Page 141 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 133
the different "dances" is completed in perhaps four
years ; a few dances indeed may have even longer in
tervals, but these dances do not seem to fall in the cal
endar and are held whenever decided upon by the
proper chief. Some of the dances alternate also, the
Snake Dance, for instance, being held one year and the
Flute Dance the following year. For half the year,
from August to January, the actors in the ceremonies
wear masks, while for the remainder of the year the
dancers appear unmasked ; and as every ceremony has
its particular costumes, ritual, and songs, there is
great variety for the looker-on in Tusayan. So many
are the ceremonies, which differ more or less in the
different villages, and so overwhelming is the im
memorial detail of their performance, that one might
well despair of recording them, much less of finding
out a tithe of their meaning.
There is grouped around these dances the lore of
clans in the bygone centuries, innumerable songs and
prayers and rites gathered up here and there in the
weary march, strewn with shells of old towns of the
forgotten days. No fear that this inexhaustible mine
will be delved out by investigators before it disap
pears utterly; the wonder is that it has survived so
long into this prosaic age of anti-fable. We have here
ne most complete Freemasonry in the world, which,
if preserved, would form an important chapter in the
history of human cults, and in the opinion of enlight
ened men, it should have a record before the march
of civilization treads it in the dust.