Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-10-23
THE FOUR CORNERS.
The Only Point in the United States Where
Four Oommonwealths Meet,

| Inc -Four corners Is a point marked
by huge stone monument suggesting
by proper inscription that Colorado
Arizona, New Mexico and Utah corner
at that point
1t is the only four corners in the
union or the only points where the cor
ners of four states meet.
| SUBMERGED BY LAVA.
The point is in the midst of a large
area that was at one time completely
submerged by lava. So many tons of
the molten rock We're spewed from the
volcano upon the tract that no vegeta-
| ton has ever shown itself Perfectly
level, one can see for miles with no in
terruption to his vision whatever.
1t does not appear that it would fur
| nish beautiful spot for marriage al
| tar, and yet it is the place where the
| Navajo lover and his dark skinned
bride are often made man and wife,
and where their hearts and hopes and
lives are welded, but recent visitor to
that section gives the following ac-
count of some of the ceremonies con-
nected with a marriage celebration at
that point:
After the ceremony is over the invited
guests of the tribe are some Of them
wounded and some of them PROSTATE
from exhaustion, but still the idea of all
this sacrifice is to wish that the bride
and groom may enjoy one beautiful,
boundless. shoreless sea Of welded
bliss.
AN INDIAN WEDDING.
An Indian wedding at the four cor
ners is different from wedding at the
Waldorf-Astoria.
At the four corners it is the occasion
for a dance, in which the guests be-
come ugly, painted, writhing, bowling,
groaning monsters. They believe they
sins the bride and groom are liable to
commit during their married life.
The god of marriage is greedy one.
They think he orders them to dance and
tear their hair until death or exhaustion
comes as relief.
The bride is dressed in the copper
colored garment that nature gave her
barring a short skirt from the waist |
down nearly to the knees.
The groom hoodoos the conventional |
black for breech clout with lace |
border about it.
When the ceremony begins the bride |
and groom stand in the center of cir
Gle lit by the fires of a bear-fesh sacri- |
flee. While the fumes arise from the |
burning animal the groom pierces his
part of his anatomy should it ever let
fall word dishonoring his fair lady. |
She bows and takes him by the hand. |
The groom then cuts an artery in his |
arm, and as the blood flows from it he |
bathes the feet of the bride as an evil
dence that his blood and brawn shall
protect her as long as he lives.
A WEDDING MARCH.
By the light of the dim fire the bride |
and groom are seated beside the monu-
ment at the four corners. Around them |
in a barbaric circle the guests dance in |
breechclouts until sheer exhaustion |
compes them to faint and fall. After
the first one has fallen the interesting |
portion of the dance begins. Every one
becomes a maniac, and as they pass
over his PROSTATE form they kick him
and endeavor as best they can to extin-
gush his lamp of life forever. AS rule
he soon gains consciousness, however,
and is back in line again, bleeding and
wounded, ready to bruise the prostrate
form of some other one who falls out of
the circle.