Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC)

Explosives Research and Testing

an enforced entreaty. They are caught live in the desert in August, when the storms are imminent, and in a sixteen-day ceremony in Walpi they are attended to in the underground kiva by the chiefs of the serpent and antelope clans in a series of unique ceremonies, of which the most significant and the most astonishing for white observers is the wash

ing of the snakesresearch divisions. The snake is treated like a novice of the mysteries, and notwithstanding its resistance, its head is dipped in consecrated, medicated water. Then it is thrown onto a sand painting done on the kiva floor and representing four lightning snakes with a quadruped in the middle. In another kiva a sand painting depicts a mass of clouds from which emerge four differently colored lightning streaks, corresponding to the points of the compass, in the form of serpents. Onto the first sand painting, each snake is hurled with

great force, so th

• at the drawing is obliterated and the serpent is
  
  
• absorbed into the sand. I am convinced that this
  
  
• magic throw is intended to force the serpent to invoke lightning or produce rain. That is clearly the significance
  
  
• of the entire ceremony, and

  the ceremonies that follow prove that