Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-07-03
THE TABLET DANCE.
AN ANIMAL FESTIVAL OF THE
PUEBEo PLAINS.


sion-Indian clowns-crueI Sport.
OF the annual festival held in the var
ious towns of the Pueblo Indians of Mex
leo, that at Santo Domingo on the 4th Of
August is one Of the most important.
Among the Pueblos, Santo Domingo,
about thirty miles southwest of Sante Fe,
on the bank of the Rio Grande, is one Of
the largest. The river in time of freshet
menaces the town.. and many years ago,
during food, it changed its channel,
engul6ng about half the town. The in
habitants thus dispossessed built their
residences on higher ground to the east
of the old village, so that Santo Domingo
is really double village, with two dis
tinct kinds of aboriginal architecture
the old, in which the houses are two
stories high, terrace-shaped and entered
from the roof; and the new, in which
the one-story houses lave doors and win
dows.
Each division of the village has its own
estufa, or circular underground council
chamber, For several days preceding the
festival, Indians from the other j Pueblos
of New Mexico and the Navajo country
gatherin the town. Feathers are an inn
portant feature, of the ceremonial, and
several parrots kept in the village are
mercilessly plucked of their plumage to
decorate the dancers. For the greater
part of the night before the festival the
town is awake, the men performing their
ancient dances in the estufas, and the
women whitewashing the fronts of the
houses, while from time to time caval-
cades of horsemen from the surrounding
country arrive in town.
At earliest dawn the people are at work
sweeping the streets and plazas. During
the morning many visitors arrive-In-
dians, Mexicans, and Americans
carriages and wagons, on horses and bur-
ros and on foot, until the house-tops are
covered Mexican ladies in brilliant
| tlowered silks and swarthy Indians in
superb Navajo blankets help to adorn the
crowded level roofs with bouquet-like
| effect of rich color. Immediately, after
mass the dancers begin to array them
selves; and precisely at noon, from the
summit of the estufa in the old town,
they appear in procession, men and
women, to the number of more than
| hundred. With them are men who play
on tomtoms, and one of them thumps
| drum made of hollow cottonwood log
covered with skin A chorus of men
sing verses with refrain, which accom-
pany the dance, and by degrees work
| themselves into frenzy of excitement.
| At the head of the procession man bears
a standard fifteen feet high, surmounted
by long orange-cololed feathers and an
aboriginal banner of embroidered buck
skin trimmed with feathers. The men,
who are painted brown and white, wear
a white tunic with an embroidered stripe
oNeach side. A fox or coyote skin hangs
| behind, tail downward, and bunch of
green cedar sprigs is tied on the left arm.
Their uncovered loose flying hair is
adorned in front with parrot feathers.
Cedar sprigs encircle their bodies from
shoulder to waist, and rattles of tortoise
shell and sleeps toes hang at the rear of
the right knee. They carry in the right
hand small painted gourds filled with
corn, which they rattle
| The women are dressed in a dark blue
single garment, consisting of double
| blanket reaching to the knee. The cor
ners are caught over one shoulder, the
! garment passing beneath the other arm,
leaving the left arm and shoulder and most
Of the right arm exposed; it is fastened
with wide red embroidered sash around
the waist. Their long, black hair, carefully
prepared 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 woolen head-dress or
| tabla of thin board, fifteen inches high,
pea-green or 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 decorated with eagle
| down. The women are barefooted, and
each carries bunch of cedar in her left
hand. The procession moves slowly IN
to the church plaza. The dance COM
prises great number of beautiful figures,
displaying more variety than Indian dam
ces in general, and it is executed with
much precision and grace.
az tuc Gnu Vi All nOuI prOCcSSlOu tLutT-
| ges from the estufa in the new town; it
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 season to rest, and thereafter
the two parties alternate 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 tortoise-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
plaza, the dancers bending forward 60
at the bounding half.trot that charac-
terize Indian dances. In front Of the
church they face each other, preserving
the same step, turn round and round in
place for several moments, make few
evolutions, and march away in single file,
each girl falling in behind her male part
ner, and all giving farewell howl as
they leave.
|. Late in the afternoon there are games
and races in the outskirts of the town,
which many of the people and visitors
attend The cruel one Of the gallineros,
or chicken pullers in which men try,
yL,1o 80 l1,,~ ~. ~