The Portland daily press., 1896-10-03

the images of deities. Fine jars and
bowls stand about filled with water, or
ed and laid along the walls, Bags
stuffed with ceremonial dresses are sus-
pended from the ceiling in the corners.
In the back wall are openings to other
rooms. One leads by notched tree
trunk to dark cham bsr-a storeroom.
a sort of cellar where grain and fruit are
kept. If the family is wealthy there may
be other rooms connected in like manner
six, or eight, or ten, all much alike.
These cliff people are busy folk. The
women grind meal, and weave blankets
and baskets, and make very interesting
and often beautiful pottery. The old
men make mocoasins very dsftly, while
the younger mon 60 down from the cliff
to the fields to tend the growing crop, to
watch the struggling corn az 1t battles
against drifting hot sand and against
sudden fioods-suoh are the extremes Of
their climate. Each morningswhile was
In Hano heard the men at early dawn
go singing down the steep trail-down
into the purple plain. Their quavering
songs foated up to me With a strange
beauty. Each morning, while II was still
dark. the women woke me By entering
the room where I lay, to grind corn, and
each night went to sleep to the regular
rhy thin of the msaling stone timed to
the mystical religious chant of the toll
ing women.
Let 1t be said that there is no woman
slavery among these people any more
than among the Navajos. The women
are chief property holders. The house is
generally the woman's, and descent is
through her and not through the father.
The men are seldom severe In manner,
and in Aooma and Walpi, rs we'll as in
Laguna and Zuni. I saw the men taking
care of the babies, and doing 1t with
great tenderness and smiling patience.
I saw no evidence of any severity except
In case of the old women. They seemed
to be the drudges of the household in
Walpi and in Aooma, carrying wood and
bottles of water up the steep trail, bent.
withered, morose, and complaining.
They alone of all these people seemed
saturnine. They were not smitten with
rods, they were merely ignored or or
dered about by the younger women. In
credible endurance was in their skinny
limbs, and the querulous complaint of Q
vagabond dog was in their eyes. They
were the exception. The other members
OF the village were very social in habit.
The houses are heavily built of stone
and heaped together, sometimes four
stories high with many elmer rooms.
This is for defence primarily and for
Warmth in winter. In Acoma the houses
are built in long rows with blank wall
to the north. This throws the open doors
and windows toward the sun in winter.
Often the houses are built around an
open court. In earlier days the door
ways were very small, 60 that upon at
tack the cliff people could hold at bay
the Apache or Navajo. Now they use
| wooden doors and American window
sashes When he built in the cliff wall
the cliffman oonformed to the ledge. but
his living room was much the same as
| that of the modern Pueblo. In Aooma
| they bake bread and meat in an outside
oven Snapped like beehive. which was
derived from the Spaniards, possibly. In
more ancient times they baked on the
Goals, or on a slab of stone laid upon the
fire. They boiled meat by dropping hot
| stones into vessels filled with water.
The women are often very pretty as girls,
and some of them make stately young moth
ers. They work generally in groups of three
| or four, cooking, withdrawing, weaving,
or painting pottery. They seem to have
good deal to chatter about, and their smiling
faces are very agreeable They have most
excellent white teeth Their ceremonial dress
is very picturesque, especially the costume
of the Acoma and Isleta girls. All burdens
are carried by the women of Acoma, Isleta,
and Laguna upon the head. and they have
in consequence magnificent carriage, even
late in life. Tie old women of Walpi, on the
contrary, are bent and looking. They
carry their burdens on their backs slung in
| a blanket The girls of Isleta wear light
| cloth over their heads, Spanish fashion, and
manage it with fine grace and coquetry.
The every day dress of the Hopi women con-
sists of sort of kilt, which is wrapped
around the hip and fastened with belt, Gas
| modification of the blanket or wolf skim !;
above this a sort of sleeveless chemise partly
covers the bosom. Their hair is carefully
| tended. but is worn in an ungraceful mode
by some of the women. The women of Homo
cut the hair in front SO uare across about to
the line of the lips, while the back hair is
gathered into a sort of billet. The front
hair hangs down over the faces, often con-
cealing one eye. They have pretty little
trick OF giving it a twist with the fingers and
a fling back from the face, which they make
use of when they are interested and want to
see more clearly. When they are abashed
their hair falls like thick veil over the en-
| tire face. They brush it with the short end
of their whisk brooms, which are made of a
bundle of splints bound tightly in the mid
die. The unmarried woman in Walpi veal
their hair in strange way They coil it
into two big disks above the ears-"The in
tent being to to symbolic their youth and
promise by initiating the squash flower. The
matrons 'correspondingly dress their hair to
I