“Yes, I know that all right,” affirmed Billie, “but no matter, I haven’t got any use for the species, let me tell you again. They make me have a funny shiver run up and down my spine, because, don’t you know, I get to thinking of how near I came to dropping down into that nest when we were on the road here. Ugh! for one I won’t be sorry when this same dance is over with.”
But Adrian did not echo these sentiments. He was finding a world of deep interest in everything
that went on. The antics of the dancers, the wrapt attention paid them by the squatty women clustered here and there, and who never once took their eyes off the circle of braves passing round and round in endless procession; even the way the children were fascinated by the sight—all these things Adrian was taking note of, for he wished to tell of his experiences later on.
“Don’t forget that you’ve got a kodak along, Billie!” warned Donald, after the affair had been in progress so long that some of the dancers had fallen out of the circle utterly exhausted by the continuous movements, though others immediately took their places, just as the substitutes on a football team are injected into the game when injuries cause some of the players to drop out of the hot scrimmage.
At that Billie awoke from his trance with a jump.
“Oh! thank you for telling me about it, Donald!” he exclaimed; “whatever could I have been thinking about to forget that? And as I never expect to see another snake-dance in all my life, why, how could I have remedied the blunder? But thank goodness it ain’t too late yet.”
Accordingly he set diligently to work to repair his error, and for some time the clicking of the rapid shutter told that Billie was getting snapshots
of the whole scene, and individual parts of the same, as fast as he could work it.
As the afternoon was now waning, the last act in the list of ceremonies bade fair to soon close in a blaze of glory.
The wild dancers, spurred on by the continued incantations of the weird-looking old medicine man, and their own desire to show off before their people, seemed to be vying with one another in the endeavor to excel in grotesque acts. They wrapped the writhing snakes around their necks, and held them between their teeth in seemingly reckless fashion, much to the horror of some of the white spectators, but adding greatly to the delight of the dusky horde that gathered there, and gaped, and admired, and applauded in their own fashion.