Hopi Indian Snake Dance.
Phoenix, Ariz., Aug. 20. Scores of tourists have departed for the Hopi Indian village to witness the annual snake dances which commence ta day. The villages are located on a desolate desert near the rim of the Grand Canyon, of the Colorado. The Hopi Indian race is falling off in numbers, and each year the dance lacks in some of the peculiarities that have made it world famous, so that many tourists and scientists are anxious to witness the orgies as nearly like those performed by the ancestors of the redskins as is possible.
The snake dance is a prayer for rain. There is little water in the desolate waste in which the village are located, but notwithstanding the constant battle in sustaining life in this thirsty region the Indians cannot be persuaded to leave their old homes for promising fields in other localities. They prefer to pray for rain and live in hope. The snake dance continues for nine days. The public performance in which live rattlesnake are handled. occurs on the last day of the ceremony. it is customary for several hundred Indians to participate in the weird ceremonials.

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The Weekly British Wigh, Kingston (Ontario. Canada), jeudi 22 août 1901, p. 7.