al boys of the Snake Clan,
novices, whose fearless handling of the snakes is remarkable.

Already (on the eighth day) in the plaza has been erected the Kisa, a
tall conical tepee arrangement of green cottonwood boughs, just large
enough to conceal the man who during the dance will hand out the snakes
to the dancers. Close in front of the Kisa is a small hole made in the
ground, covered by a board. This hole symbolizes the sipapu or entrance
to the underworld.

[Illustration: Figure 9.--Antelope Priest with Tiponi.

--Courtesy Arizona State Museum.]

At last comes the event for which the thronged village has been waiting
for hours, and for which some of the white visitors have crossed the
continent. Just before sundown the Antelope priests file out of their
kiva in ceremonial array--colorfully embroidered white kilts and sashes,
bodies painted a bluish color with white markings in zigzag lines
suggestive of both snakes and lightning, chins painted black with white
lines through the mouth from ear to ear, white breath feathers tied in
the top of their hair, and arm and ankle ornaments of beads, shells,
silver, and turquoise. (See Figure 9.) Led by their chief, bearing the
insignia of the Antelope fraternity and the whizzer, followed by the
asperger, with his medicine bowl and aspergill and wearing a chaplet of
green cottonwood leaves on his long, glossy, black hair, they circle the
plaza four times, each time stamping heavily on the sipapu board with
the right foot, as a signal to the spirits of the underworld that they
are about to begin the ceremony. Now they line up in front of the Kisa,
their backs toward it, and await the coming of the Snake priests, for
these Antelope priests, with song and rattle, are to furnish the music
for the Snake Dance.

There is an expectant hush and then come the Snake priests, up from
their kiva in grim procession, marching rapidly and with warlike
determination. You would know them to be the Snake priests rather than
the Antelope fraternity by the vibration of their mighty tread alone,
even if you did not see them. Their bodies are fully painted, a reddish
brown decorated with zigzag lightning symbols and other markings in
white. The short kilt is the same red-brown color, as are their
mocassins, the former strikingly designed with the snake zigzag and
bordered above and below this with conventionalized rainbow bands.

Soft breath feathers, stained red, are worn in a tuft on the top