The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-29
CITIES oF THE HoPIs
Ancient Towns and Venerable Folk
 Life in Arizona.

4sAAG HI &1I1AuElas
 To those Americans who flock to Europe tosee the relics Of antiquity so carefully and reYerentIy preserved there I would say turn your faces to the great southwest of our own conti- nent- There are, ruins, historic towns and folk life as interesting as anything the Old World has to offer The high tableands of New Mexico and Arizona are strewn with very ancient Indian towns, or pueblos. Of these, perhaps the most interesting is the Hopl, orI Moki, village, Oraibi The Hopis are a peace loving, agricultural people, who fled, centuries ago, to the very summits of rocky, in accessible cliffs to escape the depreda- tions of more warIike; marauding | tribes. The arid desert that lies at the foot of the cliffs is dotted in summer by | the green of the Hopis' cornfield, for by crude system of i. sation, these in dians raise crops of corn, melons, squash and beans, which form main Sustenance.
 Oraibi is the largest and the most | conservative of the seven Hopi towns It crowns a sheer cliff 500 f.et in height. The outline of cliff and village I stands out sharp and clear against the blue intensity of the Arizona sky, yet | the visitor, looking upward from the | level of the desert below, can hardly distinguish the houses from the sur rounding rocks. Here is the Hopi safe indeed! The stranger scarcely would | that Q foTTT of sr, habitant stands perched among those crags.
 oraibi stands to-day where it stood in 1540, when Cornado first found it. The village is formed of irregular lines of streets, interspersed with plazas, or \ open square, where dances are per- I formed. Tn these pIazas are sunk the kivas, the underground council cham bers of the men, which are reached by the descent of wooden ladder. As in l the case in most Dueblos, the housees here are two or three stories high, each floor being terraced back above the other,
 In former time entrance to the house was always by ladder through hatch way in the upper story; thus was the l Tooi secure within his walls. His vil- lage was in itself his fortress; he had but to pull his ladder and seal his hatchway to be as safe as an eagle on I 8 crag.
 The Hopis of to-day still remember fights with the Navajos, their neigh bors of the level lands below When the Hopis went forth to battle on. the open desert with bows and arrows, the women. children and old men guarded the village and looked down above on the contest. But now there is no long CT fear of war, and the Hoips have, in many instances, adopted the doors and windows of the white man.
 I If the town is interesting it's people are no less so. The dress of the men Is a modification of the European, though the hair is still worn long nd tied be- hind according to the ancient custom. But the women of Oraibi cling to the 5I native dress of woven bllle-the head dress of the maidens representing the squash blossom, the Hopi symbol of I lvirginity and that of the matron the Towering or ripened plant
 I The religion of these Indians is full of mythology and r1r,, but the prayers
 and ceremonies are all for rain, their l greatest need.
 The people are naturally creative and poetic, and every act of life-even the Ecrudest toil-is hallowed by song. Thus, while the Hopi loads his wood or runs beside his burre, he composes; he sings of his fields of corn, of the clouds of the longed for thunderstorm as nat urally as a bird sings on the bough.
 Daily in the village the visitor to Oraibi may hear high sweet voice coming from some upper story, where some woman, grinding corn, sings to the rhythmic scraping of the grinding stone weird and graceful melody; or here in some dorway we may find a mother with her baby on her knee, rocking gently to and fro crooning to her little one a, lullaby abuot the .beetles on the trail, or we may be arrested on our walk by rhythmic beat of drum and pausing in the plaza. hear
 strange dance tunes floating upward from the kivas. where the men are practising for some great ceremony. At dawn we may hear the shepard as he
 drives his flock before him down the
 rocky slopes singing of the "blossoming virgin corn and of the maiden but
 terfiies"
 But loveliest are the sounds at even-
 tide, when the men are returning from
 the fields in the glow and glory of the
 desert sunset. The western heavens
 are afiame and in the east rises the
 calm moon. From the distance we
 hear vodelling call, as, with the sweeping refrain and song of "Rain,
 rain, come 0 eloudsH' the Hopi makes
 his homeward way up the steep trail
 to the village.
 The Hopi is the voice of the silent
 desert: he wakes his world to melody, } but at night all is still and the ancient, : town sleeps in tie white light of the moon. We look off over the endless l stretch of desert end the thought sweep
 over us, Vast is this continent of ours, yet this is my country and these
 strange, poetic people are my neigh l bors. My joy in ali this beauty is my
 right.--Four Track News.