hailing distance they were greeted by the acclamations of the watchers.

These runners were Snake priests, all elderly men, and as each in turn
reached the position of the aged priest at the mesa edge, he received
from that dignitary a sprinkling of sacred meal and a formal
benediction, then passed on to the Snake Kiva.

Before the last of these had appeared, began the arrival of the young
athletes from across the plain to the left. Swiftly them came, and
gracefully, their lithe brown bodies glistening in the early sunlight,
across the level lowland, then up the steep trail, to be met at the mesa
edge by a picturesque individual carrying a cow bell and wearing a
beautiful garland of fresh yellow squash blossoms over his smooth
flowing, black hair, and a girdle of the same lovely flowers round his
waist, with a perfect blossom over each ear completing his unique
decoration.

As the athletes, one at a time, joined him they fell into a procession
and, led by the flower bedecked individual, they moved gracefully in a
circle to the rhythmic time of a festive chant and the accompaniment of
the cow bell. When the last racer had arrived, they were led in a sort
of serpentine parade toward the plaza. But before they reached that
point they encountered a waiting group of laughing women and girls in
bright-colored shawls, whose rollicking role seemed to be that of
snatching away from the young men the stalks of green corn, squash, and
gourds they had brought up from the fields below. The scene ended in a
merry skirmish as the crowd dispersed.

Later, Dr. Cummings unobtrusively followed the tracks of the priests
back along their sunrise trail and out across the desert for more than