Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-08-02

Louta nau on q nttlc loose Calico gov
which came to her knees, and not anotht
thing. She never wore shoes or stool
ings i'll her life, but when she gets oldi
she will put ON funny little moccasir
made OF deerskin, with rawhide solel
and a long band of dcerskin wrappo
around her leg from foot to knee, unit
It looks like n very big white boot.
Neither has she ever worn hat; but in
place of it, on feast-days and to go to
church, she has little red shawl that she
puts over her head and shoulders, SO that
it looks much like tight hood. Nomat.
ter how cold it is, she wears no Other
clothes, and really she doesn't mind the
winter half as much as many little Eastern
girls with all their warm clothes anu
cloaks and muffs. Her little body is as
tough all over as their faces are, and fol
the same reason-habit.
At first Lolita was very shy of me. She
had never seen but one or two people in
such clothes, which looked as queer to
her ms her fathers would to you, and
what she had seen were on rough people
who didn't care for little girls. But |
had brought n very big sack of candy be-
hind my saddle, and it didn't take her
long to find out what those little sweet
striped sticks were for. She couldn't
speak word of English or Spanish, and
MS didn't know great deal of the AGO.
ma language then we couldn't talk to-
gethcr much. But we soon understood
each other famously, all the same, and
really didn't need to use our tongues.
So i'll very short time you might have
seen us walking together over the rough
rocks toward the town, she holding my
hand and looking up ut me sidewisc out
of her big, dark eyes, while the stick of
candy grew steadily shorter and shorter
between the little white teeth. "IIa-tc
cu-cha hobo" | asked, which means in
Acoma "whcre do you livc2" and Lolita
led me around past the big church and
stopped i'll front Of IL row of houses, more
than thousand feet long, all divided up
into narrow little dwellings, but solid and
continuous as if carved out of one great
block. And such queer houses! There
nrc none i'll the States like thcm-which
IS pity, as they are much more comfort
able and pretty than the tenemcnts of our
great cities. Each house is three stories
high, and built in terraces, so that the
row looks like three great steps to some
giants door. There are no windows and
no doors i'll the first story-nothing but
little pcep-hocs with pancs of gypsum, IL
stone which lets the light through like
glass but is not nearly so clear. To get
into the house at all you must climb II
funny big ladder, and then walk back on
the roof of the first story to the door of
the second. Inside is little trap-door
md another ladder, by which you can go
down into the cclar-like first story. The
people built their houses in this way to
defend themselves against the Apachcs,
Navajocs and other murdcrous Indians
who used to be fighting them all the
time, and for the same reason they put
their town on top of the lofty mesa The
houses are very neat inside and have the
funniest little mud fircplaces imaginable,
but no chairs or bcdsteads, tables or
lounges. The beds are spread ON the
floor at night and rolled up and put along
the walls by day for seats; and for their
meals they NIL sit on the floor in circle,
with the food in the middle.