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Keams Canon, Arizona
Dec 21, 1897

My own true loving little wife,

Last night I saw the weirdest and queerest thing I ever witnessed in my life and it was hard for me to believe that it was in this century and in America. On the shortest day in the year the Moqui have a ceremony & dance. Now they tell their shortest day by watching the sun and they tell it to a day. The ceremony took place down and what they call a Keva. It is like a cave. You go down a ladder and the keva is on top of the rock where they live. This rock is nearly a mile long and is about 60 ft. in the widest place & 10 ft. in the narrowest place & there are three villages there, two of them belong to one tribe of Moqui & the other (2) to another tribe of Moqui, but the two speak different languages & both speak Moqui.

They take several days preparing for the ceremony, such as making string from wool to tie the feathers to long thin twigs and then these small twigs are fastened on to long sticks. The next day, after the ceremony, the sticks covered with feathers are stuck all over the rock and a single feather fastened to twigs are tied on to every living thing they can get a hold of, such as their burroughs and they tie them onto dog’s & cat’s tails, etc. On the eve of the ceremony the feathers are given to anybody. I got a lot of them, enclose one. This ceremony is for the coming crops next spring for lots of rain, etc., and if one would show an Illinois farmer the place where the Moqui grow corn, he wouldn’t believe you anyway. For every single ear that they plant they build a (3) protection out of stones a few feet high so that the sand storms won’t cut the corn down before it gets large enough to be strong enough to stand the storms.

There were five of us white people. Mr. Fuchs, who is employed by the government in the museum there at Washington, came all the way from Washington to see it. We went up right after supper and went down in the cave and a lot of Indians were there stark naked except breech clout (cloth). Their bodies were tattooed white & cheeks painted white and their hair came down loose, and fastened to their hair was these little feathers I enclosed. They were fixing their altar when we arrived and it was the most ingenious thing, all the material they had to use was wood & corn husks, and out of it they represented all the flowers that vegetables have (4) when it is growing. They also had braids (?) carved out of wood and painted, and in the center was a terrible looking thing representing the head of a big snake with whiskers on it and in front was queer looking Moqui (?), etc. No one is allowed down there except he who belongs to that order, no women or squaw is allowed to see it except three squaws who take part in the ceremony.

The keva or cave is about 20 x 30 ft. & 8 ft. high. The floor & sides are rock, no windows except the opening at the top where the entrance is. About 8:00 PM the ceremony commenced and some 15 Indians formed a circle in front of the altar & sang songs in a low key. Some had rattles and some long whistles (flutes), all in good time and didn’t sound like Indian singing at all. They would make motions towards the altar. It lasted for an hour. Then they (5) drank some stuff to make them vomit to purify themselves, which they went outside to do, and on returning had a feast which lasted quite a while. That was the first of anything they had eaten that day. One old Indian has charge of the fire which is built in the center directly under the opening and when he first starts it he piles little twigs in such a manner that the smoke immediately goes right up and out the ground(?). They are xxx & pleasant under and the fire xxx for the light which is all they have.

After the feast is over some dozen Indian boys come down with beautiful costumes on made by the Moqui and they have their hair covered with feathers, but different kinds, and under one eye is a half moon painted while their arms and bodies are tattooed. While each one of these boys has a xxx xxxx [too faded to read] (6) and these boys, I think, want to join the order and it is the first time they have seen this ceremony. Pretty soon one of the Guardians (all of them are seated on one side of kiva) throws something at the altar and makes a short speech. When he is through the big ugly snake shakes his head (it is a dim light down there) and the snake makes a noise that would scare one to death if he heard it in the woods on a dark night. The snake will make the noise three times, then you hear a rattling noise like a rattle snake shaking his rattles. Then another Guardian makes a speech and after each speech the snake does his part until all the Guardians make a speech.

Then some 15 or 20 Indians dressed in the queerest costumes come down the ladder and you ought to hear the queer noise they make (7) with something they have in their mouths. All of them go to each boy who wants to join the lodge and blows the things they have in their mouth at them, and they are all crouched down, almost sitting down, and dancing their way around a circle past the boys and past the musicians which is composed of six old white headed men, naked. Tattooed with ?? each one holds a rattle made by them in their hands and they sing & make noise with these rattles, all in good time and rather sweet music. Then these dancers go up and out.

Then comes down a single Indian dressed in a beautiful costume, never saw such a design. He carries queer things in his hands and has a queer thing on his head. He first goes to these boys & dances in a crouching position, very slow, but a difficult step, until he comes in front of the altar. Right in (8) front of it is a hollow piece of wood that is fastened in the floor, and he jumps on it which makes a queer noise.

The six old men are also singing & making their rattles go. The Indian, when he jumps on the hollow wood, join in a circle back to where the boys are and changes the step a little and dances until he comes to the board (?) again. He does this a number of times.

Then down the ladder comes a squaw, young girl dressed in white woven by the Moqui. Her hair is combed down and right across her mouth & her chin is painted black and a white stripe over the black, which gives a queer effect. When she comes down the man is dancing in front of the boys. She steps up behind him and they dance a very queer slow step, all the time advancing towards the altar and the hollow wood. But when she comes down she is xxx xxx a big xxxx xxxxx (9) and in it are fastened large flowers representing vegetable flowers like pumpkins, etc.. When they first get on the hollow wood they dance upon it for 35 minutes just as hard as they can and such queer steps. Every now and then the man will lay down one of the things he has in his hand, and keep on dancing, until they all are laid down. Then he will pick them up again, one by one, dancing all the time & the six old men singing.

It is a weird sight, some 100 Indians down there and now & then the fire gets low. Quite often the man or the women will faint xxx and they will catch them and carry them out. After 35 minutes they both stop and he turns to the altar and takes a stake and dips it in water, sprinkles it on the altar, on the snake, & on the boys xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx while she is dancing this thing (10) she holds in her hands with flowers on it, when she shakes it the flowers drop off one by one.

They both go out and then comes down a single Indian dressed just like an eagle, completely covered with eagle feathers all along his arms like wings. He goes to the boys and dances a queer step and sings. Then he goes to the hollow board, dances on it and makes queer motions to the altar now & then. The snake makes that hideous noise and at the same time the six old man are singing. He then goes out and another single Indian comes down with a queer costume on, he has a mask on his face and he goes to the boys. He has a rattle in his hand made of mud and turtle shells which he rattles. He goes on the hollow board and dances & sings, the old men join with him (11) in singing.

Then all the Indians present get up and two squaws come down in costume, an old woman and a girl. They carry queer things in their hands made out of vegetable & corn and all the Indians form a circle and dance & sing around the fire and also the ladder. They do it for a half hour, and by that time it is so hot down there I thought I would roast, then they stopped, some of us thinking they were through, went out. It was then 1:00 (past midnight), but we missed the rest of it. It keeps up all night.

Now just think what a subject for an opera, my dear. Now this is only one of twelve ceremonies they have and all of them are religious. The snake dance is another ceremony. They have a different ceremony (12) every month and each one is entirely different and entirely different costumes. The Moqui have ceremonies just like the Jews had in the old bible and all of their ceremonies come at the same day of the month and they xxxx xxxx xxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxx ceremony I saw last night. In all of the houses they are cooking things for them to eat in the morning. In front of most of the houses is a little hole dug in the rock and they make something which they cover up with corn husks and insert it in these holes and fill the hole up with hot ashes and build a fire on top of it and it cooks all night and in the morning they eat it.

The longest day of the year they also have a similar ceremony and at that time a number of their Gods, that is (can’t think of what they call it) xxxx the gods believe and go to the California mountains, (13) which are in sight of the Moqui homes, to live and at this ceremony they come back and their coming back takes place at Noon today.

I was on my way up to see it and my model was on the way to sit for me, so returned, but they came back in the shape of men, but the most devilish looking objects you ever saw. They have masks on and they dance. There is no nonsense about these Indians. They work hard and are so faithful to their religion. They have another ceremony when the men have absolutely nothing on and have long feathers tied to their things.

Sometime, my dear I will have you here to see xxx the Moqui. There is enough work here for a lifetime for me. They have over 100 God’s, such as, God of Rain, God of Thunder, etc. xx xxx god had the most unique costume. (14)

Mr. Fuchs was in to see me this a.m. He has written several books on the Moqui and their dances. I am going to try & get one and will send it to you. He says at the Snake Dance xxx lasts nine days, night & day, but there is only about 20 minutes of it that strangers are allowed to see and that is where they dance with snakes in their mouth. He has been and is the only person who has seen the whole thing and he has written about it. He says one ceremony (all take place in the caves which there are several of) they xxxx the snakes and put them on the altar. He says there will be a 100 snakes down in the cave crawling around among the Indians and they manage them all right. I am painting my 16th picture of an Indian fixed up with feathers

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