om all
over the world, others in more remote villages, with but a mere handful
of outsiders present. She is personally convinced that the Snake Dance
is no show for tourists but a deeply significant religious ceremony
performed definitely for the faithful fulfillment of traditional magic
rites that have, all down the centuries, been depended upon to bring
these desert-dwellers the life-saving rain and insure their crops. They
have long put their trust in it, and they still do so.

Are there any unbelievers? Yes, to be sure; but not so many as you might
think. There are unbelievers in the best, of families, Methodist,
Presbyterian, and Hopi, but the surprising thing is that there are so
many believers, at least among the Hopi.

The Snake Dance, so-called, is the culmination of an eight-days'
ceremonial, an elaborate prayer for rain and for crops. Possibly
something of the significance of parts of its complicated ritual may
have been forgotten, for some of our thirst for knowledge on these
points goes unquenched, in spite of the courteous explanations the Hopi
give when our queries are sufficiently courteous and respectful to
deserve answers. And possibly some of the things we ask about are "not
for the public" and may refer to the secret rituals that take place in
the kivas, as in connection with many of their major ceremonials.

We do know that the dramatization of their Snake Myth constitutes part
of the program. This myth has many variations. The writer, personally,
treasures the long story told her by Dr. Fewkes, years ago, and
published in the Journal of American Ethnology and Archaeology, Vol.
IV., 1894, pages 106-110. But here shall be given the much shorter and
very adequate account of Dr. Colton,[28] as abbreviated from that of
A.M. Stephen:

"To-ko-na-bi was a place of little rain, and the corn was weak. Tiyo, a
youth of inquiring mind, set out to find where the rain water went to.
This search led him into the Grand Canyon. Constructing a box out of a
hollow cottonwood log, he gave himself to the waters of the Great
Colorado. After a voyage of some days, the box stopped on the muddy
shore of a great sea. Here he found the friendly Spider Woman who,
perched behind his ear, directed him on his search. After a series of
adventures, among which he joined the sun in his course across the sky,
he was introduced into the kiva of the Snake people, men dressed in the
skins of snakes. The Snake Chief said to Tiyo, 'H