March brings the Palululong, "Great Plumed Serpent," a masked and
elaborately costumed mystery play given in the kiva. This shows more of
the dramatic ability and ingenuity of this people than any other of
their ceremonies; the mechanical representation of snakes as actors
being one of its astonishing features.

One of the very pretty social dances is the Butterfly Dance, given
during the summer by the young people of marriageable age. Costumes are
colorful and tall wooden headdresses or tablets are worn. Figure 7 shows
a Hopi girl acquaintance photographed just at the close of a Butterfly
Dance that the writer witnessed in the summer of 1932 at Shungopovi.
(See Figure 8.)

This dance is really a very popular social affair, a sort of coming out
party adopted from the Rio Grande Pueblos a good many years ago.


=The Snake Myth and the Snake Dance=

The Snake Dance of the Hopi is, of course, the best known and most
spectacular of their ceremonies, and comparatively few white people have
seen any other.

One hears from tourists on every hand, "Oh, they used to believe in
these things, but of course they know better now, and at any rate it's
all a commercial racket, a side show to attract tourists!"

[Illustration: Figure 8.--Shungopovi, Second Mesa.

--Photo by Lockett.]