The ceremonial opened with the rattle and song, the women accompanying the men in the song. After a short stanza, which closed, as all the stanzas do, with a rapid manipulation of the rattle, the second stanza was almost immediately begun, when the vicar ([Pl. xvii]) standing before the altar shook his rattle for a moment and then waved it in a circle over the altar. He repeated this motion six times, for the cardinal points, and returned to his seat before the closing of the stanza. The circle indicated that all the cloud people of the world were invoked to water the earth.
On the opening of the third stanza all arose and the hónaaite reaching over the altar took a yá-ya in either hand, he having previously laid his rattle and eagle plumes by the altar. This stanza was sung with great vivacity by the men, who swayed their bodies to the right and left in rhythmical motion, while the women waved their wands monotonously. The movement of the arms of both the men and women was from the elbow, the upper arms being apparently pinioned to the sides; there was no raising of the feet, but simply the bending of the knees.
At the close of the stanza, which continued thirty minutes, the hónaaite gave a weird call for the cloud people to gather; all, at the same instant, drew a breath from their plumes and took their seats. A woman then brought a vase of water and gourd from the northeast corner of the room and placed it in front of the altar. ([Pl. xvi.]) In a moment the song was resumed, and the yáni-ᵗsi-wittäñi (maker of medicine water) proceeded to consecrate the water. He danced in front of the altar and south of the line of meal, which had been sprinkled from the altar to the entrance of the chamber, raising first one heel and then the other, with the knees slightly bent, the toes scarcely leaving the floor; he held his eagle plumes in his left hand, and shook the rattle with the right, keeping his upper arms close to his side, excepting when extending his plumes toward the altar, which he did three times, each time striking the plumes near the quill end with his rattle as he shook them over the medicine bowl. He then waved his plumes toward the north, and giving a quick motion of the rattle in unison with those of the choir, he drew a breath from the plumes as the fourth stanza closed, and in a moment the song was resumed. The three members of the Snake order then put on necklaces of bears’ claws, each having attached, midway, a whistle. The yániᵗsiwittänn̄i, who had not left his place in front of the altar, danced for a few minutes, then dipped a gourd of water from the vase, raised it high with a weird hoot, and emptied it into the medicine bowl. A second gourdful was also elevated, and, with a cry, it was emptied into the cloud bowl, which stood on the sand-painting of the clouds. The third gourdful was emptied into the same bowl, the raising of the gourd and the cry being omitted; the fourth gourdful was uplifted with a cry and emptied into the medicine bowl. The fifth gourdful was also hoisted with a cry, as before, to the snake hónaaite to implore the cloud rulers to send their people to water the earth, and emptied into the cloud bowl. The sixth gourdful was raised with the call and emptied into the same bowl. The seventh gourdful was elevated with a wave from the south to the altar and emptied into the medicine bowl. The eighth gourdful was raised with a similar motion and emptied into the cloud bowl. The ninth gourdful was elevated and extended toward the east and returned in a direct line and emptied into the medicine bowl. The tenth gourdful was raised toward the west and emptied into the cloud bowl. The eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth gourdfuls were lifted from the vase and emptied without being hoisted into the same bowl. The fifth stanza closed as the last gourd of water was poured into the bowl. In filling the medicine bowl the gourd was passed between two yá-ya. The woman returned the water vase to the corner of the room, and the yániᵗsiwittänn̄i lifted the bowl and drank from it, afterwards administering a draught of the water from an abalone shell to each member, excepting the hónaaite, who, after the yániᵗsiwittänn̄i had resumed his seat in the line, passed to the front of the altar and drank directly from the bowl and returned it to its place.
In the administering of the water the women were helped first, a feature never before observed by the writer in aboriginal life.
With the beginning of the sixth stanza the hónaaite arose, and leaning forward waved his plumes over the medicine bowl with a weird call, each member repeating the call, the women exhibiting more enthusiasm than the men in this particular feature of the ceremony. The cry, which was repeated four times, was an invocation to the cloud rulers of the cardinal points to water the earth, and, with each cry, meal was sprinkled into the medicine bowl, each member being provided with a small buckskin bag of meal or corn pollen, which had been previously taken from a bear-leg skin, and laid beside the altar. The members of the Snake Division sprinkled corn pollen instead of meal, the pollen being especially acceptable to the Snake hónaaite, to whom many of their prayers are addressed.
Bureau of Ethnology.
Eleventh Annual Report. Plate. XIV
GAST LITH. CO. N.Y.
ALTAR AND SAND PAINTING OF SNAKE SOCIETY.