The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-16
CHILDREN OF STRANGE TRIBE.
Descendants of Cliff DwelIers at the
 St. Louis Falr.

Among the hundreds of peculiar tribes and peoples which the great worlds fair has attracted to St. Louis this year none occupy a more peculiar place than the Molds and zunis who have come to the fair from eAe parched domains of the great southwest, the so-called Painted desert of Colorado river and canyon in Arizona and New Mexico. These tribes are the direct descendants of the now extinct Cliff rDwellers of whom tradition tells that, at the dawn of recorded time, they occupied the clefts in the surround ing mountains, which terrible habitations they occupied by driving out the wild animals that had made these novels their homes thus affording to the hard-pressed l Cliff Dwellers a means of defense and later existence against the savage tribes which invaded this country from the north.
 The supreme effort which fate and nature both put upon these people. for tunately for them, seems never to have had to be repeated. From immemorial days the descendants of the Cliff Dwellers have occupied the vast, partly unexplored region where they now dwell, and, being secured from the assaults of predatory tribes and having time to cultivate the arts of peace it has so happened that the Zunis and the Mokis of today are more advanced in purely preservative art than their nomadic tribesmen of the same re- zion with whom they have next to noth- ing in common.
 Of the Cliff Dwellers only tradition re- mains. That they must have been a spirited people is amply attested by the characteristics of their descendants. For, if we find no trace of the war-spfrit among them, there are evidences of the possession by them of trained imagina- tion, desire to laud and praise those who have gone before and to initiate their deeds within the somewhat narrow con- fines which fate has allotted to them. Precisely as they live on the Mesa and in the cliffs of the Colorado today, they are happily conducting themselves at this moWent at the Cliff Dwelers' concession at fhe worlds fare. They have bodily transferred their peaceful arts to the metropolis of the Mississippi valley and in home specially designed by them selves every feature of which reminds them of the beloved sojourn in the west they are living their daily lives and to the wonder of readers be it said, this Is the first time in all their thousand-year history that they were ever wooed away from their mountain home.
 Among the many ceremonials descrin tive of their life none is more wonderful than the Snake Dance. This weird cere- monial is presented only every other year at Wolpi in the Painted desert by the | Mokis and Zunis and with it they implore their deity, Gltche Manitou, for raln. It has never before been seen within the confines of a city and is attracting thou sands of visitors to the Cliff DwelIers' exhibit at the worlds fair daily. Besides the Snake Dance and a dozen similar ex l elusive features of aboriginal life the Cliff Dwellers show Sungopavl, the world | famous Indian magician, today the talk of St. Louis and without doubt the most remarkable semi-savage ever brought to | a worlds fair. This magician compeIs the admiration of men who have travelled | all over the world in search of rare, curi- ous and out-of- the-way experiences and to the general public he remains today. as he has been ever since the fair open | ed, an impenetrable mystery.