Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-05-09
SOME UNIQUE PEoN CUSTOMS.
Queer Mud Commissioning in Tree
and Making Obesiance to the Sun.

Among the most curious people of
this continent" remarked John Olen-
dorff to knot of three or four friends
at the Occidental Hotel, .sare the native
poems of Mexico, aud when YOU look
at the female portion of that unac-
countable race you get curious repre-
sentation that makes you pause with
wonder.
Giving on the borders of Arizona
Mexico. as | have for nine years past,
have had good opportunity to see
many things that most transient
people would pass by unnoticed. The
| longer [ stay the more l am impressed
with the unaccountable ways of the de-
scendants of the Aztecs. The society
lady of the poems, if may speak of
her as such, has way of doing up her
back hair that | have never seen dupli-
Gated anywhere.
at is no less than to put a great
clay crown on the top of her Uranium.
in which the hair is matted like pigs
bristles in plaster. This crown reaches
up say eight or nine inches and looks
like a great plaster cone. 1t serves a
double purpose. Not only is it worn at
evening parties, but throughout the
day. Indeed, the primary object of
the mud cone was to preserve the
! head from the intense heat of the
| southern sun. Now, however, it is
worn at evening balls, and no lady
thinks herself recherche and in posi-
lively good form unless she has her
novel crown on. The hair is matted and
twisted and coiled all around in it,
and it may be depended on that it can
not come loose and come tumbling
down and cause her any embarass-
ment in company. The longer cone
is worn the harder it gets, and when it
has reached the age of a month, say, it
is as hard as a brickba and would
have to be smashed to pieces with a
sledge if there were no other way dis
covered. This, however, happily is the
case.
1.-The old Aztecs invented, and the
secret has been perpetuated in the race,
peculiar solution compounded from
wild plants which knock the plaster
topknot to smithereens. It takes some
time to do it, however, usually from
five to six hours, and during this time
the lovely Aztec maiden or matron
must soak her head in a big jar of this
solution. 1t is the proper thing for
the women to change these cones at
least once a month. After that the
whitish soil of which it is composed
changes to a dull yellow and the wear
er loses caste. And there is caste
among the poems as much as there is
among any other class of people.
"These native women are fond of
necklaces, and you will often see them
going about with nothing on except a
necklace and a mud crown. Others
men do not wear mud crowns, but
they are often as limited in their attire
as the feminine sex. Their habits are
extremely simple in the main, though
in some other respects they 60 of n
wild tangents.
During a larger part of the year
you will see, if you journey through
this region, hammOcks slung from all
trees at nighttime. Indeed, if you
were to be out of a moonlight ght,
and it. was your first experience, you
would think the palm and pine trees
were bearing singular fruit. The
natives are all in the hammocks. They
are there to escape the tarantulas, CEN
tipedes, and Mexican scorpions, which
are out on the rampage. Let one of
these things get into your blankets and
he never will be easy until he gets
nip at the occupant. This is why the
natives will never sleep on the ground.
Besides, it is cooler and more COM
Portable in the trees.
''The peon, when he rises in the
morning, makes a queer obeisance to
the east. He is saluting the morning
sun, and does it by first bowling until
he has his body at right angles to his
legs and horizontal to the earth. In
this position he pauses devOutly for
perhaps a quarter of a minute, and
then, raising his body to its proper
position, he abruptly thrusts his right
leg and then his left forward. Another
polite bow to Aurora, delivered by an
inclination of the head alone, and the
business is done.
"This salutation is supposed to win
him favor with the reigning forces of
the heavens and make him solid for
the day. The women never go through
this morning performance. They leave
all such things to the men. The children
of both sexes quickly catch up the
ways of their elders, and thus grow up
perpetuating all the customs of the
race. San Frd7ac1sco Examiner.