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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    god, and as they went in the dance and passed the basket of tamales, which they called tonacacuexamatl, took some of the tamales which were within and the old women who stood there watching this ceremony cried, declaring that before another observance of the feast they would be dead. They say that this fast is performed in order to give rest to the nutri¬ ments, because nothing is eaten during this fast with the bread, and they also say that at all other times the nutriments or bread is fatigued be¬ cause they mix it with salt, lime and saltpeter, and clothe and unclothe it of diverse kinds of garments, which afflict and weaken it, and with this ceremony it is made younger. The day following the ceremony they called Molpalulo, that is to say, “they eat other things with bread,” because they have already made penitence for the nutriment. NOTES. 1. The interval of eight years between successive recurrences of this ceremony is indicated on Plate I (fig. 3) by the eight circular characters. 2. Atamalqualiztli, unsalted, uuspiced water pancakes. 3. The months Quecholli* * * § and Tepeilhuitl,f in which this ceremonial was observed, are later than that (August) in which the Snake Dance and its kindred, the Flute Ceremonial, are celebrated in the Hopi towns, although other ceremonials are mentioned by Spanish writers as occurring in these same months of the Mexican calendar. Sahagun J gives a very complete account of the festivals and sacrifices in the two mouths Quecholli and Tepeilhuitl, but these are only distantly related to that of the eight-year ceremony, although the introduction of the image of a snake, Milnaoatl, in Tepeilhuitl is suggestive. According to Serna, $ the Mexican month Quecholli is the thirteenth of one calendar and the fourteenth of another. The same author states that in the former enumeration it extends from the fifth of November until the twenty-fourth of the same month. He says (loc. cit.) that it is also designated Tepeilhuitl, or festival of the little idols, which they manufactured and deposited in the hills during the ceremony. According to Serna (p. 91), the Indians gave the name Quechulti to the fourteenth month of another calendar. This month began on the *Torquemada (teste Doutrelaine) says quechol “ Ks uua ave muy herraosa . . . laquel tieneu los naturales en gran estimacion y precis.” Mouarchia Indiana, Part II, p. 280, Quecholli, “ nombre de vn Paxero de pluma azul y colorada.” f P'estival of the Mountains. See, for symbol, p. 121 Arch, de la Commission Scien- tifique du Mexique, tome iii, part i. t OP- cit., pp. 159-167. § Manual de Ministros de Indios, etc., Documentos Ineditos, T01110 civ, p. 96: “Desde 5 de Noviembre hasta 24 del mismo.” Quecholli, says Sahagun in a note (p. 162, op. cit.), commenced on the 13th of November.