Here, I
noticed that every snake was gently placed upon the ground by the priest
who had been carrying it in his mouth. The antelope men never leave their
line, during the handling of the snakes. They continue to sing during the
whole performance.
Purification of Priests. While waiting for the priests to return, after
taking the snakes into the valley, I learned of several slight changes,
owing to changed circumstances. The rain had made numerous small pools at
the top of the mesa. The priests, in returning, divested themselves of all
their ceremonial paraphernalia, and washed the paint from their bodies,
before returning to the kiva and drinking the emetic. Generally, they have
gone to their homes at Oraibi or at Walpi, have had the women bring water
to the west side of the mesa, and there washed themselves.
CHAPTER XX. An Historic Trail Across The Grand Canyon Country
The Old Hopi Trail. One of the most noted aboriginal trails in the western
United States, is the old Hopi (generally called Moki) trail, leading from
the seven villages of the Hopi and their agricultural offshoot, Moenkopi,
to the Canyon of the Havasupais. This was the trail followed by Lieut.
Frank Hamilton Cushing - the noted ethnologist when he visited these Kuhne
kiwes while he was living at the interesting pueblo of Zuni, in New Mexico.
I have made the whole trip from Hopiland to the Havasupais and back twice,
and have ridden for many years over small portions of the trail.
