ere they disappear. From w

hat we know of Walp
i myth ology, this form of devo
tion certainly goe

s back to ancestral, cosmologic legend. One saga tells the story of the hero Ti-yo, who undertakes a subterranean journey to discover the source of the longed-for water. He passes the various kivas of the princes of the underworld, always accompanied by a female spider who sits invisibly on his right ear-an Indian Virgil, Dante's guide to the underworld-and eventually guides him past the two sun houses of the West and East into the great serpent kiva, where he receives the magic baho that will invoke the weather. According to the saga, Ti-yo returns from the underworld with the baho and two serpent-maidens, who bear him serpentine children-very dangerous creatures who ultimately force the tribes to change their dwelling place. The serpents are woven into this myth both as weather deities and as totems that bring about the migration of the clans. In this snake dance the serpent is therefore not sacrificed but rather, through consecration and suggestive dance mimic