The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-01-15
z MIDSUMMER FETE IN THE
PUEBLO OF SAN JUAN.

we had Just crossed the b @
Grande at point where its meadows
were hrillisnt'y green. Rising sb
ruptlY Oul OF tuis vivid green meadow
and barring our way, like a Colossal
ant bill. stood great drab mound.
with broken lines, suggesting walls
and roots at top. Our road led right
up and into this mound Not a
green leaf, not green blade; blank,
shaceless. shsdowless, drab, dust or
sand under foot on all sides, shifting.
solid; piles and banks of it, shifting
at each step or each breezs; walls and
banks of it, solid and perforated here
and there by small openings. These
solid walls and banks. We presently
perceived, were in tiers, -tiers OF ter
races; and perforations were of vari-
Gus sizes. Each terrace was pread
out, fat at top. and q few feet Eide;
at the back of this another straight
terrace spread out, fat ~ top; and
this again, surmouLted by a third;
and 80 oD, till in some places they
were five stories high. Queer strips
of lsttice-woIk stood on these terraces,
slantcd. tilted. propped irregularly
here and there; they also were of a
drab color, as il wallis, roofs, ladders,
all bad been run. wet mud, into g
mould, baked, and turned out. like
some fresky csnfectioner's device
made of Opaque, light-broWn cough
candy. At intervals on these ter
races. or on the ground near the base
of the walls. stood low oval mounds
of the came baked drab mud, chapel
like the hall of an egg-shell, with aD
| aperture left in the small end. To
have seen big swallows head stick
ing out of any one OF these would
have seemed only natural. There
were also here and there on the roofs,
lifted few feet above them, queer
little tbatcbes OF brush; ragged and
unfinished, like the first rough plat
form of t9igs and mud the robin lays
for her nest.
| This is what one sees at the first
glance, on Looking a! an adobe
pueblo. After discovering their Ian
and the arrangement and uses Of the
odd structures, they can never again
wear precisely the same expression.
The tiers and terraces are the stories
and roofs OF the houses; the holes are
doors and windows opening into
rooms under the terrace roois; the
strips of lattice work are ladders, the
only means of going from one ter.
race to another above or below; the
little oval mounds are ovens; and
the queer brush thatohes are the
Pueblo Indians plessure-bowers.
summer-houses, srbors. shelsering
him from the sun, when he would lie
down on his terrace roof. Also. being
thrifty, and driven TO expedients In
his narrow quarters, he sometime,
uses these Ihstohes ss a drying
ground for red peppers. which makes
a 6ns show. topping of a pile OF the
drab terraces. There were four or
five of these terraced piles, some
larger. some smaller, yet without any
regularity, and a small open plaza.
On one side OF this was an old church,
also Of adobe; long. low. with two
square, white-RAshed towers, and an
archwaY on the front.
When ne drove into this plaza it
was swsrming With Indians and Mex
leans, "a kaleidoscope Of all the hues
of the rainbow. DC the terraces were
standing hundreds OF the. Indians, sll
dscked in the gsyest oolors: bare
headed, wrapped in blankets, motina-
less. most OF them, as statues. The
goreeousness of the pictures they
made, relieved against these walls
and banks OF drsh, and Kindled by
the brilliant blue OF the sky overhead,
could never be told either by pen or
by brush. It VAS dazzling blaze OF
color. Adding to the he Wllderment
# the scene came the sharp, plant
i've notes OF the old bell hanging in
the wnire archway OF the church 1t
Was SAINT Jonn's Day, and the bell
wa ringing tor morning msss.
fn- mud floor OF the church was
Gro vntu With kneelipg and squsttlDR |
Mex Cars and Indians; silent, devout |
sad-9, ed, their faces we're s'udleF. The
blsckness OF their hair aud their eyes |
might almost be said to dsfken the
place. The women wore shawls on
their heads, sometimes close drawn
around their faces, sometimes held
gracefully with one hand, sometimes
allowed 10 fall free. There is mys-
tic spell about shawl on q Mexican
WON ln's head: it never comes of;
it may trail on the ground at one
ada, 0ut he other end will cling on,
if 1t is only by q fringe. Some of
the wel,-to do ones, who evidently
conside red themselves in full dress,
wore white cambria sun-bonnete, the
full crowns and the long capes
fastened on by shining steel buttons at
each plat It seemed iDexplicable |
that they could not perceive how
mach better the rsggedest beggar
woman there looked, who had a
shawl over her heaG, tbsn they did 10
their stiff white boUuets.
The srriDes we're gay with ia wdry
flowers, and nigh candles burned on
all sides In front Of the rail were
half a dozen shabby little hsring,
smoking tallow tapers,-.okens OF ex-