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By Felix J. Koch

ICTURESQUE? Well, if you can well imagine anything more picturesque than a great tribe of Indians, scattered among the colored sandstone rocks of the Painted Desert, plying all their native arts and crafts, playing the games the Red Men of the Southwest delighted in, who shall say how many centuries before the white man's coming, making blankets, making pottery-Jack Roosa, who has just been down to see, would like to know where and how!

These Indians of the Painted Desert are perhaps the nearest approach to the real life of the Navajo and the Zuni it has ever been given to the

great army of visitors to a world's fair to see. The Painted Desert is, of course, the Indian reservation at the big exposition down at San Diego, and though you drop in, down there, every day of the year, you will find something new or strange, or unique, to interest.

Just those Zunis, for examplethey are such a fascinating lot they would detain the veriest tyro to the studies of American native races. Old Captain Humfreville, who knows these Southwestern Indians best, perhaps, of any student of the folk-life, tells us some interesting facts, indeed, anent them.

"The Zunis are, of course, a part of the great Pueblo Indian race, he says. "The Pueblos were scattered through New Mexico and Arizona, from earliest times; where they live in villages and follow the manners and customs of their ancestors. They received their name from their custom of living in fixed places-the word pueblo being from the Spanish, for 'village' or 'town.'

"They raise a small quantity of vegetables and grain, for their own use, and make excellent pottery, which they exchange for the necessaries of life.

"Like the Navajos, they are gentle in their nature, treat their animals with kindness, and do not use horses or dogs for food. They are courteous to the strangers who enter their villages, and never make trouble when not interfered with.

"The Pueblos were long supposed to be Christians, but, in reality, they were heathen, if the number of their gods and goddesses were any indica

tion of idolatry. It was difficult to obtain any account of their religion, and it is a question, therefore, whether, decades past, they worshiped idols or not. They made and kept them in their dwellings, and they did not appear to respect or fear them. They sell them for a few cents, or barter them for liquor, or any articles they may require. These gods are frequently made hollow, and the Indians sometimes put them to the use of holding liquor. It was long not uncommon to see a Pueblo enter a place where liquor was sold and present one of these hollow gods to be filled. At the first opportunity he would substitute himself for his little god speedily become the liquor-holder. The gods were made as hideously ugly as possible, in order to ward off pain and disease; and if they failed to perform this duty, the Indian did not hesitate to smash them to pieces, if he could not sell them.

and

"The ruins and relics scattered

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Papoose and grandmother at differenc es over the week's wash.

horses, burros, sheep, goats and cattle. They also raise chickens and other domestic fowl.

Their country is well adapted for raising sheep and goats, which are pastured largely upon the mountain sides, where they can remain without water for days at a time. The farms are cultivated by irrigation, and their crops receive much attention.

Like the Aztecs, the Zunis hold

numerous festival and fete days which, clad in rich and varied costumes, they celebrate with processions and dances. They are reticent in speaking of their religious beliefs, but admit that they worship the sun.

The government of the Zunis consists of a governor, or alcalde, or mayor; a number of caiques, or councillors, eleven of whom were elected, annually, and a chief councillor, who

was elected for life. They had also an officer known as the war-chief, but he had no influence in their councils, unless the tribe was threatened with danger.

In their domestic habits the Zunis seen by Captain Humfreville, like Humfreville, like those of the big San Diego fair, are more cleanly than any other Indian tribe of their vicinity. They have but little household furniture, nor is much required for their simple wants. They work, cook, sleep on their well-kept floors. Their women are usually busy weaving clothing, grinding grain, baking bread and in other household occupations.

"The traditional type of Indian," says the Captain, "seemed wanting among these people. All, including the women, smoke. They usually smoke cigarettes made from tobacco and rolled in thin husks of corn. Their pipes are crude, looking as though they were made of the coarsest kind of clay.

"The Zunis had a tradition that their gods brought them to an arid and sterile plain for a home, far removed from the ocean, and that their forefathers taught them prayers, whereby water could always be obtained. These prayers were addressed to the spirits dwelling in the ocean, the home of all water, and the source from which the blessing must come. They believed that in answer to these prayers, rainclouds were brought from the ocean by the spirits of their ancestors."

Quite as interesting as the Zunis, al

though perhaps better known to the traveler through the Southwest, are the Navajos of the Painted Desert. Somehow, to the lay mind, the Navajos have become identified, always, with their glorious blankets; and visitors to the exposition find the Indian women weaving these, even as they do at home.

Captain Humfreville, discussing these splendid textiles, states that from the wool and hair of sheep and goats, time immemorial, the Navajos made those blankets, as well as wraps and other articles of wearing apparel, all of which are very serviceable, and some of them extremely handsome.

These fabrics the women weave by hand, and a very long time is often required to complete them, especially if the article is a blanket and intended to be ornamental, as well as useful.

"I have known them to work more than a year on one of these blankets," he tells us. "They were generally woven so close and the material twisted so hard that they were impervious to water. One of them could be taken by its four corners and filled with water, which it would hold, without leaking. Indeed, the water would only seem to swell the threads and make the fabric closer and firmer."

These, though, are but a few of the products the Navajos are producing on the Desert. To tell of them all were an endless tale, wellnigh too long a story, at least-that is to say, for pages such as these!

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