effigies for food, after which he held his breasts to them as if to suckle them.[1]
Shortly after this the song diminished in volume, the effigies were slowly drawn back through the openings, the flaps on which the sun symbols were painted fell back into place, and after one final roar, made by the man behind the screen, the room was again silent. The overturned pedestals, with their corn leaves, were distributed among the spectators, and the two men by the fireplace again held up their blankets before the fire, while the screen was silently rolled up, and the actors with their paraphernalia departed.
The accompanying plate[2] represents the cloth screen tied in position to the roof of the kiva and the miniature cornfield on the floor before it. The six openings in the screen, four of which are larger than the other two, are arranged in a row, and out of five of these openings protrude serpent effigies. The flaps which ordinarily cover these orifices are raised, with the exception of that at the extreme right, which hangs in place to show the sun symbol on its face and the tip of a serpent's head near one margin. The central effigy (yuamû, their mother) is knocking over the rows of clay pedestals which form the miniature cornfield. The masked human figure standing at the left before the screen represents the mother of the clan gods, or Hahai wüqti, who is holding forward a basket tray of meal, which she offers as food to the serpents. One of the performers may be obscurely seen behind the screen, blowing the gourd trumpet by which the "roars" of the great serpents are imitated.
Prominent among the designs painted on this screen are three human figures. That of a man has two horns on the heads like an Alosaka[3] and, as so often occurs in pictures or images on altars, the maidens have their hair arranged in disks, one above each ear, as in the Hopi maid's coiffure of the present day. These maidens were called Tubêboli manas. The other design represents birds, lightning, rain clouds, and falling rain. The first act was performed by men of the kiva which is situated in the middle of the Hano plaza,[4] and the screen was repainted on the day of the dramatization by the men who took part in the act. No actor tasted food on that day before the decoration of the screen was finished, and at the close of their work all vomited over the cliffs. This Hano screen and the drama acted before it resemble those which are occasionally used in the chief Kiva of Walpi.
