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Keams Canon, Arizona
Mch 5, 1898

My own true loving little wife.

Your letters received & glad to hear from you.You can address me now to The Needles, California, as I leave for there the last of next week.

I have got now 37 pictures finished 24 of them Moquis.

When leave here have got 110 miles to travel by wagon. I am going via Mr. Hubbell’s. I got a letter from him today, and he writes he has got a lot more things to give me. I never saw such a man, a better man never lived. Everybody all over this county, Indians and all who know him, just love him. He is so kind and good, so unselfish. The chances are I won’t call on your relatives in Los Angeles at all, as I don’t like to call, and won’t be there hardly a day, as will want to get to work with the Indians.

Another matron has come here lately and the two ladies live together. They are (2) both awfully nice to me & have nice things to eat.

I’m sorry Annie has been sick, I hope she’s all right again.

If you had been with me one night this week, my dear, you would of been about scared to death at a ceremony I saw, which took place down in the keva. There are 9 kevas on the Mesa and this ceremony commenced about 8 in the eve & lasted until midnight.

The Moqui have societies like white people do, the Masons, etc. Some of these societies go through a ceremony this time every year and they give a regular performance in each one of the kevas, so no matter what keva one was in they could see it all. The Moqui told me of the ceremony & wanted me to see it.

They call me "Moqui E-quat-she" which means Moqui’s friend. I went early and went to the keva where the Snake Dance is given. The Indians were dressing down there, that is, that certain society. Pretty soon the audience commence to arrive which was (3) only squaws with their babies on their backs & children with them. Then, old naked men were down there, two of them were sort of bosses and the other one took care of the fire, which was built in the center of the cave, and that was the only light. He kept putting little sticks on to keep the fire going.

The squaws and myself sat on the ground at one end, out of the way. Pretty soon we heard a queer noise outside & I looked up and there was a frightful looking Katchina looking down and saying something to the two old men, & now & then things were thrown down to eat. Pretty soon one single Indian came down the ladder without mask on. He was the single musician and had a big Moqui drum, which he commenced to beat. He was followed by 3 naked Indians without masks on. Their bodies tattooed white to resemble a snake. Their feet & hands painted white, & face also striped black from bridge of nose, on each side of face, to under each ear and queer things in

(4) MISSING (5)

cave, the bottom was painted to resemble a cornfield. The top was painted to resemble birds, and animals the Moqui come in contact with, & on each side of center were two round things. The center was 2 feet in diameter, and looked like a face, and outside of this was a lot of eagle feathers stuck in like the spokes to a wheel, and between all this was a lot of green brush that they went 200 miles to get. Everything was just as quiet and all of a sudden the two things that looked like a face pushed back, and out crawled very slowly two terrible snakes. One was green, the other black. Each was as big around as a man and several feet long. As they wiggled out, they hissed & ran out their fangs. Their eyes glistened & they made a fearful noise like one would imagine a huge snake to make. I noticed two of the Moqui sneaking up on them. Pretty soon they each made a lunge for the snakes & grabbed them by the back of the head. You should of seen the excitement. (6) All the Indians yelled and rushed around, the snakes growling, and I tell you it was a fight. The snakes would just wipe the ground with the men & they, the men, fought until exhausted & fell down. Others would rush in & pull them out of the way and then fight the snakes.

Two little boys, who were Katchinas, were pushed into the snakes, and the snakes made short work of them. Pretty soon the snakes crawled back and all was quiet, but could hear the snakes growling. Pretty soon the snakes crawled out again, and the fight commenced again. It was the most exciting thing ever saw.

You see it is there religion and they go at it in earnest and they, when it happened, down in the cave, with a puttering fire for light, & these Indians fixed up which alone was enough to scare one.

While the fighting was going on, the two old men covered up the fire with blankets again and the fight was stopped. When the blankets were removed, where the queer stage setting & snakes were, (7) they had disappeared. The Katchinas danced some more, then they all went up the ladder and out to repeat the performance at another keva.

How was that for a scary show? And where it took place is not larger than both of your parlors. I am tired or I would describe the rest of the performance, but it wasn’t so scary, but scary enough, as they all were katchinas and some of them had beastly looking things on.

Every one of the different societies had a different dance step, different singing, everything different. Some were fixed to represent death. The children didn’t seem to be scared. They have seen so much of it, I suppose.

Yesterday, I saw another ceremony which lasted all day. I saw it after work which took part outdoors & it alone was worth the trip here to see. It was a different set of Katchinas dancing & singing & the queeerest get up you could possibly imagine. For music 8 of them had a watermelon or large squash (8) the inside scraped out and the melon and dried it. They had a long stick with notches cut in it. and they, 8 of them, sat on the ground and hit the notched stick on the Melon and rubbed the stick with a bone. And the dancers, behind them, some 25 each, held a rattle in hand anddanced. And it all was in fine time and awfully interesting.

They have at least 50 ceremonies here and in lots of them they introduce snakes, which of course, are artificial, but mighty realistic. Of course during the Snake Dance they have big live snakes and will have 3 or 4 in their mouth at one time. Some of their ceremonies are perfectly beautiful like the Buffalo Dance I saw. I never saw anything that impressed me so much, so awfully good and such odd costumes.

Well my dear I must close. Good night darling. Your own true loving husband.

Lots of love, hugs & kisses,

Elbridge