All the old chiefs in succession cast meal to the effigy and prayed, and in response to each the great snake emitted sounds identical with those mentioned above. The spectators then left the kiva, and a frenzied dance of strange character occurred. The societies from other kivas came in, and the chief of each declaimed in a half-chanting voice which rose to a shriek at the close of a stanza. First, he drew back to the fireplace, and then with a shuffling gait approached the symbolic opening in the floor called the sípapû. Anawíta then shouted at the top of his voice, and the shuffler sprang in the air and vaulted over the sípapû. Then everybody in the room shouted loudly and a song in concert followed. A moment later the visiting societies dashed down the ladder, each bearing a splendid shield ornamented with the figure of the sun and a rim of radiating eagle feathers. Each society had its distinctive sun shield, which on entering was handed to the chief. As he received it he stamped on the sípapú and a fierce song was sung. Meanwhile two members of the society stood apart from their fellows against the southern wall facing each other, each holding a squash flower emblem in a bouquet of spruce twigs and an ear of corn in his left hand. Suddenly the fifteen or twenty members of the society drew back from their chief, who then sprang upon the sípapû plank, and quickly turning faced them as all burst forth in an ecstatic shouting, with wild flinging of their arms as they approached the shield-bearers. They naturally formed two clusters, and as the shield-bearer dashed his shield in their faces they surged back, to leap again toward him. This seeming assault, wild though it appeared, was maintained in time with the song. The two chieftains joined their men, all in ecstatic frenzy, and one of them, shaking his shield, sprang from right to left, drawing back his assistants in rhythm with the beating of the feet of all on the floor. After a few moments of most exhaustive movements some of the weaker staggered up the ladder, and shortly after one of the chiefs fell fainting to the floor, overcome by exhaustion and the intense heat of the room. One splendid athlete danced with vigor for fully five minutes, and then swept toward the ladder where the assistant was standing in readiness to receive his shield. Another stride and he reached the foot of the ladder and suddenly became as rigid as a corpse. The men who belonged to the Móñkiva took no part in this exhaustive dance but stood in readiness to carry those who fainted up the ladder to the cool air outside.