Men, Women and Rattlesnakes by Franklin P. Collier Jr.

They wore down-filled head nets and were painted in alternate red and white horizontal stripes across the body and limbs. That night while singers chanted to the sounds of cocoon rattles, the snake shamans walked about whistling, each with his death filled sack. The worst snake was left for the head shaman. Each shaman then pointed out the snake he con-sidered his, distracted its attention by waving his hand-feathers, siezed it, and carried it off in a sack. They crawled straight to his feet, where they buried themselves in a basket filled with fine eagle down. Soon the snakes would wriggle out, usually preceded by a large lizard drawn on by the head shaman. Proceeding in a line to a rattlesnake den, they stamped and whistled before it, the head shaman directly facing the hole, the others to the sides preventing any retreat by the snakes once they had emerged. Then the Tiidum, or men to whom rattlesnakes spoke in their dreams, commenced the rite. This insured that for a year every snake approached would rattle a warning instead of blindly striking.Īnd thus concluded for another year the Datlawash, or “stepping on” rite of the Yokuts.īefore the rite began, women who knew the proper songs went through the homes of the village at night, chanting their pe-culiar exorcism. With the help of his rattlesnake sha-mans, he protected himself, with magic, and some rather sound medical practice!Īs each person filed past the pit, each man, woman, and child placed his right foot over or into it.

But the snake was part of his environment. To the Indian, as to every man, the bite of the rattler was terrifying. It was spring, the time when the rattlesnakes leave their nests. Lying where the ground squirrel holes are thick,ĭo not touch me! What can you do to me? Rattlesnake in the tree clump, Stretched in the shade, You can do nothing,Īround and around the pit, swarming with captive rattlesnakes, marched the entire Yokut community, chanting the words that would keep the dreaded rattler from striking.

There is nothing you can do, You rattlesnake with the belly full Lying with your belly full, Rattlesnakes of the rock pile, You scared the snakes out of any thought of

Men, Women and Rattlesnakes by Franklin P. Collier Jr.