Before mentioning the public ceremonials, it is well to note in passing certain individual rites, classed as “crisis ceremonialism,”[236] by which is understood the transition from one stage of life to another. Birth, adolescence, the initiation into fraternities, marriage, funeral and mourning, each has its ordered recognition by definite rituals. One not shared by white people, called “ceremonial friendship,” is a beautiful relation between two persons who have become fast friends but have no kinship of blood. Always a voluntary choice, it may begin in very early childhood, or at any later period; it is most frequently seen between two men, much more rarely between two women, and not seldom between a man and a woman. In the last case, it constitutes a relation of brother and sister with no possibility of marriage, nor would either dream of marrying into the clan of the other. _Saukin_ is the Ácoma word for friend. In Zuñi these friends are called _kihe_, and there is a solemn ceremony performed to consummate it. Dr. Parsons could not be sure of the same custom at Ácoma, but she saw a woman make a present of a bowl to a Zuñi visitor to whom she had previously given a meal. “We are now friends,” said the Ácoma woman—although Zuñi claims never to make _kihe_ with other pueblos. Espéjo in 1580 mentioned the snake dance at Ácoma, but did not say anything about the snakes being carried in the mouth as at Walpi, which is so extraordinary a sight that he could hardly have overlooked it; and Mrs. M. C. Stevenson[237] in her vivid and important account of the snake ceremony of the Queres pueblo at Sía, expressly says that the Sía priests held the snakes in their hands. The Hopi, in fact, assert that the Queres never have put the serpents in their mouths, as they themselves do. In 1895 several Snake and Antelope priests at Hopi told Fewkes that portions of the snake ceremonial still survived at Ácoma, but he could not confirm this from anyone acquainted with Ácoma rituals.[238] In 1918, according to Dr. Parsons, there was but one Snake clansman left at Ácoma, and I was told in 1922 that he had since died. On September 2, the feast day of the patron saint of Ácoma, a dramatic representation is given of the coming of St. Stephen to New Mexico.[239] Visitors are apparently made more welcome at this time than at any other during the year. The church is wide open for prayers in early morning, and then there follows a religious service. After this comes the drama, and then a long programme of dances, foot races, and other games.[240] The ceremony is chiefly pagan but here, as everywhere in the Indian country, the name of the saint is given whose day coincides in the Christian calendar with that of the ancient _fiesta_—another adroit adaptation of the early padres. [Illustration: ÁCOMA ON FEAST-DAY OF ST. STEPHEN SEPTEMBER 2 _Fr. O’Sullivan_]