defined above, in oraer to connect the routes in this region with watering places beyond its limits. On the other hand, a considerable area In the western part of the region is high and well-watered and the routes In it are given only for certain irregular westward extensions of the desert. The report just published, which is listed as water supply paper 490-A, may be obtained free of charge by applying to the United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.

CHOLERA INCREASES IN CHINA

Troop Movements Blamed for Worst Condition In Twenty Years, Says Professor Dye. _______ ' New York.—As a result of the frequent movements of Chinese troops in Szechuan province, West China, cholera has spread more extensively recently than In the last 20 years. This Is the opinion of Prof. Daniel S. Dye of West China ttalon university, expressed in a letter to Rev. W. :R. Taylor, a representative of the American Baptist Foreign Mission society ip China, now on furlough here. The disease has caused great ravages in Tungchwan, Chungking and Chengtu, as well as many of the smaller villages. Americans and Europeans are virtually immune, Professor Dye said, due largely to precautions in preparation of food and in the matter of hygiene.

reel Is especially useful in that one who understands the operation can stand and explain every move made to students land surgeons Interested and also in that it has the advantage over the actual operation itself In thatthe entire operation or any part of it can be reviewed as many times as is desired by the Instructor or student The picture was followed by a demto, .nd dlwrammlng Imgolulfle. la the heart The advantage of this apparatus is that the part attached to necting wires, the results of the test may be recorded on the machine in tbs hospital miles away. This does away with the necessity of carrying about the entire apparatus, it being necessary to have on hand only the part attached to the patient’s arms and legs. The final demonstration was tbs performance in the operating room of the Flower hospital of an actual operation by Doctor Kelly after the manner described In the motion picture shown earlier In the afternoon. The operation was successfully performed upon an Ulfixiate of the hospital, who bad recently been brought Into the hospital suffering from rupture. ■ -