American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-08-07
A Thousand Years Old.

1T was a beautiful morning in August
that / set forth in company with my
guide from the ancient Pueblo of Zuni to
pay visit to the seven wonderful cities
Of Moqui, situated near the Colorado
Chiquito, in Arizona.
On the morning of the fourth day after
We left Zuni the guide suddenly turned
toward me and pointing to several elevated
naesds% that rose out of the blue haze of
the distance said:
"Yonder are the Moqui Pueblos."
looked but could distinguish nothing
that resembled pueblo or the habitation
of human being.
"Where:" inquired I.
upon the very tops of those mesGs, -
said the guide; they look so much like
the rocks on which they stand that it is
with their location to discern them.''
A few hours ride brought us to the
base of one of these elevated mesas, where
we found several of the people engaged in
herdipg their flocks of goats and sheep.
As they did not speak Spanish it was
impossible for us to converse with them.
They made us understand by signs that
we were welcome, and kindly sent one of
their number to guide us up the narrow,
winding path that led to their villages,
nearly 400 feet above us.
we climbed the steep, precipitous bluffs.
When halfway up we were obliged to
have our animals confined in one of the
numerous sheep-folds that have been con-
structed upon the lodges in the terraces
of the bluff for the purpose of corraling
sheep at night.
While removing the saddles from our
animals, at this point, we saw above us a
hundred heads, curiously peering over the
toll
of the white man who had come to see
them, they knew not for what purpose for
up to this time but few Americans had
ever visited these wonders of the desert
After much labor we at length reached
the level of this extraordinary TOWNSHIP
Here we were Immediately surrounded by
the curious people, who, one by one, ad-
vanced and cordially shook us by the
hand and then fell back and gave place to
corners.
We watched them with deep interest.
From the best evidence that can be OBJ
tanned, their ancestors for more than 1000
years have occupied this almost impreg-
nablc situation, although surrounded on
all sides by ban1s of hostile Apaches and
NavajOes. There they have lived, herding
their sheep and COTS, and raising their
scanty crops of corn, with a few beans, a
little cotton and some tobacco. Nations
around them have persisted, dynaStleS dis
appeared and Kingdoms fallen. Here they
have lived and died, while new worlds
have been discovered and old worlds
shaken to their very centers by wars and
revolutions.
Their principal crop is corn, which they
plant very deep in the earth, in order to
obtain greater degree of moisture. The
stalks are set'' at a-distance of four or
five. feet from each other. 1t forms the
most valuable crop raised. 1t is manu-
featured into a kind of bread, somewhat
resembling the t0rtillG of Mexico, called
by my guide gu0gdoe. Upon trial l
found it very palatable when hot, but re-
markably tough and insipid when cold.
In making this bread the corn was first
roasted and ground at Il metate Then the
flour was mixed with water, forming a
kind of paste. The woman making it then
seated herself by the side of large flat
stone, heated over Goals, and dipping her
hand in the paste hurriedly passed it over
the surface of the stone. The dough that
adhered to the stone was thus baked and
instantly peeled of. The process was re
peated often as ten fifteen times in a
minute. These gtagnoes, which are quite
thin as waters, are at once formed into
rolls that made me think of hornets nest
more than any article of food ever saw.
The natives keep the rolls thus prepared
for weeks, and with goats milk it forms
their principal article of diet
No horses, cows or hogs are owned in
the villages, though large numbers OF
burr0st, goats and sheep are found among