priest, and performs the same ceremony. Then they too form a line,
facing the Antelopes, and all of them, for about five minutes, wave
their wands and chant some unintelligible words. Suddenly one
Antelope and one Snake man rush to the _kisi_, and the priest who is
presiding over the serpents presents them with a snake. The Snake man
immediately places the wriggling reptile in his mouth, and holds it
by the centre of its body between his teeth, as he marches around the
little plaza, taking high steps. Meantime the, Antelope man
accompanies him, stroking the snake continually with a wand tipped
with feathers. Then all the members of the two fraternities follow in
couples and do the same thing. Finally, each Snake man carries at
least two snakes in his mouth and several in his hands; and even
little boys, five years old, dressed like the adults, also hold
snakes in their hands, fearlessly. Once in a while a snake is
purposely dropped, and a man whose special duty it is to prevent its
escape rushes after it and catches it up.

[Illustration: THE SNAKE DANCE.]

All the time that this hideous ceremony is going on, a weird chant is
sung by the men and women of the tribe; and, at last, the chief
priest draws on the ground a mystic circle with a line of sacred
meal, and into this the men unload their snakes until the whole space
becomes a writhing mass of serpents. Suddenly the members rush into
this throng of squirming reptiles, most of which are rattlesnakes,
and each, grabbing up a handful of them, runs at full speed down the
_mesa_ and sets them at liberty, to act as messengers to carry to the
gods their prayers for rain. This ends the ceremony for the snakes,
but not for the men; for after they have liberated the reptiles, the
members of the brotherhoods return and bathe themselves in a kind of