Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-01

Some of Their Traditions and
Customs.
Mothers-in-Law Cause No End oil
Family Trouble.
A New Mexican Tribe Of Which the
East Knows Little.

| We We're chatting in the Indian trad
Ier's store at Gallup, n. NJ, says a
writer in the New York Times. A
group of Navajo Indian bucks and
lSquaws were scattered close by outside
squabbling in their own tongue about
the value of lot of blankets they had
brought from the reservation for SELL
ing to the trader. Suddenly there was
a warning screech from one of the
squaws, and instantly one of the stall
| Wart Indians powerful siX-footer
who would seem match for man or
beast almost anywhere-sprang to his
feet and dashed into the store and ran
in fear behind a pile of wooden boxes
The remaining Indians in the group
grinned and chartered at the sudden
change of base, while a wretched little,
Wi inkled, dried-up old ,squaw came
| hobbling down a side street and Joined
| the squatters on the sunbaked earth.
The big Navajo buck remained Sc
! CT cted a few minutes, and then. assur-
ing himself that no red face followed
him. he shamefacedly came out from
behind the boxes, but did not go out of
doors while the little old squaw was in
sight.
WHAT the Natter" said the trad
er. as he laughingly repeated our exee
clamation. "Oh, nothing but "a
mother-in-law on the scene.r : i.
Then he told n custom among the
Nayl .os,,- centuries ~old--a custom
which we found later is universal
among the great Indian tribe all over
It's reservation. All NavajOs have a
belief that it is a blight upon a hus-
bands life to have any communication
with or association with his wife's
mother. The greater part of the Ma
vajos believe that a husband who looks
upon his mother-in Law is tempting all
the evil spirits upon himself and many
are so intense in the belief as to saw
that husband who gaZes at his
mCther-in-law will surely have his
eyeballs wither and drop out of their
sockets. Navajo lore is full of legends
about great warriors in the past who
have had visitations of hideous physi-
cal ailments and helplessness upon
them for defiance of the law of the
tribe. But while no Navajo can cite
a modern instance of blindness or
bad luck or paralysis or decrepitude
bee ause of a husbands accidentally
W,
superstition is just as potent. The Ma
VaJo who accidentally comes in con-
tact with his mother-in-Iaw is the sub
jet of commiseration by all his rela-
tives and is very much pitied by the
mother-in-law herself
No one knows how old the tribal be-
lief is, or concerning its origin. De
Vargas, Spanish Jesuit missionary,
who was the first to labor for Christ
ianity among the Navajos wrote in his
diary in 1893 that the custom dated
from remote antiquity. In De Vargas
day NOTWITHSTANDING were frequently
burned to death by angry Navajos be-
cause they had not been sufficiently
careful to warn their unSuspecting
|sons-in-law of their approach. and
they the mothers-in-l aw) had thereby
brought dreadful suffering upon the
unfortunate husbands of their daugh-
tiers. Some twenty years ago a Ma
vajo squaw. who had a dispute with
her married daughter, and had
avenged herself by walking deliberate
ly in upon her son-in-law as he lay in
the family hogan (huD so that he in
voluntarily spoke to her and looked her
full in the face, was beaten to death by
her own husband and children for her
fearful act. The fact that this victim
of a mother-i laws anger sickened
and died year later is ample proof in
the Navajo logic that he had been
Imysteriously cursed by his wife's
mother.
Marriage among the Navajos is n
matter of purchase, and the mother of
IL ~
consulted to know whether the son-in-
law is agreeable to her, and, if he is
agreeable, whether she will make his
life happy and prosperous by keeping
out of his sight and giving him full
warming whenever she comes near to
his presence. Many Navajo sends
constant gifts to his mother in law for
her kindly consideration by her avoid
ance of his sight. The purchase price
or a Navajo bride is almost universally
a horse. Any sort of a horse goes.
The more attractive the Navajo girl
the better the horse Here and there is
Il girl whose proud parents demand
several horses for her hand in mar
riage, and the pledge of the girls
mother to forever love and help her
son in-law by keeping away from him.
Here and there are also some Navajos
maidens whose marriage price is fixed
lat any rawbones of superannuated
mag that may be had IN the reservation
Naturally one would think from the
univer salty of this custom among the
Nava jos that woman's place in the
tribe is degraded but the contrary is
1.-The case. The NaVajos are not strictly
Ian agricultural people. Their farming
Operations are limited and of recent
origin. and the young women very sell
dom work in the fields. except at har-
vest time. Most of the wealth of the
tribe is in sheep and horses, principally
the former. and the sheep belong ex-
!clusively to the women: they are her
personal property. Moreover, descent
and inheritance are in the female line,
1.-THE children belong to the mother and
lare members of her clan, the father
Having no rights in the matter.
The purchase money. or rather pur-
chase horses. are of no direct benefit to
1.-THE parents. Payment is made to the
uncles and brothers of the bride in GER
tain proportions. Should domestic
troubles arise which are due to some
fault of the women. the horses are re-
turned but should the failure lie with
the man, the woman can and does
leave him and return to her people. In