A Lecture on Serpent Ritual Author(s): A. Warburg and W. F. Mainland Source: Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Apr.

, 1939), pp. 277-292 Published by: The Warburg Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750040 Accessed: 28/03/2010 12:28
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A LECTUREON SERPENTRITUAL By A. Warburg

Es ist ein altes Buch zu blattern alles Vettern. Athen-Oraibi,

in the course is basedwerecollected on whichthislecture observations he years ago.l 1 of a journeyto the Pueblo Indiansmade twenty-seven I mustwarnyou that I have not been able to reviveand correctmy old to the in such a way as to give you an adequateintroduction memories I gained the impressions Indians. Moreover, of the American psychology even at that time becauseI had no command wereboundto be superficial of the tribes. Nor coulda journeylimitedto a few months of the language and if these have becomeeven impressions, produceany really profound more vague in the interim I cannot promiseyou more than a seriesof on those distantmemories. I do so in the hope that the direct reflections may carry you beyond my words,and give you evidenceof the pictures which is dying out, and of a questionwhich someidea of a civilization in general:in our studyof civilization importance is of suchparamount of primitive characteristics to calltheessential are we entitled Whatelements
* ^

paganlsm

In the firstplace I shall deal with the rational(that is, architectonic) of theirhouseswith elementin the cultureof the Pueblos: the structure of earthenware of theirappliedart. In the ornamentation someexamples problemof religioussymbolism. A we shall come upon the fundamental thatwhatappears 44b)proves froman Indian(P1. whichI acquired drawing symbolically. mustin fact be interpreted ornament to be purelydecorative conceived imagery the universe of cosmological One of the basicelements animal with an irrational in the formof a house is unitedin this drawing conception,a serpent,which appearsas an enigmaticand awe-inspiring demon. In the secondplace I shall speakof the maskeddanceof the Indians, whichwe shallstudyfirstas a pureanimaldance,thenas a danceassociated with the cult of the tree, and finallyas a dancewith live serpents. bringus will eventually in paganEurope phenomena A glanceat similar still of pagancosmology : to whatextentcan theseremnants to the question the evolution obtainingamongthe PuebloIndianshelp us to understand pagan cultureof from primitivepaganism,throughthe highly-developed man? civilized downto modern antiquity, classical
* * *

thereligious to interpret in ourattempt caution extreme Wemustexercise

1 The lecturewas deliveredin Germanto as the lecture was meant to convey the audience on 2sth April, author's personal experience, no attempt a non-professional Ig23, and was not intended for public- has been made by the editors to bring ation. Its originaltitle was: "Reminiscences the argument into line with more recent from a Journey to the Pueblo Indians." research. As the journey took place in I896, and 277

278

A. WARBURG

psychology of the PuebloIndian. The evidencehas been contaminated. Several layersof culture havebeensuperimposed. The basicculture of the native Americans wassubjected to Catholic-Spanish education, which suffered a violentset-back at the end of the seventeenth century,revivedat a later date, but was neverofficially re-instated in the villagesof the Mokis. And then therecame the last layer-the educational systemof NorthAmerica. Yet, whenwe come to studymorecloselythe religious life of the Pueblos, we shall recognise at least one purelyobjectiveand relativelypermanent geographical factor whichhada formative influence on religion the scarcity of water in the country. For until the railway-tracks penetrated to the settlements, lack of waterand the need for it gave rise to magicpractices such as are adoptedin primitivepagancivilizations all over the worldin orderto coercethe hostile forces of nature. Scarcity of watertaughtpeople the artsof prayerand necromancy. "Theinhabitants of theseregions in pre-historic and historictimeshave madetheirhomeon a tractof land to whichNaturehas not on the whole been bountiful. Apartfromthe narrowvalley in the north-east through whichthe Rio Grande del Norteflowson its way to the Gulfof Mexicothe country is mainlytable-land extensive, horizontal deposits of limestone or tertiary rock,forming high,levelplateaus withsteepescarpments (compared in the language of the districtwith tables mesas). On the otherhandthe ground is deeply seared by water-courses, withthe result thatravines orcanons occur,sometimes a thousand feetdeepwithwallsalmostverticalat the top, as if they had been cut out with a saw... For the greater partof the year thereis no rainor moisture in the plateau-country and the majority of the canonsare completely driedup; only in the periodwhen the snow melts or duringthe briefrainyseasona considerable body of waterrushesdown the bareravines.''l In the north-western partof the plateau,in Colorado, are the so-called cliff-villages, i. e. dwellings now abandoned, whichare built in the cleftsof the rocks. The eastern groupconsists of abouteighteen villages,whichare fairlyeasilyaccessible fromSantaFe and Albuquerque.The Zunivillages, whichareof especialimportance, lie fartherto the south-west, and can be reached fromFortWingate in a day. The mostdifficult of access, andtherefore the ones whichshow the older features in their purestform, are the villages of the Mokis six all told whichare erected on threeparallel ridges of rock. The rockvillagefurthestwest is Oraibi,of which I shall have something more to say. Right in the midst,in the plain-country, lies the Mexicansettlement of SantaFe, the capitalof New Mexico, whichcameunderthe ruleof the United States only after a grim strugglethat continuedeven down to the last century. From Santa Fe and from the neighbouring town of Albuquerque the majority of the easternPueblovillages can be reached withoutmuchdifficulty. Near Albuquerque is the villageof Lagunawhich, thoughit does not lie so high as the others,is nevertheless a very good exampleof a pueblo
1 E. Schmidt, Vorgeschichte J%ordamerikas im Gebiet der Vereinigten Staaten, I894.

A LECTURE ON SERPENT RITUAL

279

settlement. The village proper lies on the other side of the railway-track which connectsAtchisonwith Topica and Santa Fe; the Europeansettlement in the plain abuts on the railway-station. The native village consistsof twostoreyedhousesenteredfromabove by meansof a ladder,therebeing no door below. This type of housewas probablyintendedin the firstplace as a means of defence against attack; the Pueblo Indians have thus produced a cross between a dwelling-placeand a fortress;it is typical of their civilizationand probablygoes back to pre-historic times in America. The houses are built in tiers, a second or even a third dwellingof rectangularshape restingupon the first. In the interiorof such houses (P1.4sf) dolls are suspended not ordinary children'sdolls; they hang there rather like the figuresof saints in Roman Catholicfarm-houses. They are called kachinadolls, faithfulimages of the maskeddancerswho act as demonicmediatorsbetweenman and the natural forcesin the ceremonies which accompanythe yearly round of activitiesand are among the most typical and remarkablefeatures of this religion of hunters and peasants. On the wall appears a symbol of the intruding American civilization,the broom. But essentiallya productof craftsmanship, servingat once a practicaland a religiousend, is the clay vesselused for carryingthe necessary but scanty supply of water (P1.44f). It is typical of the drawingon such vesselsthat a kind of heraldic skeleton of natural forms is represented. A bird is dissectedinto its essentialcomponent parts so that it appearsas a heraldic abstraction. It becomesa hieroglyph,not meant simplyas a pictureto look at but rather as something to be read an intermediarystage between image and sign, between realistic representation and script. In the mythologyof the Indians the bird plays an importantpart which will be familiarto all who know the Leather-stocking Tales. Apartfromthe fact that it is reveredlike any animal as an imaginaryancestor,as a totem, the bird is a special object of worship in connection with the burial-cult. It would even appearthat in prehistoric times a rapacioussoul-birdwas one of the essentialmythicalfiguresconjured up by the imagination of the Sikyatki. The bird owesits place in idolatrous worshipto its feathers. The Indiansuse, as a special vehicle for transmittingtheir prayers,small sticks called bahos, which have feathersattachedto them and are placed beforefetishaltarsand planted on graves. Indianswho were asked about this practice offeredthe plausibleexplanationthat the feathersacted as wings to bear requestsand wishes to the demonic forcesof nature. Therecan be no doubt that the modernpotteryof the Pueblosbearstraces of the influence of mediaeval Spanish workmanship, which was introduced in the sixteenthcentury. On the otherhand the excavations of Fewkeslhave shown conclusivelythat quite independentlyof Spanish influence an older technique existed, involving the heraldic bird-motivestogether with the serpent, which, in the Moki religion as in all heathen cults, is specially reveredas a potent symbol.
1 "Expedition to Arizona in I895" in AmericanEthnology, I895-96, Seventeenth AnnualReportof the Bureauof in I898. Pt. II, published

bottom and with featheredhead on the on four The serpentstill appearscoiled specimens; just as Fewkesfoundit on prehistoric vessels, from modern know of we As of animals. round the rim we see small figures ridges for example the frog and the animals, these into Indian mysteries research vesselswere placedbefore the pointsof the compass,and the Here represent spider, the serpent, as the temple. fetish in the kiva or underground the of lightning,is the centre of worship. symbol Cleo Jurino, and his son Anacleto for In my hotel in Santa Fe an Indian, to do some colouredcrayondrawings demur some after one consented Jurino, father,Cleo, was their conceptionof the cosmos. The representing me, drawing (P1.44b) The in Cochiti. kiva the of painters and priests drawn the of without feathers,but otherwise weather-god, a as snake of the shape showed tonguein the a sharp-pointed with vase, the on figure the the like Above exactly has a terracedgable. streams arrow. The roof of the world-house an rain, representedby short strokes, house stretchesthe rainbow, andIn cosmic wall the middle, as masterof the the massedcloudsbelow. from is the fetish,yayaoryerrik.l (Gewitterweltenhaus), its the thunderstorm of pious Indian evokes the stormwith Beforesuch paintingsas this themagic astounding most arts,of whichthe of rainby the practiceof his venomous blessing species. For, as we can see of a the juggling with live serpents is resemblanceto the lightning Jurino's drawing, the snake's formal from magic affinity. between both the relation of under establishes the directinfluenceof official I had been anxiousto see the Indians gave me the opportunity I needed. and a fortunatecircumstance while I895 Catholicism, Year New I had met at Juillard,the Catholicpriestwhom inspection, Father of round a was going on a Mexican Matachines-dance, watching as the romanticvillage of Acoma. far as him andI was able to accompany hours through a wildernessof gorse till we We travelledfor about six a sea of rockslike a Heligolandin the midst the village. It rose from begun sighted foot of the rocksthe bells had swiftly the reached we Before waste. ran ofa sandy redskins of brightly-clad which totoll in honourof the priest. A crowd below, wait to had The carriages baggage. our take to path which the down the Indians stole a cask of wine for unfortunate; very be to of all first proved nuns of Bernalillo. We were Spanish the by priest the to given been use had still by the Governador-they hand to his receivedwith the utmost respect priest's the put He the villages. in the namesfor the ruling chiefsof noise as though he were drawing the with mouthand made a kind of hissing greeting. In company of his guestin tokenof reverential the at and exhalation room of the chief's dwelling, morning. driverswe were taken to the main to assistat Mass on the following priest'sinvitationI promised door of the church (P1.4sb). It is The Indiansare standingoutside the
Rain. of figuresin the drawing,as 6. 1 Explanation Lightning 7. givenby CleoJurino: IO. "The WaterSerpent" that anybody apI. House ofthe fetish I I. The four bolts mean does not tell the who rainbow The 2. proachingthe serpent before you can dead 3. The fetish down fall will truth 4. The whiteclouds count four. 5. The rain clouds.

280

WARBURG A.

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a Walpi, View ol the Village (p. 284)

Door (tt.280) b Acoma)IndiansStandingbeforeChurch

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Walpi, Vlllage Street (p. 284)

e Acoma, Interior of Ghurchwith BaroqueAltar

(p. 28I)

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A LECTURE ON SERPENT RITUAL

no easy matter to induce them to go in. They have to be summonedby shouting loudly down the three parallel streetsof the village a duty performedby the chief himself. At last all the Indians are assembled. They are clad in colourfulwoollen garments,which are woven in the open air by the women-folkof nomadic Indian tribes, though the Pueblos themselvesalso make them. These costumesare ornamentedin white, red and blue and produce a most picturesqueeffect. In the interiorof the church there is a regularlittle baroquealtar with figuresof the Saints(P1.4se). The priest, not understanding a word of the Indians'language,had to have an interpreter to translate sentenceby sentence during Mass-and the interpretercould have said just what he liked. During the serviceI noticed that the wall was coveredwith pagan cosmological symbols,executed in the same style as the drawingsof Cleo Jurino. The church of Laguna is likewisecovered with such paintings,symbolising the universewith the stair-shaped roof. I can show you only a small part of such a stair. (P1.44c) For our attempt to photographthe interiorof the church was resistedby the Governador, who refusedto hand the keys even to the priest a resistance which duringthe afternoon had been strengthened by the wine from the priest'scarriageof which the Indianshad in the meantime had their full measure. In the photograph(P1.44c) an Indianis standingin the doorway to his left there appears a bit of the painting. At least a denticulateornamentation is visible, which represents a staircase not a rectangular stone stairway, but a much more primitiveform, cut out of a tree a form still to be found in use among the Pueblos. I later found one in the plain leaning on to a little granary (P1. 44a). Steps and ladders are an ancient and universaldevice for representing the growth, the upward and downwardmotion of nature. They are the symbol of achievementin the rise and descent through space, just as the circle, the coiled serpent,is the symbol for the rhythm of time. So the Indianestablishes the rationalelementin his cosmology by depicting the world like his own house, which he enters by means of a ladder. But we must not think of this world-houseas the simple reflectionof a tranquil cosmology. For the mistressof the house is the most fearsomeof all beasts -the serpent.
* * *

28I

The Pueblo Indian is not only a tiller of the soil: he is a hunter too, although not to the same extent as the savage tribes which used to live in those same regions. The Pueblo uses meat as well as maize for food. His masked dances, which seem at first sight like a festive show accompanying the daily round of his life, are in reality meant as a means of providingfood for the communityby the art of magic. The masked dance is essentially a serious,and indeed a warlike,measurein the strugglefor existence. We must not forgetthat althoughby the exclusionof cruel and bloody practices these dances diffier fundamentallyfrom the war-dancesof the nomads-the Pueblos' worst enemies they still remain predatoryand sacrificialboth in origin and tendency. When the hunter or the tiller of the soil puts on his mask -that is, changesinto the shape of his booty, whetheran animal or the

282

A. WARBURG

produceof the field-he believesthat in a mysterious mimic transformation he can securein advancewhat he trieseveryday to win by soberand vigilant work as hunterand peasant. The communalaction of providingfor foodis, therefore,of schizoid nature: magic and labour coexist. The existenceside by side of rationalcultivationand imaginativemagic revealsthe heterogeneous state of transitionin which the PuebloIndian lives. He is no longer a mere savage who is unacquaintedwith actionscontrolling the future and who graspsonly the object directly before him; but on the other hand he has not yet acquired the sense of technical security of the European who awaitsthe futureevent as somethingbound to occuraccording to an organicor mechanicallaw. The Indian standsmidwaybetweenlogic and magic, and his instrumentof orientationis the symbol. Between the primitive man who snatches the nearest booty, and the enlightenedman who plans and awaits the result of his actions, is the man who interposes symbolsbetween himself and the world. This stage of symbolic thought and behaviourcan be illustratedby a few examplesfrom the dancesof the Pueblo Indians. When I firstsaw the antelope-dance in San Ildefonsoit struckme as very harmlessand almostcomical. For the studentof folklore,however,who sets out to study biologicallythe roots of cultural expression, there is no moment more dangerousthan when popularand apparentlycomical practicesmove him to laughter. A man who laughs at comic featuresin folkloreis wrong, for he at once obstructsthe insight into the tragic element. In San Ildefonso,a pueblo in the neighbourhood of Santa Fe with a long traditionof Americaninfluence,the Indiansassembled forthe dance. Firstof all the musicians got ready, with a huge drum. Then they formedtwo rows sideby side and assumedthe characterof the antelopein masksand gestures (P1.4sc). The two rows of dancersbegan to dance in two differentways. They either imitatedthe animals'walk or else supportedthemselves on their frontlegs, i.e. on two little stickswith featherswoundroundthem, with which they moved about on one spot. At the head of each row was a female figureand a hunter. With regard to the female figure I was only able to discoverthat she was called the mother of all the animals.l The animal mimeaddresses his invocationsto her. By slipping into the animal mask in the hunting-dancethe animal is captured in anticipationby a miming of the attack to be made during the actualhunt. And this measure is not to be thought of as mere play. In establishing contact with somethingentirelynon-personal the maskeddance means to primitiveman the mostprofound submission to someexternalbeing. Whenthe Indian in his miming costumeimitatesfor examplean animal by movement and sounds,he is trying to transform his own self and so to wrest from natureby magic meanssomethingto which he feels he cannot attain so longas his personality remainsunchangedand unextended. Imitation in the miming animal-danceis therefore a highly religious ritualact of self-surrender to some external being. The masked dance
1 7roTvla 071puV, cf. Jane E. Harrison,Prolegomena to the Studyof Greek Relagion, I922, p.264.

A LECTURE ON SERPENT RITUAL

283

among the so-called primitive peoples is fundamentally an example of collective piety. The Indian's attitude towards the animal is totally differentfrom that of the European. For the Indian the animal is a higher being, becausethe integrityof the animal-nature makesit seema moregiftedcreaturein contrast to man, who is weak. BeforeI startedon my journey, these psychological facts about the urge for animal-metamorphosis came to me as an overwhelming surprise fromthe lips of FrankHamiltonCushing,who was a pioneerand a veteranin the explorationof the Indian mind. With his pock-marked face and his sparse sandy hair, his age a complete enigma, he told me, as he puffed at his cigarette, of what an Indian had once said to him: "Why shoulda man stand higher than an animal? Look at the antelope. It is a Run. It runsso much betterthan a man. Or the bear, it is just Strength. Men can only do a little; an animal can do wholly what it has in it to do." And however odd it may seem, this fairy-tale-likeway of thinking is the preliminaryto our scientificgenetics. In a state of reverentialawe, in what is called totemism,these pagan Indians, like all the pagans throughoutthe world, unite with the animal kingdom by believing in animals of all kinds as mythical ancestors of their tribes. Their explanation of nature by imaginativelyinterrelatingman with animals is not so very far removed from Darwinism;for as we impute a physicallaw to the processof evolution in nature, the pagans try to establishan imaginaryassociationof man with the animal-world. The decisivefactorin the lives of theseso-calledprimitive peoples may be called a kind of mythical Darwinismof elective ainities.
* * *

It is obviouslya hunting-dancethat has survivedin San Ildefonso. But as the antelope died out upwardsof three generationsago, it may well be that the antelope-dancemarks a transitionto the purely demonic kachinadances, the chief purpose of which is to pray for a good harvest. For in Oraibi there still existsan antelope-clan, whose main functionis the working of weather-magic. Whilst the imitative animal-dancemust be regarded as magic miming that belongsto a civilizationof hunters,an entirelydifferentcharacter pertains to the kachina-dance,which forms part of the regularly recurringannual festivitiesof the peasant-people. The natureof the kachina-dance is revealed in its entirety of course only in regions far removed from the centres of Europeancivilization. The masked dance, with its magic ritual extending its appeal to inanimate nature itself, can only be witnessedin its more or less primitiveform in parts untouchedby the railway, and where, as in the villagesof the Moki,even the veneerof oicial Catholicism no longerpersists. In Oraibi, the most remote westerlypoint, I was privilegedby a lucky chance to witness what is called a humiskachina-dance in the market-place of a cliff-village. Here I saw the living originals of the masked dancers I had alreadyseen as puppetsin a room of this same village of Oraibi. To get to Oraibi I had to travel two days in a small carriagefrom the station of Hollbrook. The carriagewas what is called a buggy, with four light wheels, admirablyadapted for getting over the desert, where gorse is

284

A. WARBURG

the only plant to be seen. The driver,FrankAllen, who tookme through this country,was a Mormon. We had a very bad sand-storm which obliterated the cart-tracks, the only meansof findingone's way about that otherwise trackless waste. But we were lucky enough to reach Keam's Canon after two days'journey, and here we were cordially receivedby Mr. Keam, an Irishman. From this point I was able to make excursions to the cliff-villages, which lie on three mountainplateausextending in parallelsfrom North to South. The first place I saw was the remarkablesettlementof Walpi. It has a romanticsituation, perchedhighup on the cliffslike a massof rock. A narrow pathhigh up leadspastthe groupof houses(P1.4sa, d). The positionof Oraibi, where I was to see the humiskachina-dance, is very similar. Up in the market-place, where the old blind man sits with his cow, they had prepared a place for the dance (P1. 46a). The humiskachina-dance is the dance of the growing corn. I witnessedit from April 28th to May ISt, I896. The evening before the dance I was in the kiva,where the secret ceremonies are performed. There was no fetish-altar. The Indians simply sat there ceremoniously smoking. Every now and then a pair of brown legs would come down the ladder and presentlythe whole man would appear. The youngermen were busy painting their masksin preparation for the next day; for the big leather helmets are used again and again, since new ones would be too costly. The painting was done by blowing a spray of waterfromthe mouthon to the leathermaskand then rubbingthe colourson. The next morningthe whole audience,includingtwo groupsof children, was assembled on the wall. The Indians' relationshipto their children has somethingvery attractiveabout it. The childrenare reared gently but with disciplineand they are very friendlyonce you have succeededin winning their confidence. So the childrenwere assembledthere in the market-place, full of tense excitement, but all very solemn. They are brought up with tremendousreligious respect for the kachinas. They all come to regard them as fearsome,super-naturalbeings, and the moment when the child receivesinstructions as to the truenatureof the kachinasand is itselfadmitted to the companyof the dancersis the great turning-point in its life. The dance was performed by about twenty or thirty male and about ten female dancers, that is men representing women (P1.46b). There are two rowsof dancers,with five men forminga sort of apex. Althoughthe dance takes place in the market, there is an architecturalterminal: a little stone structure, in frontof which a dwarfpine-treehas been plantedand bedecked with feathers,forminga little temple where the prayers are offered up in the form of the dance itself and of the hymns which accompanythe dance. This temple makes a sort of visual focus for the whole ceremony. The dancers'masksare green and red with a diagonal white strip with three spotson it. These latter, I was told, are meant to be rain-drops; and the whole symbolism on the helmet again showsthe worldas a seriesof steps, with the sourceof rain alwaysindicatedby semi-circular clouds and strokes emanating from them. These symbols are repeatedon the woven scarves which the dancerswear round their bodies red and green ornamentation very gracefullyexecuted on a white ground. The male dancers carry a

b- Oraibi, HumiskachinaDance, "Squatting" (p. 284)

a ()ld Man on L)anclng (iround (p. 284)

c- fi

L)ancers resting (>9.284)

e HumiskachinaDance, "Turning" (p. 285)

A LECTURE ON SERPENT RITUAL

285

rattle in their hands made out of a hollow gourd containingstones. Round their knees they wear a tortoise-shellwith pebbles hanging from it, so that their knees too make a rattling sound (P1. 46f). The chorusperforms two differentacts. Eitherthe girlssit in front of the men and make a noise with their rattlesand a piece of wood, in which case the men one after the other merely spin round; or else the women rise and accompanythe men in their gyration. And all the time two priestskeep sprinklingthe dancerswith consecratedflour (P1. 46b, c, e). The costume of the 'female' dancers consistsof a cloth covering the whole figure, concealingthe fact that they are men. At the sides of their masks, at the top, they wear the special hair-dress of the Pueblo-girls, a curiouskind of columbine-ornament (cf. P1. 48d). Horse-hair,dyed red, hangs down from the mask to symboliserain, and decorationsrepresenting rain are seen on the scarvesand other wrappings. The dance lasts from morningtill evening, the dancersat the head of the dance remainingalways close to the little temple. At intervalsthe Indians leave the village and go to a projectingpiece of rock to rest for a moment (P1.46d). Whoever catches sight of a dancer without his mask will die. The little tree hung with featherswhich, as I said, is the real focusof the dance, is called Nakwakwochi. I was struckby the fact that this tree was very small, so I went up to the old chief who was sitting at the end of the market-place and asked him why. He said: "We used to have a big tree. Now we have taken a little one, for the soul of a child is pure." So in this region we meet the perfect animistic cult of the tree which as we know persiststo this day in the heathen practicesat harvest-timein Europe and belongsto the basic religiousconceptionsof all mankind. The function is to establisha connectionbetween man and the natural forces,to create a symbol, that is, to link them magicallytogetherby means of some intercessor; and in this case the intercessor is a tree, which is nearer to earth than man becauseit is rooted in the earth. This tree is the fitting mediatorleading to the powersbelow. The feathersare carried down on the followingday to a certain spring in the valley and planted there or else hung up as offerings. They are meant to give effect to the prayerfor fertilisation, that the maize shall grow big and profuse. Late in the afternoonthe dancers were there again, unwearied,grave and ceremonious, continuingtheir monotonousmovements. Butjust as the sun was about to set, a spectaclewas enactedbeforeour eyes which revealed with devastatingclarity how calm and sober ritual draws its magic forms fromthe very depthsof humanpassion,and how in the face of this, our ready and shallow acceptanceof a purely spiritual interpretation of ceremonyis doomed to defeat. Six figures appeared: three men almost naked, their bodies smeared with yellow clay and their hair made up to resemble horns. They were wearingsimple loin-cloths. Then came three men dressedas women. And while the chorusand the priestscontinuedtheir reverentialdance calm and unperturbed, these six executedan obsceneparodyof the choralmovements. And not one person laughed. This rude parody was not felt to be a piece

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ofcomic mockery; ratherit was a kind of auxiliaryceremonyof the more wildly exuberant dancers in an effort to ensure a rich harvest. Anyone with ancienttragedywill recognisein this the dual natureof the acquainted chorusand the satyr play "both graftedon to one stem." tragic
* * *

Religious practicein Mexico provideda gruesomedramatic illustration of the way in which the human being entersinto the deity in order to share the goddess strength. At one festivala womanrepresenting inits superhuman the skin into and sacrificed, then and of maize is worshippedfor forty days enters. of this wretchedcreaturethe priest and frenziedattemptto approach with thismostelementary In comparison seems infinitely less brutal in Pueblos the among the deity, all that we see can be no assurancethat the there yet and kinship; spiteof the fundamental drawn from the roots of secretly not to-day, even is, it sap which nourishes Puebloslive has witthe which upon soil same The cult. bloodysacrificial all their cruelties with nomads Indian savage the of war-dances nessedthe enemy. the of martyrdom the culminatingin The supremeexample of magical assimilationto nature by way of the animal-worldis found among the Moki Indians in their dances with live serpentsat Oraibi and Walpi. I have not myself witnessedthese dances, the most pagan of all the Walpi ceremonies. It is an animal dance and a ritual dance of the seasonsat one and the same time. It combinesin the most perfect form traits of the animal dance as seen in San Ildefonsoand of Oraibi. For in the month of the magic fertilitydance, the humiskachina of August, when the criticalmomentof the year has arrivedin the work of the fields and the whole successof the harvestdepends on a heavy fall of rain, the storm with its blessed relief from drought is invoked in a dance with live serpents,which takes place alternatelyin Oraibi and in Walpi. Whereasin the dance of San Ildefonsothe magical effect was produced by the simulationof an antelope and in the corn-danceof Oraibi by the wearing of masks,we find in Walpi the magic dance in a much older and purer form. For here the dancersand the live beast form a magic unity. The amazing thing is that the Indians have a way of handling the most so that it can be tamedwithoutviolence of reptiles,the rattle-snake, dangerous and will join in the ceremonies for days on end with complete docility, unlessit is speciallyprovoked. or at leastwithoutshowingits usualpropensities if attempted by Europeans. disaster in end Such a feat would inevitably are the actorsin the snakekinsmen of groups In the Moki villages two who are linkedby legendary Snake-men the and festival-the Antelope-men can even nowadays totemism That animals. totem their traditionwith these human beings which in dance, this by shown is practice into be seriouslyput with a actions ritual perform but shapes animal in appear do not merely of snake-dance the that see we So serpent. the beast, live most venomous Walpi is half-way between the empathy of mimic action and the bloodsacrifice itself. For the ceremony is no mere imitation of animals; they themselvesplay their part as actors in the ritual, not to be sacrificed,but, to join in the petition for rain. For the snakeswhich take like the baho,

A LECTURE ON SERPENT RITUAL

287

part in the dance in Walpi are themselves forcedto intercedein the offering up of the prayer. In the course of a ceremony extending in Walpi over sixteendays they are caught alive in the desert in the month of August and then kept undergroundin the kiva,where they are guarded bv the chiefs of the snake- and antelope-clansand undergocurious ceremonies,the most importantand startlingof which is the washingof the snakes. The snakeis treated like a novice, and notwithstandingits struggles it is dipped in consecratedwater, to which all kinds of medicamentshave been added. Then it is cast on to the floor of the kiva,wherethere is a picture drawn in sand representing four lightning-snakes with a quadrupedin the middle. In anotherkivathere is a sand drawingof a bank of clouds with four differently colouredstreaksof lightning, in the shape of serpents,(P1.44e). The snakes are flung down violently on to the first sand picture so that the drawing is obliteratedand the snakeitself is covered in sand. There is no doubt in my mind that this magic throw is intended to make the snake provokethe lightning or bring rain. This is clearly the meaning of the whole ceremony,and the parts of the ritualwhich followprovethat snakesthus initiatedbecomein the mostpatent way petitionersand provokers of rain, in conjunctionwith the Indians themselves. They are living weather-saints in the shape of animals. The snakes,numberingabout one hundred-with their poisonfangs, as we know, still left in them are kept in the kivaand on the last day of the festivalheld captive in a bush with a band roundit. The ceremonyculminates in these acts : the approachto the bush, the seizingand carryingabout of the live snakes,and finally the sendingaway of the snakesto the plain as intercessors. Americananthropologists describethe seizing and carryingof the snake as an amazingly exciting act. It is done in the following way: A group of three approaches the bush where the rattle-snakes are lying. The high priestof the snake-clanpullsa snakeout of the bush,anotherIndian with his face painted and tattooedand wearinga fox-skinon his back, seizes the snakeand puts it in his mouth. A companion,taking him by the shoulders, distractsthe attention of the snake by waving a featheredstick. The third is the watcher and the snake-catcher,who stands ready in case the snake should slip out of the second man's mouth. The dance is completed in little over half an hour in a small space in the village of Walpi. When all the snakes have thus been carried about to the accompanimentof the dancers'noise they have rattlesand tortoise-shells and pebbleshung round their knees they are swiftly borne down to the plain, where they escape and disappear. Fromwhat we know of the Walpi Indian mythologywe may be sure that this form of serpent worshiphas a backgroundin tribal legends. We are told of a certain hero called Ti-yo, who set out on a journey underground to discoverthe sourceof the longed-forwater. He passesthe various kivas of the princes of the lower regions, accompaniedall the time by a female spider who sits unseen on his right ear and guides him -a kind of Indian Vergil to this Indian Dante; and eventually,after passingthe two housesof the sun in the west and in the east, he comes to the great kEva of the snakes, where he is presented with the magic baho,which invokes the weather.

snakes,who to the story Ti-yo bringsback with him two female According who creatures him children,also in the formof snakes very dangerous bear in that see we so the end compelthe tribesto changetheir dwelling-place; in with animals myth the serpents are both weather deities and totem this over the migrationsof the clan. power it is transmutedby The snake in this dance is thereforenot sacrificed; as a messenger, and by the mimicryof the dance and sent out consecration the thunderdown that when it comesto the soulsof the deadit may bring so from the heavensin the shape of lightning. storm formof emotional elementary It is naturalfor the layman to think of this entirely savage-state primitive a throughreligiousmagic as typical of release very the Greece in ago, to Europe. And yet, two thousandyears unknown were practices ritual culture from which we derive our European country even the things we see invogue which surpassin their blatant monstrosity the Indians. among the Maenadsdanced with In the orgiasticcult of Dionysusfor example, in one hand and in snake a livesnakesentwining their hair like diadems, pieces in the ecstaticsacrificial theother the animal which was to be torn to blood-sacrifice, carriedout in a The in honourof the god. performed dance the real meaning of frenziedexaltation(P1.47a), is the culminationand state dances of the Moki of this religious dance, in contrastto the present-day Indians. is an ideal of purificationwhich The emancipationfrom blood-sacrifice from east to west. hasleft a profoundmark on the developmentof religion In man's relation to The snake too undergoesthis processof sublimation. his faith as it moves from fetish the snake we can measurethe changing ofOld Testamentthe serpentis the to the pure religionof redemption. In the like the snakeTiamat in Babylon. In Greeceit is of evil, of temptation, spirit the Erinysis encircled devouringmonsterof the nether-world; the merciless, a serpent as executioner. with serpents,and the gods in their wrath send power from the nether-world This conceptionof the snake as a destroying in the myth and in the sculptured has found its most moving tragic symbolgods, wroughtupon theirpriestand groupof Laocoon. The vengeanceof the makes this famous comhis two sons by means of the destroyingserpents human suffering. The dire of position of antiquity a vivid embodiment them againstthe wiles warning prophetpriest,seeking to aid his people by gods. So the death partial the of the Greeks,falls a prey to the vengeanceofsymbol antique Passion; the of of the father with his two sons becomes a without hope of and justice death as revenge wrought by demons without 47b). (P1. antiquity of salvation. That is the tragic pessimism findsits counterpart of ancientpessimism This snakeas a demonexpressive the benevolence recognise last at can we in an antique snake-godin which god of healing, the Asclepius, age. beauty of the classical and transfigured (P1.47c). His featuresmark has a snaketwinedroundhis staff as a symbol art of antiquity. It is significant, him as the paganworldsaviourin the plastic god has his roots in the however,that even this most exalted and detached

288

WARBURG A.

a-Maenad dancing, from a Neo5 Attlc Ke11el. rarl, Louvre t . 200)

. t_ . , * T

b-I.aocoon.

Rome, Vatican (>5.288)

_*i0s_

d-Serpentarius, StarConstellation. Leyden, God. Voss. Q7g, f. I ob (p. 289)

e- Brazen Serpent and Crucifixion, Biblia Pauperum. f Giuli London, Brit. Mus. Add. 3I303 (p. 290) Snake B

A LECTUTRE ON SERPENT RITUAL

netherworldof the departedsouls,where the livingsnakehas its abode. The earliesttributeof worshipis paid to him as a serpent. The snaketwinedround his staff and he himselfare one and the same a departedsoul that goes on living and reappearsin the form of a serpent. For the snakeis not only, as Cushing's Indians would say, the fatal bite threatening or inflicted and destroyingwithout mercy; the snake shows also, by sloughingits skin, how the body slips out of its husk, begins again and goes on. The snake can glide into the earthand reappear. The returnfromthe earthwherethe dead are lying, together with this faculty of renewingits skin, makes the snake the most natural symbol of immortality, of revival from sicknessand the agonies of death.l In the templeof Asclepiusat Kos in Asia Minorthe deity was represented in transfigured human form, holding in his hand the staff with the serpent twined round it. But in this sanctuarythe more true and potent nature of the God was not to be seen in the lifeless mask of stone: it was there as a live serpent in the innermostpart of the temple, and in the observanceof the cult it was fed, cared for and attended as only the Mokiscare for their snakes. In astrologicalmanuscripts of the Middle Ages, Asclepiusappearsin the sky as a fixed star over Scorpio (P1.47d). He is encircledby serpentsand is henceforthregardedas a constellationunder whose influenceprophetsand physicians are born. By this elevationto the starsthe snake-god has becomea transfigured totem. He is the cosmicfatherof all who are bornin the month of the year (October)when his visibilityis at its height. For in the astrology of antiquity mathematicsand magic came together. The snake-figurein the sky, which is found also in the constellationof the Serpent,is used as a mathematicaloutline. The points of light are linked togetherby means of an earthly image, in order to make what is boundlesscomprehensible, for without some outline it evades our sense. Asclepiusis both these thingsa mathematicalfigure and the bearer of a fetish. Human culture evolves towardsreasonin the same measureas the tangiblefullnessof life fades into a mathematicalsymbol. About twentyyearsago, in the northof Germanyby the Elbe I discovered a thing which showedme in a curiouslyvivid way how lasting the ceremony of the snakecult must be in spite of everyattemptat religiousenlightenment;
1 In the firstdraftof this passage,Warburg explained the symbolic power of the snake image as follows: "WelcheEigenschaften bringtdie Schlange mit, um sich als verdrangender Vergleicher in Religion und Kunst einzustellen? I. Sie durchlauft mit dem Jahr den Lebenskreislauf vom tiefstenTodesschlafbis zum starkstenLeben. 2. Sie wechseltdie Hulle und bleibt dieselbe. 3. Sie ist nicht imstande, auf Fussen zu laufen und besitzt trotzdem ein Maximum von sichvorwarts bewegender Schnellkraft in Verbindungmit der absoluttodlichenWaffie des Giftzahns. 4. Fur das Auge bietet sie dabei ein MinimumderSichtbarkeit,besonders wennsiesich in der Farbenach den Gesetzendes Mimikri der Wuste anpasst, oder aus dem Erdloch, in dem sie verborgenliegt, herausschnellt. 5. Phallus. Das sind Qualitaten, die sie fur das, was in der Natur "ambivalent" ist, tot und lebendig, sichtbar unsichtbar, (ohne vorheriges Warnzeichenund rettungslosbeim Anblick verderblich)als verdrangendes Symbol unvergesslich machen."

289

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A. WARBURG

the for in this case the ChristianBible itself was the vehicle for perpetuating on I found the Vierlande through of a trip the course pagan tradition. In had which illustrations biblical of number a church of a Protestant the rood obviouslybeen copied from an Italian Bible of the I8th century. Here I saw anotherLaocoonwith his two sons at the mercy of the serpents,but in the act of being saved by anotherAsclepius. For we read in Deuteronomy that Moses in the wildernesshad commandedthe Childrenof Israel to set up a brazen serpent as a remedy against snake-bites. In this passagewe are confrontedby a remnantof idolatry in the Old Testament. We know that this passagecan only be an insertion,made in an attempt to explain the presenceof such an idol in Jerusalem. For the main fact subsequently by King Hezekiahat remainsthat the brazen idol of a serpentwas destroyed the bidding of the prophetIsaiah. Againstthe cult of human sacrificeand the worship of beasts the prophets engaged in a grim struggle. And this struggle is the dominant theme in oriental and in Christianreformation right down to the most recent times. It is clear that the setting up of the that it runs counter serpentis directlyopposedto the Ten Commandments, to the iconoclasticzeal of the prophetswho aim at reform. But thereis anotherreasonwhy everystudentof the Bible must see in the serpentthe most vehement challenge from the powers of evil; the serpent in the garden of Eden dominatesthe Biblical account of the world order, as the causeof evil and of sin. In the Old and the New Testamentsthe snake is joined to the wood of paradiseas the satanic power causing the tragedy of man who in the midst of sin still cherisheshope of redemption. Early Christianity in its struggleagainst idolatry was, therefore,plainly hostile towardsthe cult of the serpent. Paul was looked upon by the heathensof Malta as a sacredand immune messengerwhen he cast the viper that had bitten him into the flamesand did not die of the bite. So stronglydid the of Paul's immunityagainstvipers survivein Malta that down to impression the sixteenthcentury Italianjugglers,encircledby snakes,appearedat fairs and festivals,calling themselves"men of the house of St. Paul" and selling Maltese soil as an antidote to snake-bites(P1.47f). Here the belief in the immunityof those who are strongin faith returnsto the practiceof superstit* i

lOUS maglC.

In mediaevaltheologywe find the miracleof the brazen serpentcuriously retainedas a legitimatepart of the religiouscult. On the basisof the isolated passage in Deuteronomy, directly opposed as it was to Old Testament in the New Testamentby a passage tendencyand doctrine,but re-enforced was typologically in St. John (III, I4, I5), the image of snake-worship comparedto the Cruxifixionitself (P1.47e). Even though it is treated as a and the worshipof thing to be overcome,the settingup of the animal-figure the kneeling multitude before the staff of Asclepiusis retained as a stage in man's progress towards salvation. Moses himself who, as we read, destroyedthe Tables of the Law becauseof the worshipof the Golden Calf, of the brazenserpent. is forcedto serve as shield-bearer
* * *

What we have seen in this all too brief summaryof the snake cult

A LECTURE ON SERPENT RITUAL

is intended to show the change from real and substantial symbolism29I which appropriatesby actual gestures to that symbolism which exists in thought alone. I shall be content if the picturesof the daily life and festive activitiesof the Pueblo Indianshave provedto you that their maskeddances are not a mere game, but the heathen'sanswerto torturingquestionson the why and wherefore of things. The Indian who confrontsthe incomprehensible happeningsin nature with a will to comprehend,identifieshimself by transmutation with the causes of things. Instinctively,for the unexplained effiect, he substitutes the cause in its mostreal and most tangibleshape. The masked dance is the danced law of causality. If religionmeans 'bindingtogether'("religioa religando,a vinculo pietatis," Lactantius,IV, 28), then the sign of developmentout of the primitive state will be that this linkingtogetherof man with what lies beyondbecomes more and more spiritualised:no longer cleaving to the symbolof the mask, man realisescausalityin thought alone, and moves onwardsto a system of mythologyexpressed in words. The will to surrender in devotionis a nobler form of assuminga mask. In the movementwhich we call culturalprogressthe being which claims our submission and was so prodigiouslynear,withdrawsfrom our grasp and becomesin the end an unseenand spiritualpower. Mtehave observedhow Christianthought uses the heathen picture language of the snake to express the idea of both suffiering and salvation. We mightperhapssay that wherever suffiering and helplesshumanityis foundin blind questforsalvation,the snake will be close by, as an explanatoryimage of the cause. How is mankindfreeingitself from this coercivebond with a venomous reptilein which it sees the cause of things? Our technicalage doesnot need the serpent to explain and control the lightning. The lightning no longer frightensthe dwellersin our cities, nor do they long for a stormas the only hope of relief from drought. We have our water supply,and the lightningsnake is led down into the ground by the lightning-conductor. Scientific argumentputs an end to mythological explanation. We know that the snake is a reptile which must succumb if we set our minds to it. Where the technicalexplanationof cause and eXectreplacesthe mythicalimagination, man loseshis primitivefears. But we should be loth to decide whetherthis emancipationfrom the mythologicalview really helps mankind to find a fitting answerto the problemsof existence. The Americangovernment,like the Roman Catholic church in earlier times, has been admirablyactive in establishingschoolsamong the Indians. And its intellectualoptimismhas had this apparentresult, that the Indian children now go to school in pretty suits and little aprons (P1.48c) and no longer believe in the pagan demons. This is at any rate true in the case of most. And it may denote progress. But I doubt whetherit really satisfies the soul of the Indian, who thinksin imagesand for whom poetic mythology is the true haven. I once tried to get the childrenof an Indian school to illustratea German fairy-tale,which they did not previouslyknow. I chose a story in which a storm happens to occur, for I wanted to see whetherthey would draw the lightningrealistically or in the formof snakes. Out of fourteendrawings,

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all of which were very graphicbut were obviouslyinfluencedby American instruction, twelvewererealistically drawn;but two of themusedthe irrepressible symbol of the snake, sharp as an arrow (P1. 44d), just as it occurs in the kiva (P1.44e). In San FranciscoI caught a fleeting glimpse of the type of man who overthrewthe cult of the serpentand overcamethe fear of lightning the descendantof the indigenousrace and of the gold-diggers who expelledthe Indians: Uncle Sam (P1.48b) in his tall hat walking proudly along the street past a pseudo-classical rotunda. And away above his top hat runsthe electricwire. In this copper-snake, inventedby Edison,he has wrestedthe lightningfrom nature. The Americanof to-dayno longerworshipsthe rattle-snake. Extermination (and whisky) is his answer to it. Electricityenslaved, the lightning held captive in the wire, has produceda civilizationwhich has no use for heathen poetry. But what does it put in its place? The forces of nature are no longer seen in anthropomorphic shapes; they are conceived as an endlesssuccessionof waves, obedient to the touch of a man's hand. With these waves the civilizationof the mechanicalage is destroying what natural science, itself emerging out of myth, had won with such vast effort the sanctuaryof devotion, the remotenessneeded for contemplation. The modern Prometheusand the modern Icarus, Franklin and the Wright Brotherswho invented the aeroplane, are those fateful destroyers of our sense of distance who threaten to lead the world back into chaos. Telegraphand telephonearedestroying the cosmos. But mythsand symbols, in attemptingto establishspiritualbondsbetweenman and the outsideworld, create space for devotion and scope for reasonwhich are destroyedby the instantaneous electricalcontact unless a disciplinedhumanityre-introduce the impedimentof conscience.
Translated by W. F. Mainland

48

a A. Warburgand a Pueblo Indian

---uncle

zam

tp. 292J

rn School (Shlldren (p.

29I)

d Pueblo Woman and Girl with Columbine EIair Dress (p. 285)