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Te Ao Hou, December 1968, Page 20

of the turtle-shell. The dancers who were not paired remained inside the circle of the dancers. Up until this time no snakes had been handled, but the moment had arrived. As the paired dancers approached the cottonwood snake-house the outside dancer bent down, approached the house and picked up a small snake from within it. He held the snake in his mouth, its head to the right side of the mouth and the tail dangling down on the left. Some dancers held the snake's tail in the left hand. With the snake secured, the pair of dancers continued their anti-clockwise dance. After a snake had been danced around the plaza it was released on the ground and watched by the free dancers. On each succeeding round the snakes handled became larger. Towards the end of the dance there were snakes galore in the plaza. Several of the inside dancers had handfuls of them, likewise the chorus members. The outside dancer of each pair held a large snake in his mouth and each time one came abreast of the snake maidens, sprinklings of corn meal were thrown on him by the maidens. It was an awesome spectacle to watch. The spectators looked on in wonder mixed with fear. A keen eye was fixed on the snakes writhing about on the ground because some of them were attempting to escape into the crowds. The free dancers, however, watched them and kept them away from the spectators. Eventually the dance ended and the snakes were taken up by runners and returned to the areas from which they were gathered. As far as we could tell no dancer was bitten by a snake. If the dancers were concerned for their own safety they showed no sign of it but we were certainly fearful and apprehensive on their behalf, It was a great relief, therefore, to see the snake dance of Shongopovi come to an end. The only other ‘snake-dance we saw was at Bountiful, Utah, It was performed by Mr Robert (Apache) McLean, a Utah schoolteacher, who has made a life-time hobby of learning and performing Indian dances. We met him at the home of Hinauri and Bill Tribole, a spot in the United States which is familiar to all who have met the Triboles and been entertained by them. The Tribole home is a marae for Maori and Pakeha visitor alike. It was at this marae that Apache performed his snake

dance. I took the opportunity of checking my observation of the Shongopovi snake dance with Apache. Among the many things he told me the most important are the following; (1) the timing of the dance depends on when the first rays of the rising sun strike a certain landmark. (2) The snake dance goes through a nine-day cycle. What we saw was the final day. (3) The snakes are collected well before the ninth day, from areas marked off in cardinal directions, east, west, north and south. (4) One should avoid meeting a snake collector when he is gathering snakes. The penalty is to hand over to him valuables, money or food. (5) The snakes are returned roughly to the same areas from which they were collected. (6) When the snakes curl up under rocks it is thought that they are in contact with the underworld. (7) When the dancers tramp the ground in front of the snake-house, called a kīsi, they strike a board, which is connected with a drain-like connection, called a sipapu, to the kiva. This underground channel is thought to be connected with the underworld, that is, with the Indian's version of the Maori Rarohenga. (8) Some of the young snake dancers are undergoing their final initiation tests for kiva membership. (9) The initiates usually handle the largest snakes. (10) The snake dancer's partner is referred to as the ‘hugger’, and his job is to hold the attention of the snake by waving his feather wand. Such, then, were the Indian activities which we saw while in the Southwest. There is little in the Maori experience which prepares one to observe the Indians, their way of life and the land upon which they dwell. The Indians are brown-skinned but their costumes and manner of dressing have always been totally different from that of the New Zealand Maori. The objects and ornaments made by the Indians are part of a different world view and are based on a natural environment nothing like the temperate zone of New Zealand. The agricultural pursuits of the two peoples were centred around a different crop; whereas the Indians were essentially corn-growers the Maoris were sweet-potato cultivators. The Indians and the Maoris, however, share one feature in common. They are both minority groups. Consequently, some of the problems