green decoction, called Frog-water. Then they drink a powerful
emetic, and having lined up on the edge of the _mesa_, vomit in
unison! This is to purge them from the evil effects of snake-handling;
and lest it should not be sufficiently effectual, the dose is
repeated. Then they sit down, and eat bread, given them by the women
as a kind of communion or religious rite.

[Illustration: AFTER THE EMETIC.]

[Illustration: CHIEF SNAKE PRIEST.]

The seventy or eighty snakes used in this dance are treated from
first to last with the utmost kindness and respect, especially the
rattlesnakes, a dozen of which will frequently be squirming on the
ground at once. It is noticeable that the Indians never pick up a
rattlesnake when coiled, but always wait until it straightens itself
out under the feather stroking, for it is claimed that the
rattlesnake cannot strike uncoiled. At all events, when one is at its
full length, the Indians not only catch it up fearlessly, but carry
it with impunity in their mouths and hands. As might be supposed,
however, the Moquis are said to possess an antidote against the
poison of a rattlesnake, which, if a man is bitten, is given to him
at once; and it is said that none of them ever dies from the effects
of a snake-bite.

[Illustration: WHERE THE SNAKES ARE KEPT.]

The religious element in all these ceremonies should not be lost
sight of, for the life of the Pueblo Indians is permeated with
religion, or superstition, to the minutest details. Thus, it is an