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HOPI SNAKE DANCE, by                    
First Line: Waiting, uncomfortably waiting
Last Line: Some lonely butte or hill.
Subject(s): Native Americans - Religion


Waiting, uncomfortably waiting --
Waiting for the painted snake-priests.
Now they enter, stamping dancers --
Corn-meal prayer-makers shaking rattles, beating tom-toms.
Circling natives, stamping snake-priests, sacred meal of corn.
Slowly bending, softly chanting -- prayer of heathens,
Prayer for water. Endless weaving to and fro
In a fervent prayer for rain.

Circling snake-priests, wriggling serpents,
Mouthy monsters, cold blood-twisters,
Teeth-marked coilers, magic feathers, sacred meal.
Round and back, stamping still. Ever-serious
Well-taught Indians, keepers of a sacred lore.
Whispered wishes and instructions
To the messengers of Hades -- to the carriers
Of the tidings to the rain-gods in the heavens --
To the fountain and the spring-gods
Deep beneath some sheltered mountain, butte or hill.

Thus it is a prayer for water, for the life of dying nature;
"Water, water" -- desert savior for the ever-thirsty corn-field.
For the sandy peach-tree orchard, for the bean-patch
And the scarecrow, for the buttes and ragged mesas
Send this life to patient Red Men --
Earnest pleaders for their withered tribe.

Fettered reptiles, coils entangled,
Twisting, squirming, seeking freedom.
Once enmassed, exchanging tidings.
Gathered. Scattered. Given freedom --
On to seek the gods of heaven far beneath some lonely mesa --
Some lonely butte or hill.





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