The Snake Dance of the Moquis of

The Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, being a narrative of a Journey from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the villages of the Moqui Indians of Arizona,
with a description of the Manners and Customs of this peculiar People, and especially of the revolting religious rite, the Snake-Dance; to which is added a brief dissertation upon Serpent-Worship in general with an account of the Tablet Dance of the Pueblo of Santo Domingo, New Mexico, etc. By John Gregory Bourke, Captain, Third U. S. Cavalry, London, 1884.

From the Preface:

The author has endeavoured to present a truthful description of religious rites, the very existence of which is known to but few of our people, and a narrative of incidents which may serve to entertain and amuse, if they do not instruct, those into whose hands this book may fall.
The illustrations, by Sergeant A. F. HARMER, U. S. Army, a student of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, may be relied upon as true to Nature
and to Art alike. They speak for themselves.
The Author has had much difficulty in deciding where to expand, where to condense, and where to reject.
In a work intended for popular perusal he was afraid that by giving too much attention to topics interesting to himself he might fail to retain the interest of persons not so well acquainted with them; and he has accordingly preferred to make his allusions as succinct aa possible, consistent with intelligibility.
The Moqui Indians inhabit seven different villages, situated a few leagues apart. In treating of them all, it haa been impossible to avoid a seeming repetition of description, where the same apparel, food, arms, and ceremonies were to be explained.
They are known to have lived in their present location since the Spaniards first entered this portion of America, which was about the middle of the sixteenth century.
As they were then, so they are in our own day, one of the most interesting peoples in the world.
Their religion, system of government, apparel, manufactures,-no less than the romantic positions of their villages, appeal to the curiosity or
sympathy of almost every class of travellers, archaeologists, divines, men of letters, or ordinary sight -seers. The various railroad systems penetrating Arizona and New Mexico have brought the hitherto isolated Moquis to the doors of the scholars and men of leisure of our eastern cities and of Europe. If the author has succeeded in demonstrating that our South-Western Territories contain much that is fully worthy of the attention and study of people of intelligence, he will feel amply repaid for the time and labour devoted to this volume.

J. G. B.
WHIPPLEB ABBACKAE,R IZONTAE RRITORY,
Match 1, 1884.

PDF, 426 pages, including 34 pages of illustrations.