Word: kiva
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...ground, the other on the sky. In August when the corn and melon vines begin to wither, the Hopi whisper that "the little ones" are angry. Then one day the medicine men set a date for the rain-bringing ritual. On the door of the main kiva (underground chamber) a priest posts a nacti (two eagle feathers tied to a stick) and for nine days thereafter the kiva is a hallowed place which none may enter but themselves. Across the broad mesa go "gatherers" in search of snakes. Scores of serpents are caught, imprisoned in the kiva. The priests...
Other carriers emerge from the kiva with rattlesnakes held in their teeth. Other huggers and gatherers follow them until the small village square is alive with men & snakes. Three times around a circle they dance, while the drums beat louder & louder. If more snakes are below in the kiva the carriers drop their snakes into the arms of the grey priests and go back for more. Women run out into the square, sprinkle corn meal on the ground in a circle with radial lines extending in the six directions of Indian astronomy. They shrink back. The carriers fling their snakes...
...confidently-an explanation doubted by many snake experts. Some say that the Hopi are bitten, that a few die, but that the Indians have a potent secret antidote for snakebite. Others suggest that the snakes are goaded to strike at bits of cloth during their imprisonment in the kiva, so that their venom is all discharged by the day of the dance. Still others point out that the rattlesnake is no traveler, that the Hopi gather the same snakes year after year and these snakes are really friends of the Hopi...