ceremony. The meal sprinkled on
the snakes during the dance and at its close is symbolic of the Hopi's
prayers to the underworld spirits of seed germination; and thus the
Elder Brothers bear away the prayers of the people and become their
messengers to the gods, to whom the Elder Brothers are naturally closer,
being in the ground, than are the Younger Brothers, who live above
ground.

Rather a delicately right idea, isn't it, this inviting of the Elder
Brothers, however lowly, to this great religious ceremonial which
commemorates the gift of rain-making, as bestowed by their common
ancestress, and perpetuates the old ritual so long ago taught by the
Snake Chief of the underworld to Tiyo, the Hopi youth who bravely set
out to see where all the blessed rain water _went_, and came back with
the still more blessed secrets of whence and how to make it _come_.

Nine days before the public Snake Ceremony, the priests of the Antelope
and Snake fraternities enter their respective kivas and hang over their
hatchways the Natsi, a bunch of feathers, which, on the fifth day is
replaced by a bow decorated with eagle feathers. This first day is
occupied with the making of prayer-sticks and in the preparation of
ceremonial paraphernalia. On the next four days, ceremonial snake hunts
are conducted by the Snake men. Each day in a different quarter of the
world, first north, next day west, then south, then east.

It is an impressive sight, this line of Snake priests, bodies painted,
pouches, snake whips, and digging sticks in hand, marching single file
from their kiva, through the village and down the steep trail that leads
from the mesa to the lowlands.

When a snake is found under a bush or in his hole, the digging stick
soon brings him within reach of the fearless hand; then sprinkling a
pinch of corn meal on his snakeship and uttering a charm and prayer, the
priest siezes the snake easily a few inches back of the head and
deposits him in the pouch. Should the snake coil to strike, the snake
whip (two eagle feathers secured to a short stick) is gently used to
induce him to straighten out.

At sunset they return in the same grim formation, bearing the snake
pouches to the kiva, where four jars (not at all different from their
water jars) stand ready to receive the snakes and hold them till the
final or ninth day of the ceremony.

On the next three mornings, just before dawn, in the Antelope Kiva, is
held the symbolic marriage of