The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-06-06
INDIAN BELIEFS.
sUPERsTITIoNs oFTHE PUEBLO
AND NAVAJOE TRIBES.
The Eagle and the Snake Held in
Sacred Estimation-A Hid
eous Rite-Afraid Of
the Camera. Etc.

. =. .sys
the Camera. Etc.
A San Mateo New Mexico) letter to
the St. Louis Globe Democrat says: The
PuebIos-commonly called Indians, but
really descendants of the ancient Aztecs
have numerous superstitions. The
eagle is a sacred bird with them-the
winged throne of their emperor god,
Monteczuma, for whose promised second
advent they still patiently wait. In any
of the Pueblo cities you will find the
great, dark eagles, either tethered upon
the housetops or penned in little corrals
of cedar, and religiously tended. The
Pueblo hunter always has marvellous
luck if he carries with him tiny stone
Image of a cayote with q tiny arrow
head lashed to its side. Though nom
inally converted to Catholicism, the
Pueblos are still secret but ardent fire
worshipers. The snake, too, is sacred to
them, and you will find its symbolic
coils in their rock sculptures and on
their quaint silver jewelry.
Some Pueblo towns used to keep each
an enormous snake in closed room, and
feed it with children. The Pueblo of
La Cla, twenty-five miles west of Ber-
nalillo, was nearly depopulated thus. It
had snake of enormous size, kept in q
room, whose doors and windows were
walled up. In the roof was small hole,
sealed with a heavy fat rock. The first
day of every month the, people drew
lots to see whose child should be sacri-
feed to the snake-god. The chosen babe
was carefully bathed and anointed, and
then tossed, naked, down the hole to the
hungry serpent. It is only six years
since this hideous rite was stopped by a
priest, who finally prevailed on the Pu-
eblos to tear down the walls and kill the
snake.
The Novajoes, now the strongest an!
richest tribe of Indians in the country,
are all enormously superstitious. Their
oldest terror, perhaps, is that which they
cherish for the Photographic camera.
Plant tripod within quarter of mile
Of Noyajoe hogan and the dusky in
habitants will fee as from the plague.
It is their solemn belief that picture is
actually subtracted from the entity of
the sitter--that he is so much the less
by the operation. How many pictures
they would think it would be necessary
to take before the person would be all
gone, and his whole being diverted into
the counterfeit presentments, I have
never been able to learn, but, apparently,
they deem the fatality as rapid as it is
certain. The snake they hold in holy
abhorrence. Of the violence Of their
prejudice against it I had q striking proof
some years ago. Chit-chi, brother of old
Mannelito, the boss silversmith of the
tribe, is very good friend of mine and
has made me some remarkable specimens
of native jewelry. On one occasion ]
employed him to make me bracelet in
the form of snake. He had 1T about
half finished when some of his fellows
CHANGED to call at the hogan To say
that they were Mortified when they saw
what he was about is putting it very
mildly. They fell upon the obIoxious
figure and destroyed it, and then reported
Chit.chi to the elders of the tribe, who
promised him an artistic stoning to death
if he ever dabbled again in such tabooed
workmanship. -
But the most vivid of all Nayajoe su.
perstitions cluster around the bear
Shash, as they call him. tBear heap
sabie"-in fact they deem him the wisest
of created things. His clairvoyance sur
passes that of the best mediums in whom
so many of our own enlightened fellow
countrymen believe. The Nava; ;oes never
kill bear, save under the direst necessi-
ty. He is an evil spirit whose wrath
they are scrupulously careful not to in
woke. If q bear kills a Navajoe, and it
can be proved conclusively which bear
did the murder, a large force turns out
and slays the bear-albeit with many
lamentations, and deprecations and apol-
ogies. But, save in this extreme case, his
ursine majesty is left severely alone. If
Navajoe spies bears track or cave, he
takes to his heels, screaming at the top
of his voice. Some weeks ago / offered
one of our Nava;oe shepherds $20-a
fortune for him-if he would show me
the cave of bear which was beginning
to thin the flock, but the protfer was
vain, as knew it would be. The Ma
Vi. .,oes firmly believe that if one of them
were to show the retreat of bear, or in
any other way incur his displeasure,
Shash would know the culp.it and incon-
tinently devour him and his entire fami.
ly. The mountain lions skin is of su-
preme value among them; but no Nava-
Joe can be hired or driven to touch q
bear skin. Such is the effect of super
sutton upon a race who were until re-
Gently the bravest native warriors on the
continent, except the gruesome Apache.