St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-04

Of the right knee. They carry in the
right hand small painted gOurds filled
with corn, VIII ich they rattle.
The women are dressed in dark
blue single garment, consisting of a
double blanket reaching to the knee.
The corners are caught over ore shout
der, the garment passing beneath the
other arm, leaving the left arm and
shoulder and upper part of the left
breast exposed, and most of the right
arm. 1t is fastened with wide red
embroidered sash around the waist.
Their long black hair, carefully pre-
pared by washing with amole-soap
root-hangs straight down behind. shin
ing like jet Their cheeks are painted
vermilion, and they carry bunch of
green cedar in the left hand.
Upon their heads is the wooden head
dress or tabla of thin board, fifteen
inches high. pea green OF sky blue in
color, with three figures cut out OF each
in the shape of crescent, cross, square,
and letter T; its serrated top is painted
red and yellow, and its corners are dec
grated with eagle down. The women
are bareIegged and barefooted.
The procession moves slowly into
the church plaza. The dance COM
prises great number of beautiful fig
ures, displaying more variety than In
dian dances in general, and it's executed
with much precision and grace.
At the end of an hour a procession
energies from the estufa in the new
town; 1t is similar in character to the
first, except that the men are painted
blue instead of brown, and the feathers
on the wOmen's tablaS are white. AS
the newcomers begin their dance, the
other procession retireS for a season to
rest, and thereafter the two parties al
ternate in performance throughout the
day. The Indian clowns, waving small
wands of cottonwood branches, rush
about hither and thither, naked. except
for breech cloths, their bodies, limbs,
faces, striped black and white, and tor
toise shells clanking at the right knee.
They wear circle of cedar sprigs at
their ankles and waists, and their hair
is tied up with corn shucks. AS the
procession makes the circuit of the pla-
"a, the dancers bending forward go at
the bounding half-trOt that character
ICES Indian dances. In front OF the
church they face each other. preserving
the same step. turn round and round III
place for several moments, make few
evolutions, and march away in single
file, each girl falling in behind her male
partner, and all giving farewell howl
as they leave.
On temporary altar in spacious
pavilion created in the main plaza is a
wooden statue of Saint DOmlnick,
brought from Spain nearly two GEN.
turtles ago. Through the day the .peo-
pie come to say their prayers before the
saint, and to bring offerings of candles.
no nj
plums. About the middle of the after.
noon the whole body of dancers and
singers mar CHI to the pavilion, where
each Indian files in turn before the i'm.
age of Saint Dominick. The men bow,
and the women three times cross them
selves, the more devoted of them kiss
ing the garments of the saint.
Late in the afternoon there are games
and races in the outskirts of the town.
which many of the people and visitors
attend. The favorite sport is the cruel
one of the gallineros, or chicken pull.
ers, in which men try, while at full
gallop, to catch by the head fowl
whose body is buried in the earth.
But thousands of spectators cob.
tinue to cover the house-tops and
crowd the plazas where the cere-
mOnial dances are still in progress
and they remain to view the picturesque
and brilliant sight until darkness shuts
down upon the scene. The dance is 8
very ancient one, and the costumes are
a perpetuation of those worn by the
prehistoric ancestors of the Pueblos
The ceremonial probably partakes OF
the character of the cochina. the heather
religious dance so abominated by the
early Spanish missionaries; and it is
certain that on this occasion great
many heather rites are mixed with theil
celebration of the day of good Saint
DOminick.