“Snake-in-the-grass ... tattle to the gods.” Snakes are believed to be the messengers and familiars of the gods; therefore the Paiutes tell no important matter in the summer when they are about.
“To dig roots before her wedding year is out.” A curse equivalent to barrenness. The work of digging roots was not performed by expectant mothers.
“Wickiup.” A wattled hut of brush, made by planting willow poles about a pit four or five feet deep and six to eight feet in diameter. The poles were then drawn over in a dome and thatched with reeds or brush.
“Campody.” An Indian village; from the Spanish campo.
Barranca. A bank, the abrupt face of a mesa. From the Spanish.
THE DANCES
All tribal or emotional occasions among Indians are invariably accompanied by singing and dancing. These are frequently derived from the movements of animals and are both pantomimic and symbolic.
The object of the medicine dance is to work up the dancer to a state of trance, in which he receives a revelation in regard to the matter under consideration.
Some of these medicine dances are ritualistic in character and must be performed with great strictness, but in the case of the Chisera the dance is assumed to be made up of various dance elements expressing the emotion of the moment, combined by individual taste and skill.
Power is supposed to descend upon the dancer as he proceeds. Sometimes the dance lasts for hours, and even for days before the proper trance condition is attained. Even then the revelation may not come until a second or third climax has been reached.