The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft

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СКАЧАТЬ those above are sometimes furnished with a small fireplace, the chimney leading out some feet above the terrace. PUEBLO HOUSES. Houses are common property, and both men and women assist in building them; the men erect the wooden frames, and the women make the mortar and build the walls. In place of lime for mortar, they mix ashes with earth and charcoal. They make adobes or sun-dried bricks by mixing ashes and earth with water, which is then moulded into large blocks and dried in the sun. Some of the towns are built with stones laid in mud. Captain Simpson describes several ruined cities, which he visited, which show that the inhabitants formerly had a knowledge of architecture and design superior to any that the Pueblos of the present day possess. Yet their buildings are even now well constructed, for although several stories in height, the walls are seldom more than three or four feet in thickness. The apartments are well arranged and neatly kept; one room is used for cooking, another for grinding corn and preserving winter supplies of food, others for sleeping-rooms. On the balconies, round the doors opening upon them, the villagers congregate to gossip and smoke, while the streets below, when the ladders are drawn up, present a gloomy and forsaken appearance. Sometimes villages are built in the form of an open square with buildings on three sides, and again two or more large terraced structures capable of accommodating one or two thousand people are built contiguous to each other, or on opposite banks of a stream. In some instances the outer wall presents one unbroken line, without entrance or anything to indicate the busy life within; another form is to join the straight walls, which encompass three sides of a square, by a fourth circular wall; in all of which the chief object is defense. The Pueblos take great pride in their picturesque and, to them, magnificent structures, affirming that as fortresses they have ever proved impregnable. To wall out black barbarism was what the Pueblos wanted, and to be let alone; under these conditions time was giving them civilization.808

      PUEBLO ESTUFAS.

      The sweat-house, or as the Spaniards call it, the estufa, assumes with the Pueblos the grandest proportions. Every village has from one to six of these singular structures. A large, semi-subterranean room, it is at once bath-house, town-house, council-chamber, club-room, and church. It consists of a large excavation, the roof being about on a level with the ground, sometimes a little above it, and is supported by heavy timbers or pillars of masonry. Around the sides are benches, and in the center of the floor a square stone box for fire, wherein aromatic plants are kept constantly burning. Entrance is made by means of a ladder, through a hole in the top placed directly over the fire-place so that it also serves as a ventilator and affords a free passage to the smoke. Usually they are circular in form and of both large and small dimensions; they are placed either within the great building or underground in the court without. In some of the ruins they are found built in the center of what was once a pyramidal pile, and four stories in height. At Jemez the estufa is of one story, twenty-five feet wide by thirty feet high. The ruins of Chettro Kettle contain six estufas, each two or three stories in height. At Bonito are estufas one hundred and seventy-five feet in circumference, built in alternate layers of thick and thin stone slabs. In these subterranean temples the old men met in secret council, or assembled in worship of their gods. Here are held dances and festivities, social intercourse, and mourning ceremonies. Certain of the Pueblos have a custom similar to that practiced by some of the northern tribes, the men sleeping in the sweat-house with their feet to the fire, and permitting women to enter only to bring them food. The estufas of Tiguex were situated in the heart of the village, built underground, both round and square, and paved with large polished stones.809

      HOW FOOD IS OBTAINED.

      From the earliest information we have of these nations they are known to have been tillers of the soil; and though the implements used and their methods of cultivation were both simple and primitive, cotton, corn, wheat, beans, with many varieties of fruits, which constituted their principal food, were raised in abundance. The Pueblos breed poultry to a considerable extent; fish are eaten whenever obtainable, as also a few wild animals, such as deer, hares, and rabbits, though they are indifferent hunters.810 The Pápagos, whose country does not present such favorable conditions for agriculture are forced to rely for a subsistence more upon wild fruits and animals than the nations north of them. They collect large quantities of the fruit of the pitahaya (cereus giganteus), and in seasons of scarcity resort to whatever is life-sustaining, not disdaining even snakes, lizards, and toads.811 Most of these people irrigate their lands by means of conduits or ditches, leading either from the river or from tanks in which rain-water is collected and stored for the purpose. These ditches are kept in repair by the community, but farming operations are carried on by each family for its own separate benefit, which is a noticeable advance from the usual savage communism.812 Fishing nets are made of twisted thread or of small sticks joined together at the ends. When the rivers are low, fish are caught in baskets or shot with arrows to which a string is attached.813 The corn which is stored for winter use, is first par-boiled in the shuck, and then suspended from strings to dry; peaches are dried in large quantities, and melons are preserved by peeling and removing the seeds, when they are placed in the sun, and afterward hung up in trees. Meal is ground on the metate and used for making porridge, tortillas, and a very thin cake called guayave, which latter forms a staple article of food amongst the Pueblos. The process of making the guayave, as seen by Lieutenant Simpson at Santo Domingo on the Rio Grande, is thus described in his journal. "At the house of the governor I noticed a woman, probably his wife, going through the process of baking a very thin species of corn cake, called, according to Gregg, guayave. She was hovering over a fire, upon which lay a flat stone. Near her was a bowl of thin corn paste, into which she thrust her fingers; allowing then the paste to drip sparingly upon the stone, with two or three wipes from the palm of her hand she would spread it entirely and uniformly over the stone; this was no sooner done than she peeled it off as fit for use; and the process was again and again repeated, until a sufficient quantity was obtained. When folded and rolled together, it does not look unlike (particularly that made from the blue corn) a hornet's nest—a name by which it is sometimes called." The Pimas do all their cooking out of doors, under a shed erected for the purpose. They collect the pulp from the fruit of the pitahaya, and boiling it in water, make a thick syrup, which they store away for future use. They also dry the fruit in the sun like figs.814

      The Pueblos and Moquis are remarkable for their personal cleanliness and the neatness of their dwellings.815

      PUEBLO WEAPONS.

      Their weapons are bows and arrows, spears, and clubs. The Pueblos use a crooked stick, which they throw somewhat in the manner of the boomerang; they are exceedingly skillful in the use of the sling, with a stone from which they are said to be able to hit with certainty a small mark or kill a deer at the distance of a hundred yards. For defense, they use a buckler or shield made of raw hide. Their arrows are carried in skin quivers or stuck in the belt round the waist.816 Bows are made of willow, and are about six feet in length, strung with twisted deer-sinews; arrows are made of reeds, into which a piece of hard wood is fitted.817 The Pimas wing their war arrows with three feathers and point them with flint, while for hunting purposes they have only two feathers and wooden points.818 It has been stated that they poison them, but there does not appear to be good foundation for this assertion.819 Clubs, which are used in hand-to-hand combats, are made of a hard, heavy wood, measuring from twenty to twenty-four inches in length. In former days they were sharpened by inserting flint or obsidian along the edge.820

      WAR CEREMONIES.

      The Pimas wage unceasing war against the Apaches, and the Pueblos are ever at enmity with their neighbors, the Navajos. The Pueblos are securely protected by the position and construction of their dwellings, from the top of which they are able to watch the appearance and movements of enemies, and should any be daring enough to approach their walls, they are greeted by a shower of stones and darts. As an additional protection to their towns, they dig pitfalls on the trails leading to them, at the bottom of which sharp-pointed stakes are driven, the top of the hole being carefully covered.821 Expeditions are sometimes organized against the Navajos for the recovery of stolen property. On such occasions the Towns-people equip themselves with the heads, horns, and tails of wild animals, paint the body and plume the head.822 Lieutenant Simpson mentions a curious custom СКАЧАТЬ