A Central American ceremony which suggests the snake dance of the Tusayan villagers / [Jesse Walter Fewkes].

  • Fewkes, Jesse Walter, 1850-1930.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A Central American ceremony which suggests the snake dance of the Tusayan villagers / [Jesse Walter Fewkes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    unas culebras vivas por valentia, y andaban bailando y tragaudolas poco d poco, y despues que las habian tragado, dabaules mantas por su va¬ lentia. Tambien estos mismos tragaban unas rauas * vivas en la misnia fiesta.” From the quotations given above we learn that the natives of Mexico observed every eight years (i) a ceremonial with fasting, to which they give the name Atamalqualiztli,(2) or feast of unsalted, unspiced bread (water doughnuts) or of bread and water. Several ingredients in this bread were taboo, especially salts of various kinds, and the tamales which were eaten were called atamalli. Both accounts agree that the festival came on some years in the month Quecholli(3) and at other times in Tepeilhuitl. The time of fasting was seven or eight days, and the obligation to abstain from certain food (4) was binding, and secret violation was punished by the gods, as it was held in great reverence. In this festival it is said that all (5) the gods dance, and the ani¬ mistic deities especially mentioned as personified in it are birds, butterflies, beetles, bees, gnats, etc. The priests or young men arrayed themselves in the characteristic symbolic dress of these ani¬ mistic deities and performed a sacred dance about a shrine or temple. The role of a sleeping man was taken by one participant; others imitated persons who are accustomed to carry wool, others bore green vegetables, while still others assumed the forms of per¬ sons sick with leprosy or bubbosus. Strings of tamales were given to the poor. The portion of the account in Spanish which pertains more espe¬ cially to the priests who carry the snakes is translated in the fol¬ lowing passage: The image of llaloc,] in whose honor they danced, stood in the midst of the ceremonial, and in front of it was a pool of water where were snakes and frogs, and certain men whom they call Maxatecaz {6) stood on the edge of the pool and swallowed the snakes and the live green frogs. They took them with their mouths and not with tlieir hands, and when they had taken them in the mouth began to dance, swallowing as they danced, and he who first swallowed the snake or frog then raised his voice, crying papa, papa. They danced around (7) the Cu{8) of this * See in this connection the statement of Bourke quoted in my paper, “A Sugges¬ tion as to the Meaning of the Moki Snake Dance,” that in old times the Hopi also carried other animals in their dance. f A rain god.