The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-01-20
A Curious Tribe Of HOnse.Bnilding
Indiana.

"The Ancient Province of Tusayan,"
in ScriJner's Monthly, by Major Powell,
describes the curious tribe OF house
building Indians in Northern Arizona.
Major Powell made his way to the seven
towns which comprise the province, and
remained nearly two months among them,
studying the language and habits OF the
people. The seven towns together con-
tain about 2.7O0 inhabitants, and stand
on high cliffs for greater security against
nomadic enemies. The houses are built
in terraces, and are three or four stories
high. Their exteriors are irregular and
unsightly, and the streets and courts
filthy. But the interiors Major Powell
found scrupulously clean. The people
who, from the account, are extremely in
teresting and curious, are very hOspitable.
Enter a house, and you are invited to
take seat on a mat placed for you upon
the floor, and some refreshment is offered
perhaps melon with little bread,
perhaps peaches or apricOts. Then every
thing Is carefully cleaned away, and,
with little broom made Of feathers, the
matron or her daughter removes any
crumbs or seed which may have been
uIOppcus 1uCy dtC oh COohOhiSoi PSV
pie. Many striking peculiarities are re-
lated of them, some of them pOetical.
Their greeting in the fields is "May the
birds sing happy songs in your fields"
They have many other greetings for
special occasions. "Do one a favor"
says the writer, "and he thanks you. II
man, he says Kwa kwa; if woman,
Es~ka-li.' And this leads me to say that
there is very interesting feature in their
language found among people of the same
grade of civilization in other parts OF the
world-many words are used exclusive y
by men, others by women. Father, a.
spoken by girl, is one word; spoken by
a boy it Is another; and nothing is con
sidered more vulgar among these people
than for man to use a wOman's word OF
woman a mans" The following de-
scribes their strange morning prayers:
"At the dawn of day the Governor OF
the town goes up to the top of his house
and calls on the people 10 come forth. In
few moments the upper story Of the
town is covered with men, women ant
children. For few minutes he harangue'
them on the duties of the day. Then
as the sun is about to rise, they all 81
down, draw their blankets over thei
heads and peer out through little open
ing and watch for the sun. As the uppel
limb appears above the horizon every
person murmurs prayer, and continue
until the whole disk is seen, when thu
prayer ends and the people turn to theiI
various avocations. The young mef
gather i'm the court about the deep fOun
tain, stripped naked, except that each ont
has belt to which are attached bones
hoofs, or metallic bells, which they have
been able to procure from white men
These they lay aside for moment. plung'
into the water, step cut, tie on their belts
and dart away on their morning race
over the rocks, running as if for dea
life. Then the old men collect the LITTLE
bows, sometimes with little whips, ant
compel them TO 60 through the same ex
ercise. When the athletes return, cacl
family gathers in the large room fol
breakfast. This over, the women ascenC
to the top of their houses to dress, ant
the men depart to the fields or woods, OF
gather in the kiva to chat or weave"
The article has a great deal besides
that is interesting, and the pictures are
abundant. One of the funny things tOlt
is about an odd kind of census. Major
Powell says:
"During the evening was very much
interested in obtaining from them cen
sus of their little tribe. They divided
the arithmetic into parts, each of toui
men taking certain mber of families
Each sat down and counted on his fingers
and toes the persons belonging TO the fami
lies allotted to him, going over them again
and again until each finger and toe stood
in his mind for an individual Then be
would discuss the matter with other In
dams, to see that all were enumerated
something like this: Did you coun,
JakeT p Yes, that finger stands for Jake.
9 Did you count Nancy?' Yes, that toe
is Nancy Each of the census takers be
coming satisfied that he had correctly
enumerated his portion, he procured the
number of sticks necessary'to Represent
/ them, and gave them to me-"