This country is a valley between rocky mountains. They cultivate corn, which does not grow very high. The ears start at the very foot, and each large fat stalk bears about 800 grains, something not seen before in these parts.[1] There are large numbers of bears in this province, and lions, wild-cats, deer, and otter. There are very fine turquoises, although not so many as was reported. They collect the pine nuts each year, and store them up in advance. A man does not have more than one wife. There are estufas or hot rooms in the villages, which are the courtyards or places where they gather for consultation. They do not have chiefs as in New Spain, but are ruled by a council of the oldest men.[2] They have priests who preach to them, whom they call papas,[3] These are the elders. They go up on the highest roof of the village and i>reach to the village from there, like public criers, in the morning while the sun is rising, the whole village being silent and sitting in the galleries to listen.[4] They tell them how they are to live, and I believe that they give certain commandments for them to keep, for there is no drunkenness among them nor sodomy nor sacrifices, neither do they eat human flesh nor steal, but they are usually at work. The estufas belong to the whole village. It is a sacrilege for the women to go into the estufas to sleep.[5] They make the cross as a sign of peace. They burn their dead, and throw the implements used in their work into the fire with the bodies.[6]
- ↑ Ternaux, p. 164: "les épis portent presque tous du pied, et chaque épi a sept on huit cents grains, ce que l'on n'avait pas encore vu aux Indes." The meaning of the Spanish is by no means clear, and there are several words in the manuscript which have been omitted in the translation.
- ↑ Ternaux, p. 164: "ni de conseils de vieillards."
- ↑ Papa in the Zuñi language signifies "elder brother,'" and may allude either to age or to rank.
- ↑ Dr J. Walter Fewkes, in his Few Summer Ceremonials at the Tusayan Pueblos, p. 7, describes the Dā'wā-wýmp-ki-yas, a small number of priests of the sun. Among other duties, they pray to the rising sun, whose course they are said to watch, and they prepare offerings to it.
Mota Padilla, cap. xxxii, 5, p. 160, says that at Cibola, "no se vió templo alguno, ni se lesa conoció ídolo, por lo que se tuvo entendido adoraban al sol y á la luna, lo que se confirmó, porque una noche que hubo un eclipse, alzaron todos mucha gríteria."
- ↑ Ternaux, p. 165: "Lea étuves sont rares dans ce pays. Ils regardent comme un sacrilége que les femmes entrant deux à la fois dans un endroit."
In his Few Summer Ceremonials at Tusayan, p. 6, Dr Fewkes says that "with the exception of their own dances, women do not take part in the secret kibva [estufa] ceremonials; but it can not be said that they are debarred entrance as assistants in making the paraphernalia of the dances, or when they are called upon to represent dramatizations of traditions in which women figure."
- ↑ Mr Frank Hamilton Gushing, in the Corapte-rendu of the Congrès International des Americanistes, Berlin, 1888, pp. 171-172, speaking of the excavations of "Los Muertos" in southern Arizona.
de vacas, y lo de encima de cuero de venado aderezado; las mugeres traen el cabello muy peinado y bien puesto y con aus moldes que traen en la cabeza uno de una parte y otro de otra, & donde ponen el cabello con curiosidad win traer nengun tocado en la cabeza."
Mota Padilla, xxzii, 4, p. 160: "Los indios son de buenas estaturas, las indias bien dispuestas: traen unas mantas blancas, que las cubren desde loa hombros hasta los piés y por estar cerradas, tienen por donde sacar los brazos; asimismo, usan traer sobre las dichas otras mantas que se ponen sobre el hombro izquierdo, y el un cabo tercian por debajo del brazo derecho como capa: estmian en mncbo los cabellos; y así, los traen muy peinados, y en una jicara de agua, se miran como en un espejo; pártense el cabello en dos trenzas, liadas con cintas de algodon de colores, y en cada lado do la cabeza forman dos ruedas ó circulos, que dentro de ellos rematan, y dejan la punta del cabello levantado como plumajes y en unas tablitas de hasta tres dedos, fijan con pegamentos unas piedras verdes que llaman chalchihuites, de que se dice bay minas, como tambien se dice las bubo cerca de Sombrerete, en un real de minas que se nombra Chalchihuites, por esta razon;. . . con dichas piedras forman sortíjas qne con unos palillos fijan sobre el cabello como ramillete: son las indias limpias, y se precian de no parecer mal."
