The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-02-26
QUEEREST OF FOLK.
WONDERFUL NEW MEXICAN
CITY OF ACOMA.
Probably Built Centuries Before the
Discovery of America-Pecul1ar
Construction. of the
Houses.
THE most wonderful city of
the world is in New Mexico,
only few miles from Cubero,

only few miles from Cubero,
or Laguna, on the Atlantic
and Pacific Railroad. It had been in
existence hundreds of years when Co.
lumbus discovered America. Acoma,
for such is its name, is perched upon
the level summit of a great rock,
whose perpendicular sides are nearly
400 feet above the surrounding coun-
try, and reached by some of the most
difficult paths ever trodden by man.
The feet of generations have worn
these paths six inches into the solid
sandstone.
The Acomas now number 600 souls.
Upon their seventy acres of rock they
have six communal houses, each three
stories high, besides church of enor-
nous dimensions The inhabitants
have carried up the toilsome trails
every particle of the material from
which the buildings were constructed,
and besides this the graveyard con-
sumed forty years in being completed
by reason of the necessity for bring
ing earth from the plain below. All
supplies at the present day, even to
drinking water, are brought in the
same way.
The architecture of Acoma is as
strange as it's location. The houses
are all terraced, so that they resemble
flights of stone steps, or Egyptian
pyramids on small scale. In each
house the second story stands ten or a
dozen feet back on the fiat roof of the
first, thus leaving broad, uncovered
walk the whole length. The third
story is similarly placed upon the Sec
ond. There are no doors on the lower
walls of the houses, nor stairs inside.
To get into the first story one must
go up ladder to the first roof, enter
the second-story room, lift trap.
door in it's floor and back down
another ladder.
All these houses are of stone ma
sonry, in spite of the fact that the
builders had NO metal tools for dress
ing the material. Instead, they chose
rock which broke naturally into the
shape desired, and laid it in a very
durable mortar made from mud. So
neatly was their work done that the
outer faces of the buildings are as
smooth as board.
The rafters are straight pine sticks,
stripped of their bark. and above
them is roof of smaller sticks, straw
and clay. The combination is per-
fectly tight. The windows are
very small, and until glass was intro
duced the panes were made Of trans.
lucent gypsum. The finishing touch
is to plaster the walls, inside and out,
with adobe clay, and then whitewash
them with preparation of gypsum.
This whitewash gives pueblo town at
distance the appearance of being
built of marble.
Acoma is simply type of twenty
six inhabited pueblo towns ~ exist
ing in New Mexico and Arizona, and
containing population of 10000
souls. The nineteen pueblos of New
Mexico are scattered up and down the
Rio Grande Valley from Taos, the
most northern, to ls]eta, which is just
south of Albuquerque. Then they ex-
tend westward, along the line of the
Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, to near
the Arizona border, the last one in
this direction being the far-famed
Zuni. The seven pueblos in Arizona
are close together in the northern
part, the inhabitants being collectively
called Moqui.
The origin of the Pueblos has never
been unveiled. A profound interest
centers in them. But one thing has
been settled-they and the cave or
cliff dwellers are one and the same
people. The latter have not vanished
as was once supposed. Their descen-
dants are with us to-day.
The ancestors of the Pueblos were
probably the earliest inhabitants of
this continent. The remains of their
forts, towns and stupendous irrigating
canals are thickly scattered over New
Mexico and Arizona, and indicate that
the population was teeming.
The Pueblo Indians now live in
much the same way as did their fore
fathers when first discovered by the
5paniards, $50 years ago. Years ago
their lands, which they hold in COM
mon, were granted them by Mexico,
and at the close of the Mexican War
these grants were confirmed by the
United States. They are quite self
supporting, and should every human
being but themselves be blotted from
the earth they would jog along with
out concern.
The basis of society is not the fam
lily, as with us. but the clan. The
number of clans in a pueblo town
runs from six to sixteen, every indi-
vidual belonging to one. A man can
not marry woman of the same clan ;
he must go outside.
Still stranger is the law of descent.
With civilized people it is from the
father; with Pueblos from the moth
er. Children take the name of their
mother. Furthermore, the house is
in charge of the women exclusively; |
everything within it. the mems
clothing and weapons excepted, be-
longing to the holsekeeper. If once
housed, the crops are hers. As long
as they are in the field the man may
dispose of themi afterward he must
consult the woman. Even the pro-
ceeds Of the common hunts are treated
in the same manner, Only when the
man kills game wien out alone is it
his.
The Pueblo woman Is an excellent