, 1888-09-23
A PUEBLO SUN DANCE.
CELEBRATING THE FEAST OF A
SAINT IN NEW MEXICO.

rious Dance of Mystic Meaning-The
Movements.
Two hundred mounted Pueblos, aligned es
perfectly as a crack cavalry regiment on
parade, formed three sides of a hollow
square. The fourth side was the high wall
of the old church yard, now buried under a
drift of expectant humanity. Pueblos from
Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Isleta, San
Juan, Nambe, Tesuque, Pojoaque, and even
distant Acoma; Navajoes from the western
end of the territory, four Americans" and
forty or fifty ~neighboring Mexicans were
among the crowd. Close by the cross over
the gate was the long, faded robe and the
beautiful, classic face of the priest from
Pena Blanca, whose delicately chiseled
Gallo features looked anachronistic enough
among those swarthy proselytes. He had
held mass in the old church that morning,
and now the first dance of the day was to be
ell faile del padre, in his honor.
We had not long to wait. Directly the
puml puml puml of a huge yellow tomtom,
big as a mature beer barrel, came around the
corner of the church, presently followed by
the tomtom itself and its athletic prosecutor.
Around the drummer clustered the chorus
a dozen men in snowy shirts and with snowy
drawers descending into the embrace of
beautiful brown buckskin calzones, which
also covered the tops of their moccasins.
They were chanting loudly a weird refrain
in the Juerez tongue, keeping perfect time
with feet and arms. They were closely
followed by the dancers-a strange and
grotesque half hundred, truly. At their
head marched the bearer of the holy Flag of
the Sun. He was a stalwart aboriginal gen
tleman, clothed upon with all the pomp and
circumstance of a st. Louis drum major, but
without the ramrod which is popularity sup
posed to stifTen the spine of that awful dig
nitary. The banner was a priceless bit of
work in beaded buckskin; bearing, with its
pole, the general shape of a gigantic feather,
and fringed and tufted at sides and top with
eagle feathers. The dancers We're equally
divided as to sex, and an attractive set in
face and form The wonlen wore their usual
modest dress to the knees, but had omitted
their everyday buckskin boots and mecca
sins, and their shapely shins and arms were
bare. Their beautiful black hair, carefully
combed, hung down their backs, unrestrained
by ribbon or ornament. Around their necks
they wore a dazzling plofus!on of necklaces,
costly corals, silver beads alternating with
silver crosses and long S rings of priceless
Iurquois-tleir proximity 20 the only tur-
quois mine in the Western hemisphere stands
them in good steiL-wcre u dozen strands
deep on those precy own ucc!,s. Their
heavy jet b8lcs-Ghc hatccS were banging
their hair before Cortc2 s2ilei from Spain
waved Us hoy came hoy-iug along on alser-
nate icCt. Each had q bright vcrmilion
patch on either CLecl: booze, and each held in
either hand "A spriS of slr-ed cedar. But
the most remarkable feature Of the female
half Of the ballet was the headdress. Over
the middle OF her crown. each woman wore
a board, fitted to her head, ana rising eigh-
teen inches above 1t. Inc board was bright
with an ornamental top aud ii capital sawed
out OF the middle. The projec ions at the
top of the board were i~retti!y tufted.
The men were more pictur>squely arrayed.
Each was naked to the waist, and painted
over tie trunk and arms with a dull blue.
Around the waist and falling nearly to the
knees was an elaborate dancing skirt woven
of mouse colored stuff. handsomely decked
with bead work, ard with a fine macreme
sash pendent on the right side. To this skirt,
behind, was attached a beautiful fox skin,
with its long brush dangling nearly to the
ground. The moccasins and leggins COM
pleted the dress, but there were further &C
cessories. Each man had fastened to the top
of his head a little bunch of feathers or u
sprig of cedar; each had around his biceps a
four-inch armlet of buckskin painted green
and white, and several skeins of bright yarn
and strings of sleigh bells were tied around
the calzones just below the knee. None of
them were facially painted, none had the
customary beadkerchief or queue, nor the
every day white cotton drawers. Each held
in his left hand a branch OF evergreen, and
in his right a rattle, made of a dry gourd,
with a wooden handle. Over their bare
chests ratified beads only less prodigal than
those worn by the women. The men were
all young or youngish and, as a rule, very
good looking fellows. At the rear the pro-
cession tapered down to half a dozen boys
and girls, the smallest not over 4 years old,
but dressed just like their elders, and equally
expert in the intrlcacies of the curious
\ dance.
When the fifty dancers were all inside the
square, in a long row by ~pairs-first two
women and then two men-they ceased their
advance, which had been made at a madding
pace of a half a mile per hour, but continued
to mark time" as an army man would say,
to the unfaltering bump of the yellow drum
and the long winded sing song of the chorus.
The step, whether advancing, retreating or
standing still, is the samoa simple variation
of the universal hop jump remembered by
every one who has ever seen an aboriginal
dance anywhere. Starting on tiptoe, the
dancer raised his right foot quickly to a
height of from three to six inches above the
ground, at the same time-or perhaps an
instant l~ater-giving a tiny hop, which lifted
the left foot high enough to put q toothpick
between it and the ground. This hitch is
almost imperceptible in itself, but it is never
omitted, and make a notable impression
upon the character of the step as a whole.
/ Then the right foot went down in a similar
hyphenated fashion, and the left foot went up,
and so on. The soft pat of tho moccasined
feet of the men and the bare soles of the
women was audible only in the aggregate.
After a little marching and countermarch
ing around the space reserved for them, the
dancers again came down to the footlights-
so to s~peak-and, by a quick turn, formed in
four parallel rows, facing outward. In the
center were the two rows of women, and on
each side a row of men. In this position they
danced in mark time fashion, moving their
arms alternately up and down with their
legs. The. men used their rettles meantime,
each at stated intervals thrusting his right