The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-10

nay of servant is, Observation-Disclosures
xtlahulli and if the bill is as big as the
word it must indeed be astonishing.
The Yumas have a peculiar ceremony for
celebrating the arrival of maiden TO mar
riageable age When her mother commu
nicates the fact to the other women, the
whole tribe collect together and feast is
made-of stewed dog, may be, or brolled
rattlesnake, or pounded grasshopper. The
applicant for the honors of Womanhood Is
placed in a sort of oven, made by digging
hole in the ground in which heated stones
are laid covered with twigs and bushes,
water is then thrown on the stones, caus-
ing them to steam like an engine. When
the novice is completely saturated with
profuse perspiration, she is plunged into
the river to take bath. This process is
kept up for three days. alternately toastlng
and ducxing the girl, meanwhile giving her
nothing whatever to eat. II she survives
the heroic treatment land she generally
does) the feast is then partaken of and the
maiden is
A CANDIDATE FOR hATRIMoNY.
No wonder that so many of this tribe die
OF consumption, and that none Of the
women live to old age. Previous to birth
the mother goes off alone some distance
from her village, and resides by herself
until the child is a month old, seeing no.
body. If she dies during the ordeal, 1t will
not be discovered until the north has
elapsed. On the 30th day the band to
which she belongs assemblies and selects
name for the little one-something lik'
Observation-Disclosures, for instance-and then
mother and child are escorted to their
home.
Among all the Indians Of Mexico, Zone
thing at tine' is the principle Of life
that is, they never undertake two kinds Of
business in the same family. If a man is
fisherman you may know that his whole
family does nothing but fish, as did his
father and grandfather before him, and as
his children and grandchildren will in years
to come. Frequently an entire tribe, or
community, engage in the same branch Of
business, and keep it up from generation to
generation. Going down through the heart
of Mexico from Ell Paso to the capital, the
traveller sees this
ILLUSTRATED IN STRIKING MANNER.
At Leon he is beset to buy woven zerapas,
and the innumerable peddlers have nothing
else to sell. At Queretare it is opals, moth
ing but opals; at another place it is canes;
at another pottery. At Celaya fifty men
and bows thrust boxes of dulce into ones
face, and will not take a refusal as long as
the train stops. The dulces are sweet
pastelike compounds, favored with pine
apple and other fruits, put up neatly in
small, round boxes of gaily colored wood.
The round boxes are assorted, according
to the different tlavors, and packed in long
boxes of varying sizes and prices. Celaya
is known all over Mexico for its sweets.
Within two hours ride of the last named
place is Irapuato, where the most luscious
strawberries can be bought at the station
every month in the year. The peddlers
never have anything but strawberries, and
most are put up in pretty, home made will
low baskets holding quart, two quarts or
three quarts. No doubt the fruit could be
cultivated with equal success in many other
places-but it isn't; to do so would not be
Mexican. So Irapriate has the monopoly
of strawberries.
A little farther down the road, at San
Juan del Rio, is the place to buy rope
lariats. In front OF nearly every house in
the town Is a rope walk and all the people
are devoted to the manufacture Of lariats
FANNIE B. WARD.