The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-17
A PUEBLO HOME.
Indians of This Tribe Are Well Bred
People.

| InOlnnb Oh afC AA~o
People.
On a warm, sunny afternoon last
winter I got off the one dilapidated
passenger car in which 1 had been
poking along through Northern New
| Mexico at the end of a freight train
since daylight. There was no village;
no house, even: nothing in sight ex-
cept the eternal hills. clothed with grey
sage brush and dwarf pinon trees;
tall, red watering tank, freight car,
in which dwelt the family of section
man. But knew that across the fields
about two miles I would come upon
| quaint little Indian pueblo, hidden
away just where it had stood ever
since the Spaniards came, and proba-
bly, for centuries before. So l started
across the mesa in search of San Ilde-
| fonso. An old Indian in a bright
| blanket caught up with me, and when
l held up nic6le and pointed to my
grip he slung it on his back and trot-
ted off. / followed the trail across
the mesa, flooded with the bright win
ter sunshine. crisp and clear, with its
seven thousand feet of altitude. Now
and then the pathway dipped into an
arroyo" the sandy bed of a dry creek.
| Occasionally passing Indian gave me
friendly grunt of salutation. At last
l passed through a narrow passage be-
tween two houses, and came into the
| plaza. Here was life enough: for in
the Indian village of the southwest all
| the houses face socially inward and
| present a cold and inhospitable back
| door to the intruder. The plaza was
| full of horses and dogs, children and
! adults. The buffalo dance was billed
! for the next morning at sunrise, and
| fha Indians orb
for miles around were coming in to
| witness the ceremony. The sunny
| square was a shifting Kaleidoscope of
| bright blankets and dresses, but / was
the only white person.
Juan Gonzales and his family greeted
me with cordial courtesy, for the Pue-
| bio Indians are among the most hos
pitable, polite and we'll bred people in
the world. They understand absolute
| ly the way to make the guest feel that
the house is his. Your property and
your business are safe from curios-
ity. They bestow upon you the best
in the house, and having done so, apol-
ogize for nothing. Juan can read and
write English. but is the only person
in the pueblo who can DO so. He has a
wife, Philomena, a daughter of five,
Romancita, who is quaint little pic
ture in black and tan, and a baby,
which was asleep in a bed made COM
AO4 eehLAy AL d swing SuSQ6nOeQ
the ceiling. Philomena always makes
me realize how it was that Pocahontas
could marry the swell young English
man, John Rolfe, and be received with
effusion in the court and castles of
England. She is the typical Indian
maiden of song and story; very
Laughing Water in the flesh. Every
movement of her willowy figure is
grace ITSELF and her delicate bronze
features, framed in their long flowing
coal black locks, would fill an artists
soul with joy. She is as sweet and
good as she is graceful and charming.
But her slim little brown hand rules
the household nevertheless. l present.
ed Juan with a box of cigars and Ro-
mancita with a box of CANDY but ]
might as well have given them to
Philomena, for she took both and put
them in a trunk, of which she carried
the key. She allowed Juan to have
one cigar; and thereafter, when he
was engaged in the sacred mysteries
of the estufas, she would send from
time to time as many as she thought
I proper for him to have.
| The Pueblo Indians present a curious
and extremely ancient survival of the
mariarchate, that feminine supremacy
which archaeologistS tell us once pre-
vailed throughout the prehistoric
world. The woman owns the house
and all that is in it, The children be-
|
descent through the maternal line.
When man marrles into a different
tribe his children belong to the tribe
of his wife. In fact, the man is sub
ordinated, just as in other races the
woman is subordinated. 1t is only in
! recent years that the wife has taken
the husbands name on marriage
The Pueblo woman is a devout Cath
Ole. These tribes refused stubbornly
for a lnog time to accept the teachings
of the early Spanish padres. When they
finally yielded, they became very de-
voted to their church. But, curiously
enough, with the inveterate conserva-
tism of the Indian they only gave the
white mans God place in their pam
theon. In private they have always
practiced their old religion. The dances
which have acquired widespread fame
in recent years are the only outward
expression of its practice. They all
have a religious significance. The In
dams OF the Pueblo are properly bap-
tized with Christian names. But every
one OF them has an Indian name which
, no white man ever hears.
.. There is an old, old church at San
Ildefonso; one of the oldest now exist
ing in New Mexico; far more ancient
!, than San Miguel at Santa Fe, which
is often called the oldest in America.
A priest comes only once or twice 1.
year. The interior is like a vault, long,
narrow. dark and cold, with not even
, an adobe floor. but just loose dirt
: There are no seats, and men and won-
en- occupy opposite sides. The men all
stand. but the women kneel The
stone walls are perfectly bare. High
up toward the ceiling are little holes
for windows. and in and out of these
the birds fly during the ceremony. The