Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1881 — A SNAKE DANCE. [ARTICLE]

A SNAKE DANCE.

The Solemn Ceremony ox the Moqui - "Indians ii> Procession of Live Snakae-l £ 9 J() the Third cy«lp\ Ogltal SUto.Mmr, sMe-de-carrfJJ 'tb General trees, one of the officers selected by Lieuten-ant-Geneml Sheridan some months since to make investigations into the habits, etc., of the-Indians living within or contiguous to the military division of the Missouri, , pCjje district assigned Bourke Was thte southern half es the division, tie ’ northern 4*rtion being allotted to Captain W.*P. Clark, second cavalry. Lieutenant Bourke has penetrated never before traversed by a white man, and has written to General Sheridan a long letter, whfoh contains a graphic account of a curious and horrible religious ceremony among a remote and almost unknown < ludnm- tribe,- the Moqub.ofJaorthewHern Arizona, a people whose Identity been preserved since thev jveremrst seen, and partially described oy‘the Spanish Catholic missionaries in 1536. The rite referred ter to thOf snake dance. Bourke says the Moqiiis had a procession, divided into! wo parts, one of the choristtrs and gourd rattlers, the other of forty-eight men and children, and the other twenty-four acted as attendant!, fanning the snakes with eagle feathers. The horrible repflies were carried both in the hands and Id the mouth. It was a loathedome sight to see the long file of naked men carrying these monsters between tb#ir teeth and tramping around a long circle to ths accompaniment of a funeral dirge of rattles, and the monotonous chanting. After a snake had been thus jcarrled around the circle, i/was depdraki in a sacred lodge qf a cottonwood sapling, covered with buffalo robes, and its place taken by another. Thus Jt was not hard to oalculate the number used, which was not far from one hundred (rather over than under), and half the number were rattlesnakes. The procession entered through an arcade, marcbtng four times around the great circle embracing both the sacred lodge and the sacred rock, and then formed in two single ohpristert facing toward the precipice, and the dancers facing the sacred lodge. The “high priest,” as I call him, took tris station directly in front of the sacred lodge and between it and the sacred rock, which latter is a grim looking pile of weatherworn sandstone, twenty or thirty foet high, having a slight resemblance to a human head. At the foot of it, is a niche in which is a piece of black s'tone bearing a very vague resemblance to the human trunk. At the base of thjs, idol are many votive offerings to .propitiate the deity to send plentiful raius. As the procession files around the little plaza the “high priest” sprinkles the ground with water .using an earthen bowlaiHl an eagles feather as a sptinklet A second medicine man twirls a peculiar sling and makes a noise like the falling of copious showers. When the two hues are halted facing each other the dancers, who are at first provided with eagle feathers,wave them gau4#downward to the light and left, While the choristers shake their rattles, making a noise like a rattlesnake, and at the same time sing a low and not unmusical chant. When this is finished the high priest holds the bowl toward the sacred lodge, utters a low but audible prayer, and sprinkles tne ground again with water. The singing and featherwaving are repeated,and the first scene is over. Nothing’at all horrible has occurred yet; but no time is lost, before the sec end part of the ceremony commences. The choristers remain in their places with the high priest while the dancers, two by two, and arm in arm, tramp with measured tread in a long circle embracing the sacred points already mentioned. Your btood chills as you see held, by the mejt on/th6 left snakes of all kind* wriggling 1 and writhing, while the right hand then keeps the reptile distracted by fanning its head with eagle feathers. There is no discount on this part of the business. The snakes are carried in the hand and in the mouth, and as I have already said, some of the rattlesnakes were so large, over five feet long, that the dancer could not grasp the whole diameter in his mouth. As the procession filed past the squaws the latter threw corn meal before them on the ground. These snakes when thrown to the earth showed themselves, in most cases, to be extremely vicious and struck at anyone coming near. • In such an evdn| a little cornmeal was thrown upon them and an assistant, running gp fanned them with the eagle feathers until they coiled up. Then he quickly seized them by the back of the hAad. After all the snakes had been put under the buffalo robe covering of the sac rid lodge, there was another prayer, ,aud the second scene ended., ~ , ' * The third scene commenced almost immediately,>ml was as,follows; The snakes were seized by ones, tw6s and half dozens and thrown into the circle, where they were covered over with corn meil. A signal <vas given and a number of fleet young men the snakes in handfuls,ran at full speed down the almost vertical paths in tne fSte ot the mesa, and upon reaching its foot let them go free to the north, the south, the east and west. The young men then came at a full run, dashing Uiiough thexn-oevd <n«l on to one of the wherb we Were told they bad to swallow a potion to induce copious vomiting, and to undergo other treatment to neutralize any bites they might have received. Of one thing I am assured, the Mo, quis medicine men know more about snakes than any people on the earth, the Asiatic snake charmer not excepted.