The St. Johns herald., 1890-11-13
A PUEBLO CHURCH.
The Acoraas and How They Worship the
 God of the Christians.

God of the Christians.
 Like the people of all the other New Mexican Pueblo tribes, the Acomas have their annual festivals, the origin of which is lost in the mystery of the prehistoric ages. The Catholic priests, writes Clarence Pullcn in Harpers Weekly, put all the Christian veneer ing possible over the essential heathen- ism of the ceremonials, and under their influence these celebrations occur usual ly on or near some saints day. COnSpic- uous among these jubilatiOns is the har- vest festival, when, with games and dances, the people rejoice over the ripen- ing of the fruits of the earth. After the performance of secret rites within the estufaS, to which ceremonies no one not member of tho tribe IS admitted, the maSkerS, musicians and others, all decorated in paint, ribbons and brass ornaments, stream forth into the open space before the village, where, with the peculiar stamping step attending all Indian performances of the kind, are continued the procossiOns and dances, to the music of rude flies, drums and gong beating. Tn some of their dances the performers are attired in complete suits of buckskin, adorned with fringes, but tons, beads, feathers and ribbons, com- pletely covering the face and head, sur mounted with horns, and having only small sits for sight and breathing.
 The Pueblos, a prOvident folk who be- lieve in intrenching themselves with all the supernatural powers, do not neglect on theso occasions to visit the church to pay due obeisance to the Christian God and lesser divinities. The church, fine old structure of adobe, was re- built in 1702, after it had been dis mantled in the Indian revolt of 1880. It is massive ediicc one hundred and fifty feet long, forty feet wide and forty feet high, with walls seven feet thick, standing, fronte1 by an extensive and ancient burial ground, on the southern brink of the mesa. The sand for this cemetery was brought up from the foot of the bluff and placed in a depression at this point-an operation which, ac- cording to priestly tradition, occupied forty years. The huge buttresses, one at each front corner of the church, are capped above the roof by rude belfries in which swing two bells, which Indian tradition asserts to be the gift of the Queen of Spain at some period in the eighteenth century. One of these bells bears the inscription: ''San Pedro, A. D. ITO" It is a wonder how these heavy bells and the great pine beams, forty feet long and of proportionate thickness, that cross the body of the church, were ever brought to the top of the mesa.
 Adjoining the church are the ruins of the old Franciscan mission of San Estevan de Acoma, established, says the eminent arch9ologist and historian Prof. Ad. II. Baudclier, by Fray Juan Ramirez not long after the year 1928, he naming the place afte: St. Sebastian on account of it's rocky sides and the large number of pebbles ac- cumulated on and about it. Fray Ramirez returned to Mexico, and died there in 1864. His successor was Fray Lucas Maldonado, from Tribujona, Mexico, also a Franciscan. In fact, up to the uprising of the Indians of New Mexico under Pope and Catite in 1880, the Franciscan order controlled all the missions among the Pueblos. On Au- gust 10, 1880, twenty-one Franciscan friars were murdered in various parts of New Mexico, and among them Fray Maldonad ado, of Acoma After the recon quest of the province, twelve years later, by the Spaniards under Diego de Vargas, there were for several years 1iCt n1 But by the beginning of the eighteenth century the province had become tranquIliized, and the Pueblo Indians and the Spaniards had adjusted their requirements so as to gctalolg together without great amount of friction.
 It is strange and picturesque sight when within tho thick walls of the old church, dimly lighted by deep windows like port-holeS, in which sheets of mica, or yesc Transparent gypsum) serve for glass, the Indians, ill the same fashion of dress which their ancestors wore when they built fires to the sun in ancient days-somc wrapped in Navajo blankets, wiah broad black and white stripes, and red diamond figures in tke center-pass to and from the altar, witE its bright but impressive decorations. The church interior is decorated with two valuable pictures, the Virgin and Child," and the "St Joseph" which were brought from Spain moro than two hundred years ago. The ceiling is rude ly frescoed in representation of the sun, moon and stars, the work, in the begin ming of tho present century, of an artist priest, whose name is somewhere in- scribed beneath the dust that for gencr- ations has been settling upon this labor of love and devotion.
 Origin of Bird Song.
 The origin of bird song is described hv an EnrliSh writer aS fnllnwS. ..Rird