Page 149 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 141
The clans have gathered in their respective kivas,
where painting of masks and other paraphernalia, re
hearsals, etc., have continued for several days. In the
kiva which is for the nonce to be the theater, a crowd
of visitors have assembled, and in the middle of the
room two old kiva chiefs sit around the fire, which
they feed with small twigs of greasewood to produce
an uncertain, flickering light.
The arrival of the first group of actors is heralded
by strange cries from without the kiva, and a ball of
corn meal thrown down the hatchway is answered
with invitations to enter. The fire is darkened by a
blanket held over it, and the actors climb down the
ladder and arrange their properties. The fire tenders
drop the blankets, and on the floor is seen a miniature
field of corn made by fastening sprouted corn in clay
pedestals. Behind this corn field is a cloth screen
decorated with figures of human beings, corn, clouds,
lightning, etc., hung across the room, and along the
screen six openings masked by flaps. On either side
of the screen stand several masked men, one dressed
as a woman holding a basket tray of meal and an ear
of corn. A song begins and the actors dance to the
music; the hoarse roar of a gourd horn resounds
through the kiva, and instantly the flaps in the screen
are drawn up and the heads of grotesque serpents
with goggle eyes, feather crest, horn, fierce teeth, and
red tongues, appear in the six openings. Farther and
farther they seem to thrust themselves out, until four