Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 284, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1920 — MOKIS DANCE; WOULD APPEASE RAIN GOD [ARTICLE]

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

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, .