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Ti7G»InTeR«0(jeAn 

IS NOW PUBLISHED 

EVERY DAY 

IN THE YEAR 



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rgMMONG OTHER ATTRACTIONS oftbred the 
I readers of the CKIC^66 mihY NEWg during 



^•jj'!^ 1883 will be a series of letters upon 



rn 



V H 




<^ -L 



s, 



THEIR TRADITIONS, FOLK-LORE, ANTIQUITIES, 
GOVERNMENT, SOCIOLOGY, ETC., 

FROM THE PEN OF 

Rr^ANi^ Y). (Pushing. 

Mr. Cushing has never before written for the Daily 
Press, and our contract with him gives us the exclusive 
right to publish his articles. It is his intention to so 
write them, that after their publication in the columns 
of the Daily News he will reprint in book form. This 
work will embrace all he has learned of the strange 
people during his sojourn in their pueblo. 



THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS is sold by News- 
dealers everywhere. Price, 2 cents. By mail, $ij.00 
per year, or $1.00 for two months, postpaid. 



NOW OPEN!-s=«r 



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And All Classes of Passenoers have Through Cars. 



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t'° 



Children of the Sun 



BY V</ILLIAM E. CURTIS. 






CHICAGO : 
THE INTER-OCEAN PUBLISHING CO. 

1883. 



EIv 



31 



Copyrighted by 
WILLIAM E. CURTIS. 



PRKNTED BY 

Clark, Perry & Co. 
CHICAGO. 



CONTENTS. 

I. A Visit to Our Oldest Inhabitants. 

II. Mr. and Mrs. Gushing at Home. 

III. A Senatorial Episode. 

IV. Some Strange Coincidences and Curious Customs. 
V. Zuni Religion and the Pilgrimage to the Sea. 

VI. The Search for the Seven Cities of Gold. 

VII. Queer People in Queer Places. 

VIII. The Grand Canon of the Colorado and its Explorers 



Children of the Sun 



CHAPTER I. 

A VISIT TO A PECULIAR PEOPLE. 

FAR to the Southwest, in the Sierra Madre range of the 
Rocky Mountains, just beyond the crest of ''the grand 
Continental Divide," which forms the spinal column of the 
North American continent, in the midst of the thirsty des- 
ert, eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, is a lit- 
tle town, inhabited by a curious people who have furnished 
an interesting problem for ethnologists during the last 
three centuries, and are now attracting more attention 
than ever before. At the time of the conquest of Cortez 
it was called Cibola, meaning the city of the buffalo, but 
on the maps of to-day it appears as Zuni. 

Amazing stories were told of the wealth and grandeur 
of its people — stories that excited the avarice of the whole 
empire of Spain, and drew upon them the assaults of a 
mighty army, excited by prospects of plunder, compared 
to which the hoarded gold and the silver-crested temples 
of the Montezumas were the merest trifle. At one time 
an army of fourteen thousand men, composed of the 
Spanish invaders and their Aztec allies, and led by a 
plumed Castillian, marched to its overthrow; but the 
dusty deserts and the impassable mountains discouraged 



8 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

and disheartened them, and a wise reconsideration of the 
plans of the viceroy saved the army from starvation in a 
land which afforded them no sustenance. 

A second army followed ten years after, and conquered 
Zuni ; but when it was found to be only a collection of 
mud huts the Spaniards destroyed the town, drove its 
inhabitants into the caves and cliffs of the mountains, and 
left it in disgust, seeking plunder elsewhere which they 
never found. For three and a half centuries Zuni slum- 
bered, being disturbed only occasionally by a slight scien- , 
tific survey, and escaping the eye of the world until the 
summer of 1882, when a party of its priests, under the 
guidance of Mr. Frank H. Gushing, went across the conti- 
nent to Boston to fill their sacred gourds with water from 
" the ocean of the Sunrise," as their fathers had filled 
them from "the ocean of the Sunset" centuries ago. 
The debut of the Zuni upon the dramatic stage, for he is 
nothing if not dramatic, drew much attention to him of 
whom little was known before, and the eye of the scientific 
world is now fixed upon his curious customs, in the ex- 
pectant hope of detecting in him a connecting link to an 
unknown, but much studied, prehistoric past. Without 
written language, knowing no English, and only enough 
Spanish for the purposes of trade, they have remained un- 
disturbed in their primitive condition, and have not ex- 
hausted their old ideas or lost their ancient customs. Even 
the costume of the women is the same as that described by 
Coronado in 1541, and a place where fashions of dress do 
not change in more than three centuries would afford a 
fruitful study for the antiquarian, without taking into mind 
the curious myths and romantic traditions that afford an 
unprecedented field for ethnologists and poets. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 9 

Taking that wonderfully interesting railroad, the Atchi- 
son, Topeka and Santa Fe, to Albuquerque, then the new 
trans-continental line, the Atlantic and Pacific, we en- 
tered the mountains of Western New Mexico, and stopped 
at a station called Wingate, very near the Arizona bound- 
ary line. We found no town there ; only a station-house 
and a water-tank, a young boy seated at a telegraphic in- 
strument, and a great Newfoundland dog sleeping at his 
side. The boy said he was from Mount Vernon, Ohio, 
had been at that lonely mountain top all winter, and liked 
it. The dog could not talk, but had a history. He was 
found nearly starved by some track-builders a few months 
before in a snowdrift beside the body of a dead man, and 
the telegraph operator adopted him. 

Three or four miles beyond this, under the shadow 
of a great mountain, stands Fort Wingate, one of the 
largest and most important military posts in the South- 
west. The commandant is General Luther P. Bradley, 
who lived in Chicago before the rebellion, and went into 
the army at the head of the Fifty-first Illinois Regiment 
of Volunteers. He won the stars of a Brigadier General 
at the battle of Chickamauga, and when the war was over 
was made Colonel of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry, 
which he still commands. From Fort Wingate to Zuni the 
road follows an old trail over the rugged range of Zuni 
Mountains, from the summit of which can be had a grand 
view of the scenery for which Western New Mexico and 
Arizona are so famous. That picturesque and remarkable 
break of nature, the Navajo Church, looms up between the 
cliffs in the glory of its grandeur. It is not a church, how- 
ever, but a massive rock, with two great shafts rising from it 



lO CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

to the height of several hundred feet, like the spires of a 
cathedral. It is one of the most picturesque and unique 
effects of nature's sculpture, and is familiar to those who 
have had the opportunity of studying the photographs 
government explorers have made in this locality. 

After riding for several hours over the mountains we 
came to the crest of a tremendous hill, nearly eleven 
thousand feet above the sea, and so steep as to be impass- 
able for anything but a sure-footed mule or a mountain 
goat. The driver said he " would rather eat a six-shooter 
loaded and cocked than go down that hill with an ordi- 
nary wagon;" but the wheels were locked with chains, 
and the ambulance slid through the soft shale as if it had 
been snow instead of powdered slate. 

Far off to the southward, where the blue of the sky and 
the gray of the earth blend in the haze, stretches a valley, 
narrow and crooked, closely embraced by picturesque 
mountains whose cliffs are cut in grotesque shapes. It is 
not entirely a charming region, this valley of the Zunis, 
but it is as remarkable in its peculiar attractions as are the 
peaceful heathen who within it dwell. Much is the rugged 
mountain, much is the water-worn cliff of clay, much is 
the dusty desert, much is the drifting sand, and much is 
the arid alkaline plain covered with the modest but nutri- 
tious gramma grass, and the wild sage, the wretchedest, 
most contemptible plant that grows. 

It may be a grim and listless desert ; it may be unbroken 
and undisturbed by glimpses of beauty, but the Zunis have 
lived here contented for centuries, and until lately thought 
there was no better land. They have plowed the dry soil 
with crooked sticks like the Egyptians used in the time of 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. II 

Joseph, and watered it by digging ditches from the springs; 
they have planted their curious pink and yellow corn, and 
watched their grazing herds of sheep and cows and burros 
upon this dreary and desolate waste for centuries, and the 
bones of the generation who c^me here first lie in the in- 
hospitable ground as dead as the dust of Adam; but a 
more contented, satisfied people were never seen. They 
have cures for the woes that ail them, and when no cure 
can apply they see in the failure the grim hand of fate, 
and lie down with a submission that is as sublime as Chris- 
tian resignation. The Zunis are fatalists. They live only 
for their religion and to preserve their religious orders, 
and they believe that to die as Zunis should die is the 
great aim of life. 

Sweet and soft around us was the spring air, melting 
toward sunset into a haze that seemed to fall like a veil of 
gauzy gold and hang between the blue mountains and the 
bluer sky. The sky seems bluer and wider and farther off 
here than anywhere else in the world, and we do not won- 
der in the grim and desolate silence that the Zunis love 
their land. The glowing dawns and the ruddy twilights, 
the vague summits of the far-off mountains covered with 
eternal snows, and the nearer mesa lines capped with gro- 
tesque shapes, eroded sandstone and clays that have been 
carved by the patient wind and rain into forms that are 
now as beautiful as the most shapely architecture, and 
again as preposterous as the crazy dreams of goblins ; the 
fierce sun by day and the lazy moon and lambent stars by 
night, in a sky that scarcely ever knows a cloud — all these 
challenge the admiration of this little nation of savages, 
whose conversation is a poem, and whose traditions and 



12 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

legends are epics that compare with the choicest gems of 
Greece. 

Farther down the beautiful valley of Las Nutrias (the 
Beavers), following a creek that comes from a great pool 
in the rocks, we reach a monstrous crag jutting out from 
the side of a mountain — the sacred Ta-ai-ia-lo-ne, 
where the Zunis believe the thunder resides — through 
which there is a venerable hole, 300 feet from the ground, 
elliptical in form, and large enough for an elephant to 
pass through without disturbing his plumage, if an ele- 
phant should be so foolish as to fly. Under the crag, on 
the ground, a shaft of stone, narrow and feather-shaped, 
stands upright sixty or seventy feet, where it fell when 
the knife of nature severed it from its sister crags. 

The Zunis have a legend about this, as they have about 
every geological curiosity or absurdity, and the legend, as 
the old priests tell it, is this : Centuries ago the god of 
turquois — the Zunis believe every treasure sprang from the 
gods — had a wife who was the goddess of salt. To him 
they owe the rough, blue jewels that lie strewn upon their 
rocks, and to her the pitiless alkali that has eaten the 
vegetation off their plains. Indignant at the encroach- 
ments of the mortals, they flew away from their home, 
and in their flight the goddess dashed through the 
rock, which was resistless. One of her plumes was disar- 
ranged by the encounter and fell to the earth, the quill 
entering the ground. It stood upright, and turned to 
stone. Wherever she flew the ground was strewn 
with salt, and the vegetation destroyed, and the line of 
her flight is traced by beds of alkali that stretch to the 
Salt Lakes, where she rested forever. The Moquis and 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 3 

Other Indians concede the ownership of these lakes to the 
Zunis, and have always paid them tribute for the privilege 
of gathering salt there, which has brought quite a revenue 
to the tribe. 

The town of Zuni is a collection of mud huts, one 
above the other, until the highest is seven stories from the 
ground, and at the last census they numbered 1,602 peo- 
ple. The houses are built of adobe bricks — sun-dried 
clay — and the walls of the lower strata of rooms are, in 
in some cases, seven and eight feet thick. These are 
roofed over with the trunks of cottonwood and pine trees, 
covered with a thick layer of straw and clay. The walls 
of one house are the foundation of another, and the roof 
of one is the floor of that which stands above it. The 
houses as a usual thing are entered from the roof, 
and the interior is reached by climbing a ladder up 
and then climbing a ladder down. This mode of con- 
struction was adopted as a measure of protection from the 
assaults of outside enemies, and when a Zuni wants to 
lock his dwelling he pulls up the ladder. It is the old 
story of the woodchuck that went into his hole and pulled 
the hole in after him. In the center of the town is a 
wide court, or plaza, which is reached by climbing seven 
ladders to the top of the pueblo, and then climbing down 
seven more to the ground. In this court are held the 
councils and sacred dances, which Mr. Gushing has de- 
scribed in such a graphic way in his contributions to the 
Century. 

We were stretched around upon the seft sheepskins, lis- 
tening with absorbing interest to the recital of Mr. Cush- 
ing's peculiar adventures, when the Governor, Pa-lo-wah- 



14 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

ti-wah, came in. By the brilliant light that came from 
the blazing branches of the pinon tree which flamed in the 
rude but picturesque corner fireplace, we could see a tall, 
gaunt man, with large, dark eyes, a sharp nose and a mel- 
ancholy mouth — an Indian counterpart in countenance of 
Edwin Booth. 

"Here is the old Governor come to call upon you," 
said Mr. Gushing, and we arose and were introduced to 
him as '' men who make meaning marks — friends of mine 
from Chicago." 

The old savage grasped my hand, drew it to his mouth, 
and breathed upon it. That is the friendly salutation of 
the Zuni — a beautiful one in its significance, for it meant 
that he gave his breath, the most precious gift that he had, 
into my hand. 

'' May you grow to be a tall man," was his. salutation 
in Zuni to me, referring to my inferior stature. 

The Governor squatted down on a sheepskin rug, and I 
offered him a cigar. He took it with a profound bow of 
thanks, and lit it with an ember that he lifted from the 
fireplace. Pretty soon, after he had pulled a few whiffs, 
he jumped up, ran to the door and threw away the cigar, 
apologizing for lighting it in the presence of ladies, and 
teaching us a lesson in politeness. He was assured that 
the ladies had been well cured, being the wives of invet- 
erate smokers, and accepting another cigar, puffed away 
with the rest of us. 

With Mr. Gushing as interpreter, we talked with him, 
and he expressed the admiration he felt for the greatness 
of Chicago. It was the first large city he saw on his 
Eastern trip, in the summer of 1882, and his recollections 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I5 

were amusing and interesting. While they were there the 
Ziinis stopped at the Pahner House, the biggest pueblo he 
was ever in, and witnessed an American dance in the ball- 
room. He laughed heartily as he told of some of his party 
who tried to dance and slipped down upon the waxed 
floor, but solemnly assured us that he had been guilty of 
no such foolishness. The Governor's costume was unique, 
if not impressive. He wore a shirt and pair of drawers 
made of flour sacks, and across his shoulder-blades was 
printed the legend, in large blue letters, ** XXX Superfine 
Winter Wheat Patent Flour," and the name of the miller, 
which his Excellency considered a great ornament. He 
was glad to see us as the friends of his brother, **Te-nah- 
tsa-li" — "Medicine Flower," as the Zunis have named 
Gushing, and, in his Oriental way, wished that our visit 
'' might be blessed with a multitude of pleasures." 

The Governor has been Mr. Gushing' s steadfast friend 
through many a crisis, and adopted him as his *' brother " 
when he first came to Zuni. He has been Gushing's 
teacher during his study of the language, and has proved 
an affectionate and wise counsellor. His badge of office 
is an old ivory headed cane — the same insignia is found 
in all the New Mexican Pueblos, and is suspended by a 
faded red ribbon which came around some papers sent to 
the tribe by President Lincoln. When Gushing came to 
Zuni he found a home in the Governor's house, and in one 
of his articles for The Century^ thus describes the family : 

'^The family consisted of the governor's ugly wife, a 
short-statured, large-mouthed, slant-eyed, bushy-haired 
hypochondriac, yet the soul of obedience to her husband, 
and ultimately of kindness to me, for she conceived a 



1 6 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

violent fancy for me, because I petted her noisy, dirty, 
and adored little niece. Not so was her old aunt, a fine- 
looking, straight little old woman of sixty winters, which 
had bleached her abundant hair as white as snow. The 
Governor did not love her. He called her 'Old Ten,' 
which, as he explained, referred to the number of men 
she had jilted, and which appellation unloosed a tongue 
that the Governor avowed ' knew how to talk smarting 
words.' Then there was the Governor's brother-in-law, a 
short, rather thick and greasy man, excessively conceited, 
ignorant, narrow, and moreover, so ceaselessly talkative, 
that he merited the name the inventive and sarcastic chief 
had given him, * Who-talks-himself-dry.' " 

''If the governor loved not ' Old Ten,' he despised her 
favorite nephew. This fellow's wife, however, was good- 
looking, dignified, quiet, modest, and altogether one of 
the most even-tempered women, red or white, it has been 
my lot to krow. She was always busy with her children, 
or with the meal-grinding and cookery, occasionally va- 
rying these duties with belt-making or weaving. The 
little niece and her older brother were the only children. 
The former was a little child, rather too small for her age. 
She was the small 'head of the household.' All matters, 
however important, had to be calculated with reference to 
her. If she slept, the household duties had to be per- 
formed on tiptoe, or suspended. If she woke and howled, 
the mother or aunt would have to hold her, while ' Old 
Ten ' procured something bright-colored and waved it 
frantically before her. If she spoke, the whole family 
must be s lent as the tomb, or else bear the indignation of 
three women and one man. The governor despised the 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 7 

father too much to join in this family worship. Indeed, 
while the rest delighted in speaking of this short specimen 
of humanity by the womanly name of ' lu-i-si-a-wih-si- 
wih-ti-tsa,' the Governor called her a ' bag of hard howls,' 
and said that she had the habit of storing up breath like 
a horned toad, which accounted for her extraordinary cir- 
cumference, and her ability to make a noise in the world. 

" Little lu-ni, her brother, was as handsome and as 
nearly like his mother as boy could be, save that he was 
rather inconsiderate to dumb things, and to his little sis- 
ter's hideous dolls. 

"The aged grandfather of this group was usually absent 
after wood, or else puttering near the fire-place, or on the 
sunny terrace. He was lean as Disease, and black as 
his daughter — which expressed a good deal to her hus- 
band, the Governor, — with toothless under-jaw and weep- 
ing eyes. The Navajos had treated him roughly in his 
youth, which he showed by the odd mixture of limp, 
shuffle, and jump in his gait. The asthma had tried for 
years to kill him; but he only coughed and wheezed har- 
der and harder, as winter succeeded winter. So explained 
his son-in-law, the Governor, who, if he ever mentioned 
him at all, called him 'the Ancient Hummer.' " 

Pretty soon there was a timid rap at the door — a custom 
Mrs. Gushing has introduced. The Zunis enter the houses 
of each other without ceremony, at all times of day and 
night, not even asking as much as by your leave — but Mrs. 
Gushing has forbidden them to intrude into her apart- 
ments without permission, and since she has made fright- 
ful examples of some of them, they have adopted the civ- 
ilized mode of knocking at the door and awaiting a wel- 
come. 



1 8 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

When Gushing cried out in Zuni **come in," the door 
slowly opened, and there appeared a fat little woman who 
stepped to the table and emptied from her blanket a large 
quantity of parched corn, explaining that she had prepared 
it for the friends of ** Cushy-Cushy," as the "scientist is 
more familiarly known. She intimated that some com- 
pensation would be acceptable, and was rewarded by the 
ladies of the party who oifered her a few pieces of candy 
they had brought with them. To this Mrs. Gushing ob- 
jected, as the knowledge that sweetmeats were in our pos- 
session would bring the whole community to the door ; but 
the woman got her reward with an emphatic injunction 
that there was no more to be had. 

When I asked the old Governor what he remembered 
most pleasantly of all he saw in Chicago, he referred to a 
big pueblo with beautifully colored walls, dazzling lights, 
and brilliant blankets hanging from gold and silver rods, 
which he visited with Mr. Gushing. He said that there 
was a young lady on the stage who sang and talked and 
danced, and he thought she was very beautiful and bright, 
and he liked her the best of any of the American ladies 
he saw on his journey East. Mr. Gushing explained that 
his Excellency referred to the Grand Opera House, of 
Chicago, and that the young lady whose attractions had 
left so profound an impression upon his soul was Miss 
Minnie Palmer, whom he saw in her play, ** My Sweet- 
heart." The Governor was also very much pleased and 
impressed with the comic opera ''The Mascotte," which 
he witnessed on that memorable journey, and sang to us 
the " Gobble, Gobble, Baa ! " ditty, which he distinctly 
remembered, and has been singing about Zuni ever since. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I9 

The people in the streets of Chicago, he said, ** were 
so many that it gave him thoughts," meaning that they 
caused him a great deal of wonder and bewilderment. * 

The Governor had not long been gone before the pres- 
ence of his worthy spouse was announced, and in she 
came to pay her respects to the ladies. She is short of 
stature, as all women of the Zunis are. They marry at 
ten years of age, and many of them are mothers at twelve, 
so that with the cares of the household they never get their 
growth. She had not an unpleasant face, but there was a 
sharp look in the eye and a curl of the lip that revealed 
her disposition as plainly as if it had been photographed 
on paper, and Mrs. Gushing said that our estimate of her 
characteristic was not a mistaken one, for she has the sharp- 
est tongue in the village. She is a good woman, honest, neat 
and industrious, and not given to vanities; but a terrible 
scold and the worst gossip in the town. Her husband has for 
twenty years been aware of her proclivities, for she abuses 
him as if he were a scullery grubber instead of the chief 
magistrate of the tribe, and Mr. Gushing says that when 
he lived with them he was kept awake all night many a 
time by the Caudle lectures she delivered to the old gen- 
tleman as he reposed by her side upon their couch of 
sheepskin. 

Her ladyship wore a sort of tunic made of the same ma- 
terial as her blanket, blue being the prevailing color, with 
here and there an irregular stripe of white. The shoulder 
bands were richly embroidered with beads, and the leg- 
gings were made to match. Upon her feet were a pair of 
handsome moccasins, and over her head she wore a well- 
bleached flour sack in the place of a hood or shawl. Her 



20 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

ornaments were quite conspicuous, and consisted of a 
heavy necklace of large silver beads, with a pendant in 
the form of a crescent, hammered out of a silver dollar by 
her devoted husband, who is quite a skillful silversmith. 
From her ears hung heavy ear-rings of silver, large and 
fantastic in shape, like those worn upon the opera stage by 
gypsy queens. Around her wrists were bracelets innumer- 
able, all of silver, some of them engraved bands, and others 
strings of beads and buttons. 

She dropped a courtesy as she entered the door, and said, 
apologetically, that her husband had told her to come and 
see the ladies, although she " was quite covered over with 
shame because she had been eating onions," not having 
expected company. Mrs. Gushing indulged in a sotto 
voce dissent from the remark that her visit had been at 
the suggestion of her husband, and ventured the assertion 
that the old gentleman had received a terrible blowing 
up because he had made his call before she had an oppor- 
tunity. She breathed upon the ladies' hands as the Gov- 
ernor had breathed upon those of the gentlemen, and bade 
them welcome to the hospitable homes of Zuni. Some 
of the ornaments and garmerits the ladies wore seemed to 
arrest her attention, and she was particularly enchanted 
with a chatelaine watch which hung from the belt of one 
of them. Their fur-lined mantles she considered quite a 
luxury, and was outspoken in her admiration thereof. One 
of the mantles bore at the neck a silver-plated clasp, which 
seemed to suit her fancy, and was regarded by her as a 
gem of priceless value. 

During her short call she proved the power of a woman's 
discerning eye by detecting which of the three ladies in 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 21 

our party was single and which were married, but con- 
gratulated them all in a most flattering way upon their 
beautiful appearance. As she left the room she bestowed 
upon us quite a polite and pretty blessing, when she said 
in Zuni : 

** May the darkness bring sweet sleep to you all, and 
may the morning find you well." 

Before going, however, she invited the ladies to return 
the call, and intimated that she had some very nice pot- 
tery of her own manufacture and decoration that she was 
willing to dispose of. It is unnecessary to say that the 
ladies accepted the invitation and bought the pottery. 

During the evening we strolled about the village, look- 
ing in upon the people and seeing how they lived. Their 
rooms were lighted by pinons blazing in the fire-places, 
and the shadows were very picturesque. At one place the 
man we wanted to see was out, but we found a little wo- 
man crooning over a sick baby which lay naked in her 
arms, and giving it medicine from a bowl of steaming 
herbs that sat beside the fire. She was singing a song to 
put the child asleep and rocking it gently in her arms. 

One of the wierdest pictures I ever witnessed was that 
presented at the house of the high-priest of the Pueblo, a 
venerable old man, Nai-iu-tchi by name. He was about 
retiring when we called, and the fire on the hearth was low. 
Retiring with the Zunis means pulling a lot of sheepskins 
into a corner and lying down upon them. 

The old man recognized Cushing's voice and gave him 
an affectionate welcome. As we entered he arose from his 
couch and breathed into our hands one after another, utter- 
ing a poetic phrase about the gladness that came in with 



2 2 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

US at the open door. All the Zunis are poets, and there 
is nothing so conspicuous in their habits and customs and 
language as the striking resemblance to the oriental in their 
salutations and benedictions. He apologized for the dark- 
ness of the room, and called to his wife to ''shake the 
flame out of the embers." She responded jestingly that 
he was getting old and lazy and " was no good any more," 
or he would get up and fix the fire himself. As the flames 
began to blaze out of the wood the light crept upon the 
shadows and showed us the recumbent forms of several of 
the family stretched out under their blankets peacefully 
snoring. The old priest sat cross-legged like a Turk in 
their midst, with his gray hair falling upon his shoulders, 
and the fitful shadows from the firelight playing around the 
wrinkles in his solemn, rugged face. 

I did not see him by daylight, and the abbreviated gar- 
ments he wore that night were not consonant with the dig- 
nity that sat upon his face ; but the picture he made was 
an effective one. His head is large and leonine, and the 
abundant hair fell upon his shoulders like a mane ; his 
face was cast in a heroic mold, and its features are those 
of a prophet. The incongruity between the head and the 
drapery could not have been more striking or comic. It 
was a bust of Plato in bronze draped in a pink calico shirt. 

He, too, like the Governor, wanted to talk of Chicago; 
but, unlike that gay and giddy executive, the old priest 
took the wonders of civilization home to his poor untu- 
tored soul. He had nothing to say of the ball-room at 
the Palmer House, nor of the theater; but the advantages 
and benefits and blessings of civilization seemed to have 
impressed him most. While the Governor's observations 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



23 



had been those of " a man about town," the old priest 
had looked through the eyes of a philosopher. Only once 
did he drop from his tone of apostolic dignity, and that 
was when he alluded to the elephant Jumbo, which he said 
was the most wonderful animal he ever saw, and bigger 
than he supposed the gods created them. Then he added, 
gleefully : 

*' I have his picture in my little treasure box." 
I asked him what of all he saw at Chicago gave him the 
most gratification, and to our surprise the venerable old 
priest said: *'the sea lions at Lincoln Park!" Why? 
Because, as he piously explained, they were the first crea- 
tures carrying life in their breasts he had ever seen that 
came from the ocean, which the Zunis worship. Like 
other people they worship that which they deem most 
precious. With the Christian it is the water of life. With 
the Zunis it is the water of the sea, the river and the spring ; 
that which alone stands between them and starvation in this 
parched and arid land. In the sea lions the old priest saw 
'^the children of the ocean " for the first time, and his 
soul was filled with awe and reverence. When the party 
reached the fountain at Lincoln Park where the sea lions 
are kept, the old priest and his companions, ran up to the 
iron railing, exclaiming : "At last, at last, we greet thee ] 
oh ! our fathers ! ' ' And they began praying most fervently, 
at the same time sprinkling sacred meal upon the water. 
I asked him then what was the most wonderful thing he 
saw in all his journey through civilization, and he answered, 
*'The sleight-of-hand men." When they were in New 
York the Zunis went to see the jugglers, and to this day 
Cushing cannot convince them that they were not gods. 



24 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

The contortionists at the circus were also considered super- 
natural by them. While at Boston they were taken to 
see the negro minstrels one night by the Mayor. At first 
they were enthusiastic over the clog-dancing and various 
other feats, and expressed themselves in peculiar shrill cries 
of approbation. But suddenly they became silent, for they 
conceived the idea that they were witnessing the myste- 
rious rites of one of the religious orders of America, and 
they therefore repeatedly stretched out their arms to draw 
in the spirit of the '* holy men " upon the stage. 

But I was not satisfied with the old man's answers. I 
could not believe one with a face like that which the priest 
bore had looked no deeper than this into the triumphs of 
the pale faces. So I put this question : 

"What of all you saw in your journey East impressed 
you most with the superiority of the white men over the 
Indians? " 

The father of the Zunis turned his eyes towards me, and 
answered slowly: '*The ease with which they can get 
water. The white man takes the river into the walls of 
his house. By turning a little iron stick he can get that 
which we pray for all our lives ! " 

This to the mind of the Zuni, the inhabitant of a barren, 
rainless land, was the triumph of civilization. I asked 
him if he wanted to go back to the States, and he said, 
"Yes ; I grow strong with anxiety that I may go again." 



CHAPTER II. 

MR. AND MRS. GUSHING AT HOME. 

UNTIL Mr. Gushing began to write his interesting de- 
scriptions of a peculiar people, the Zunis were almost 
entirely unknown, but they have been made famous by his 
researches and narrations, and by the publicity given to 
their journey to the sea. They are the oldest, as far as is 
known, and the least undisturbed in their primitive condi- 
tions of all the Indians in the United States; they have 
never received aid from the government, and therefore 
their name does not appear in the records at Washington, 
nor in the appropriation bills of Congress. Three or four 
hundred years ago a great deal was said of them in the re- 
ports of the old Spanish explorers, who invaded this coun- 
try in their remorseless search for gold, but from Coronado, 
who wrote of them in 1550, to Gushing, who commenced to 
write of them two years ago, they have been allowed to 
live along in their primitive simplicity, nestled down among 
the mountains, off the line of travel, beyond the reach of 
ordinary scientists, and in a country that offers no quartz 
or gold dust as temptations to the ubiquitous prospector. 
Mr. Gushing is a very young man, not more than twenty- 
four years of age, slight of physique, slender of stature, but 
of wonderful nerve, unusual intelligence and consuming 
ambition. His researches here and his contributions to 
literature have already given him fame as an ethnologist 
and an author. He came originally from Medina, N. Y., 



26 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

and in his youth had a remarkable /<f;?r^^«/ for antiquities. 
His first work in this line was an investigation of some ot 
the old Indian mounds in Central New York, and it at- 
tracted the attention of the officers of the Smithsonian In- 
stitute, who gave him a position upon their staff. In 1879 
when an expedition was about to leave for New Mexico, to 
explore among the mountains where the ancient Pueblos 
lie, and in the hills where the cliff-dwellers lived in the 
days we know nothing of. Prof. Baird directed him to 
accompany it. The instructions given the party were to 
find the most curious and primitive of these tribes — that 
one, wherever it was, of which science had the smallest 
knowledge, and which had felt the least the advance of 
civilization. At that place, and with that tribe, young 
Gushing was to remain, and spend as much time as neces- 
sary in the study of' its language, customs and traditions. 
It was supposed that one season would be sufficient, and 
Gushing expected to return with the exploring party to 
Washington when winter came, but it was a case of mis- 
calculation, for Gushing is at Zuni still, and expects to 
remain there for two or three years longer until he has 
reached the end of his researches, and reaped the most 
fruitful scientific harvest that ever was gathered by an eth- 
nologist's hand. 

I do not believe Mr. Gushing or any other scientist 
would have undertaken the work had he known what was 
before him ; had he known what the penalty was, the ob- 
stacles that were to be encountered, the hardships that 
were to be endured, and the privations that were to be suf- 
fered, but having plunged in he had to stay. His experi- 
ence has been one of unexampled novelty, but at the same 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 27 

time requiring more nerve and courage and endurance 
than even a scientific fanatic would often be willing to con- 
front. And such words fitly describe Mr. Gushing. 
Those who are jealous of him say that he is doing all that 
he has done in order to secure notoriety. That he finds 
in his field an opportunity to gain a professional re])utation 
beyond and above that which exists in other resorts of the 
ethnologists is no doubt true, but I do not believe a mere 
thirst for notoriety could have kept him here, when the 
bauble could be so easily found in other and less arduous 
fields. His work is the result of an inspiration accident- 
ally received, and he is determined to be thorough. 

No one can see or talk with Mr. Gushing without real- 
izing that he is an enthusiast, helpless against the ambition 
that has become a passion for acquiring knowledge of this 
interesting and remarkable people, and those who visit the 
place, honestly and unprejudiced, will acknowledge that 
he is entitled to all the reputation, or notoriety, if that 
word will suit better, that will cling to his name. In de- 
meanor he is modest but enthusiastic ; in conversation, 
fascinatingly interesting, and a study of his writings about 
the Zunis will show a labored attempt to conceal his indi- 
vidualism so far as it can possibly be done. His articles 
would be more interesting if he would relate more of him- 
self and his remarkable experience, for it is unique and 
unprecedented, and I know of no one who has undergone 
anything that can parallel his life for the last few years 
that would write of it so modestly and unostentatiously as 
he does. Having first read his publications, and then 
visited him at his home, I can see how much of absorbing 
interest might have been written, but never has been, and 



28 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

probably never will be told. He has impaired his health, 
and will be a dyspeptic for life, because of the effect upon 
his stomach of the fierce and vile concoctions which these 
Indians use for food, and he bears upon his person 
marks of heroism and martyrdom in the causes of science, 
than which there is no better evidences of his gaminess, his 
endurance, his courage and self-sacrifice. During our visit 
to Zuni the subject was not alluded to, as Mr. Gushing said 
he had very little time or disposition to talk about him- 
self; and the stay there was so limited that our conversa- 
tion was devoted almost entirely to the Indians, and not 
to him. But from other sources — from the officers at Fort 
Wingate, who know more about him and his work from 
their close observation during the entire period of his life 
at Zuni — we learned much of his experience and adven- 
tures. 

As the Zunis are a secretive and suspicious people ; as 
their religious rites and ceremonies are all sacredly secret, 
and performed in the temples, or estufas, which no one 
but members of their secret orders are allowed to enter, Mr. 
Gushing found great difficulty and danger in pursuing his 
work. 

In order to gain their confidence he adopted their cos- 
tume, imitated their customs and habits, assisted them at 
their work, and ate their food. He submitted to all the 
tests they desired to apply to him, and with the Zunis, as 
with all other Indians, a man's worth is estimated by the 
degree of his nerve and endurance. The young men, be- 
fore they can become warriors, are subjected to fearful tests 
to try their metal and their courage, and he who can en- 
dure the most is the greatest warrior, and is selected as the 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 29 

chief. To every student of Indian customs, to every one 
who is familiar with their modes of determining the cour- 
age of their men, it is enough to say that Mr. Gushing is 
the war-chief of the tribe and a member of the highest 
priesthood — the Sacred Order of the Bow. And he has 
attained these offices in three years' residence among them 
by showing that he has more endurance than the strongest, 
more nerve than the most stolid, and more courage than 
the bravest man amongst them. He voluntarily, in order 
to gain their confidence, offered to submit to any tests they 
might determine, and they took the offer for all it meant. 
There is no member of the tribe who has gone through so 
much as he, and the stuff that he is made of was the argu- 
ment that advanced him in the chieftancy of the tribe. 

But the worst of all, the most obnoxious and revolting 
experience of his entire stay among them, was the neces- 
sity of eating their food. The concoctions which they 
prepare of meat and herbs and garlic and peppers require 
a copper-lined and brass-riveted stomach to receive and 
digest. But he swallowed it without a protest, to the peril 
of his health, and the result is the ruin of his stomach and 
the poisoning of his blood. Mr. Gushing is a man of fair 
complexion, light hair and delicate stomach. For months 
he suffered intensely from indigestion after eating their 
mixtures that seem made of fire, and as a consequence a 
scrofulous tendency has developed into painful and dis- 
agreeable eruptions upon his face. Since he has secured 
their confidence and an influential position in the tribe he 
is permitted to prepare his own food, and he now does so, 
but finds himself as the result of his voluntary experience a 
chronic dyspeptic, with his blood full of poison, for which 



30 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

his brother, who is a physician, is now at Zuni giving him 
heroic treatment. 

Is Gushing genuine ? We asked everybody we saw around 
Wingate that question, and there was not one who had 
other than kind words for him, and strong expressions of 
faith in the fidelity and accuracy of his work. The mis- 
sionary who visits the Zunis, the Indian agent who has 
the official oversight of the tribe, while each of them ob- 
ject to some features of Cushing's work, both deny the 
charge that he is an impostor, and testify to his truthful- 
ness. Some of those with whom we talked do not, of 
course, enter into the spirit of Cushing's work, nor appre- 
ciate its value. Some of them called him a crank and a 
fool, as they would consider any one who would waste the 
best years of his life, and suffer hardships and privations 
for the cause of science. Others though't he was an enthu- 
siast who saw in the Indian legends and traditions more 
poetry and romance than sober, practical utility ; but they 
all vouched for his genuineness and honesty. In a private 
letter Mr. Gushing modestly describes the object of his 
life at Zuni, as follows : 

" The purposes of my sojourn among these Indians have been to 
secure as much knowledge of their traditional history, mythology, 
sociologic organization, manners and customs, — religious as well as 
secular, — linguistics, arts and industries as possible. This data is 
designed for the reconstruction, not only of the Spanish and Abori- 
ginal history of these parts, but also of material knowledge and better 
understanding of the "Indian Question," which the Government now 
deems of enough importance to require quite wide and special inves- 
tigation. 

" At the outset I was in a certain manner left dependent on the In- 
dians, in consequence of which, and later, of a desire to overcome 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 3 1 

their conservatism and suspicion of my matters, I was compelled to 
adopt their manner of life, language and costume. 

*' Thus, and through other means I came to gain high position in 
their councils, a sub-chieftancy, the second chieftancy, and lastly — a 
position which I still and probably shall continue to occupy so long 
as I remain among them. Membership in the Medicine Order of War- 
riors, or " Priesthood of the Bow," and the Permanent Head War 
Chieftancy. I have, of course, been long ago adopted into their tribe, 
as have, from time to time, wards from among the Moquis, Pueblos 
and Navajos, and at present and for all time shall enjoy — so far as 
they are concerned — the full rights of Gentile or clanship nationality." 

When he first arrived at Zuni the Indians tried to drive 
him away. Now they are absurdly jealous in their regard 
for him, and observe the attentions he receives from visit- 
ors there with mingled gratification and dislike. They 
are particularly anxious for him to remain with them 
during his entire life ; and in all cases of difficulty, the 
threat that he will go back to '* the Land of Day" brings 
them to terms. After he had been left in the village by 
the party of explorers the Indians drove him out, and 
even went so far as to threaten his life ; but the Governor 
took him under his protection, and having conceived a 
fancy for the young paleface, adopted him as a brother, 
and admitted him to his own household. The first re- 
quirement made of him was to eat the food of the people, 
and adopt their dress. 

Mr, Cushing's costume is very unique and becoming. 
While it would scarcely do in civilized society, because of 
its conspicuous unlikeness to anything worn in the present 
day, it is handsome and comfortable. He wears no hat, 
like all Zunis, but around the crown of his head is tied a 
black silk scarf, folded, the fringed ends of which hang 



32 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

down over his right ear. His upper garment is a blue 
blouse, such as the soldiers wear, embroidered upon the 
shoulders, at the waists and down the front with many sil- 
ver buttons. Around his neck is a heavy necklace made 
of silver coin, hammered by the native silversmiths into 
curious shapes, and engraved with strange devices. Al- 
ternating with these medals are large stones of unpolished 
turquois, just as they were found among the rocks, except 
for the holes drilled through them. His belt is of buck- 
skin, to which are attached large silver medals hammered 
from American dollars, with a handsomely embroidered 
knife sheath hanging on the left side, and on the right a 
long strap which trails upon the ground. This strap is 
loaded with silver buttons, and is used as a whip by the 
Zunis when riding to beat their mules and horses. Across 
his shoulder, like a sash, is a buckskin arrangement, with 
long fringe, handsome embroidery and innumerable silver 
buttons, which supports the quiver of arrows hanging 
upon his back. He wears knee-breeches, of blanket cloth, 
native woven, embroidered and fringed down the sides, 
with the usual rows of silver buttons. His garters are 
beautifully embroidered, and are woven in colors from the 
wool of the sheep. His stockings are black, also of native 
wool, and knit by the Indians, and when he is abroad he 
wears anklets of buckskin for protection against cactus 
and briars. On his feet are the usual moccasins. 

When in full war dress, arrayed for the dance or relig- 
ious ceremonials, he carries a beautiful bow and a shield 
made of horse hide, decorated with colors by skillful na- 
tive artists, and heavily fringed with buckskin thongs, fas- 
tened to its edge by silver ornaments. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 33 

After he had adopted the dress of the tribe, his foster 
father and many other of the principal men of the tribe 
insisted that his ears should be pierced. " I steadily refused, 
writes Mr. Gushing, ''but they persisted, until at last it 
Dccurred to me that there must be some meaning in their 
Lirgency, and I determined to yield to their request. They 
procured some raw Moqui cotton, which they twisted into 
rolls about as large as an ordinary lead-pencil. Then they 
brought a large bowl of clear cold water and placed it be- 
fore a rug in the eastern part of the room. K'iawu pres- 
ently came through the doorway, arrayed in her best dress, 
with a sacred cotton mantle thrown over her shoulders, 
md abundant white shell beads on her neck. I was placed 
kneeling on the rug, my face toward the east. My old 
father, then solemnly removing his moccasins, approached 
me, needle and cotton in hand. He began a little shuf- 
fling dance around me, in time to a prayer chant to the 
sun, At the pauses in the chant he would reach out and 
^rasp gently the lobe of my left ear. Each time he 
grasped I braced up to endure the prick, until finally, 
when I least expected it, he ran the needle through. The 
"hant was repeated, and the other ear grasped and pierced 
in the same way. As soon as the rolls of cotton had been 
drawn through, both the old man and K'iawu dipped their 
[lands in the water, prayed over them, and, at the close of 
the prayer, sprinkled my head, and scattered the water 
about like raindrops on the floor; after which they washed 
my hands and face, and dried them with the cotton 
mantle. 

"I could not understand the whole prayer, but it con- 
tained beautiful passages, recommending me to the gods 



34 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

as a "Child of the Sun," and a '^ Son of the Coru peo- 
ple of earth" (the sacred name for the priests of Zuni). 
At its close the old man said : ^* And thus become thou 
my son, Te-na-tsa-li " (Medicine Flower). And the old 
woman followed him with, " This day thou art made my 
younger brother, Te-na-tsa-li." Various other members 
of the little group then came forward, repeating the cere- 
monial and prayer, and closing with one or the other of 
the above sentences, and the distinct pronunciation of my 
new name. 

"When all was over, my father took me to the window, 
and, looking down with a smile on his face, explained 
that I was ' named after a magical plant that grew on a 
single mountain in the West, the flowers of which were 
the most beautiful in the world, and of many colors, and 
the roots and juices of which were a panacea for all in- 
juries to the flesh of man. That by this name, — Avhich 
only one man in a generation could bear, — would I be 
known as long as the sun rose and set, and smiled on the 
Coru people of earth, as a Ski wi (Zuni).' " 

At first Mr. Gushing 's sketch book was an object of 
horror among the tribe. The art of drawing pictures was 
regarded as sorcery, and for the freedom with which he 
sketched their dances Mr. Gushing several times narrowly 
escaped with his life. Among his drawings was the por- 
trait of a pretty little girl. An old white-headed grand- 
mother, looking the sketches over one day, recognized 
this. She shook her head, frowned, and, covering her 
face with her withered hands, began to cry and howl most 
dolefully. At intervals during the remainder of the day 
he could hear her talking, scolding, and sobbing over 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 35 

what she regarded as a great misfortune to her family. 
But old Pedro Pino had seen photographs and other pic- 
tures among the soldiers, and one day, in remonstrating 
with one of the tribe whose face had been sketched to his 
disgust, he said: ''Though your body perish, neverthe- 
less you shall continue to live on upon the earth. Your 
face will not be forgotten now; though your hair turn 
gray, it will never turn gray here. I know this to be so, 
for I have seen, in the quarters of the officers at the fort, 
the faces of their fathers, who have long since passed from 
earth, but still were looking down upon their children 
from the wall." 

On the journey to the East, Mr. Gushing exchanged his 
picturesque garb for the clothing of civilization when the 
party arrived at Fort Wingate. The question of his wear- 
ing ''American clothes" on the trip had been a serious 
one with the Zunis, and it was a subject of many delibera- 
tions. Assent was given only on the representation that 
it would displease his brothers the Americans should he 
not do it, their feeling for conventionality in dress being 
as strong as that of the Zunis. This motive was one that 
appealed to them forcibly and was readily understood. 
He did not cut his hair, however, until the arrival at Chi- 
cago, as he did not desire to ask too much of them at one 
time. It was eighteen inches long, and made him dis- 
agreeably conspicuous. He told them that the American 
Caciques (priests) desired that it should be cut, and it 
would gratify his brothers the Americans, and show them 
that the Zunis were considerate of their wishes. The Zunis 
could not see how it was that the Americans objected to 
long hair, which was the crowning glory of a man. They 



36 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

were slow in consenting, and could only be persuaded 
by the promise of Mr. Gushing that he would have it 
made up, so that he could wear it beneath his head-band 
when at Zuni, ^'for," said they, '' no one could become 
a member of the Ka-ka without long hair." 

The Indians were very anxious for him to marry into the 
tribe, but this he positively declined to do. Twice were 
nut-brown maidens selected for him by his brother, and 
guardian, the Governor, and the latter was very much 
offended at their rejection. Mr. Gushing tells the story 
of the attempt to ensnare him into the matrimonial net as 
follows : 

I had nearly given up seeing a pair of garters which had been 
promised me, when one day, all bustle and smiles, the "Little 
Mother " came in bearing them. They were beautiful and well made 
— they endure even yet — and with matronly pride she laid them be- 
fore me. I paid her liberally, that the subject of Lai-iu-lut-sa should 
not be resumed. But it was broached by the Governor. That night, 
when we were alone, he came and lay down by my side where I was 
writing. 

'* Get a big piece of paper," said he, and, knowing him, I obeyed. 

*' Now write." I seized a pencil. 

" ' Thou comest? ' said he, in his own language. 

I wrote it and pronounced it. 

" Good," said he; then added : 

" ' Yes ; how are you these many days? ' 

" ' Happy ! ' * Sit down.' ' Eat,' (Then a tray of bread will be 
placed before you ; but you must be polite, and eat but little, and 
soon say:) ' Thanks.' 

" * Eat enough. You must have come thinking of something. 
What have you lo say?' 

" * I don't know.' 

"'Oh! yes, you do ; tell me.' 

" * I'm thinking of you' (in a whisper), 

" * Indeed ! You must be mistaken,' 

« ' No ! ' 

" ' Aha ! do you love me? ' 

" ' Ay, I love you.' 

« ' Truly ? ' 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 37 

"« Yes!' 

** ' Possibly; we will see. What think you, father ? ' 
'* ' As you think, my child ' (the father will say)." 
" What in the name of the moon does all this mean, brother?" I 
asked him when he had read me the questions and answers over two 
or three times, and said I had pronounced them all right. 

" It means what you will say to Lai-iu-lut-sa to-morrow night when 
you go to see her." 

I was perplexed, I knew not what to say, as I feared oftending 
the good old man. 

" Look here, brother, I can't go to see her; she would laugh at me 
because I can't speak good Zuni yet." 

" Now, that's all I have to say to you," he replied, angrily. " I've 
done my btst for you ; fools will be fools, not even their brothers 
can help it. I see you propose to live single and have everybody say : 
' There goes a man that no woman will have ; not even when his 
brother helps him.' No! Do you suppose I am blind ? You are no 
Zuni ; you want to go back to Washington ; but you can't, I tell you. 
You might as well get married ; you ar«? a Zuni — do you hear me ? 
You are a fool, too ! " 

With this he left me ; nor would he speak to me again for many 
days, save on the most commonplace affairs of life, and then but 
briefly. 

My old father here came to my relief. He persuaded the vexed 
Governor that perhaps Lai-iu-lut-sa did not suit me, and that my re- 
fusal of her was no argument against my love for her people. With 
a sublime sense of his power of diplomacy, he also sat down to have 
a talk with me the same evening. " You see, my son, I had nothing 
to say about Lai-iu-lut-sa; don't like her myself," said he, with a 
smile. " Now, had it been lu-i-tsaih-ti-e-tsa, I should have said, 
' Be it well ! ' " and he waited for me to ask who she was. I kept a 
wise silence — my old brother kept a sulky one. '* She is the finest 
being in our nation, and my oztnt niece" he added, with emphasis. 
" I never saw her," said I. 

** Is that all ?" he exclaimed, eagerly. *' Well, she shall bring you 
a bundle of candle-wood to-morrow evening," he remarked. 
" What shall I pay her for it ?" I asked. 

" Pay her ! Nothing, my son ; do you wish her to think you a fool, 
and cover me with shame ? " 

Next evening I went to see Mr. Graham, the trader, and staid late. 
When I returned a little bundle of pitch-pine was lying by the door- 
way, and the old Governor, getting up with an oath, left the house. 
Again the girl brought wood, at a time unexpected to me, yet I hap- 
pened to be absent ; and the matter, with many vexatious remarks on 
my strange behavior, was for a time given up. 



38 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

But the Governor did not despair of getting him a wife, 
and he finally selected the same Miss lu-i-tsaih-ti-e-tsa. 
His Excellency was going to the summer pueblo for a time 
to look after his crops, and Gushing accompanied him a 
part of the distance. The young lady was already in the 
Governor's secret, and very cordially assented to his plans 
for the match. 

''The Zuni customs in courtship are curious. Usually 
the girl makes the advances. Her parents or friends inform 
those of the youth, and the latter is encouraged. If suited, 
he casually drops into the house of the girl, and ' if it be 
well,' the girl becomes his affianced, or Yi-lu-k'ia-ni-ha 
(his to be). Thereafter the young couple may be seen 
frequently together — the girl combing his hair on the 
sunny terraces, or, in winter, near the hearth, while he 
sits and sews on articles of apparel for her. When he has 
* made his bundle,' or gathered a sufficient number of 
presents together — invariably including a pair of moccasins 
made from a whole deer-skin — he takes it to her, and if 
they are accepted he is adopted as a son by her father, or, 
in Zuni language, 'as a ward,' Ta-la-Jii ; and with the 
beginning of his residence with her he commences his 
married life. With the woman rests the security of the 
marriage ties, and it must be said, in her high honor, that 
she rarely abuses the privilege ; that is, never sends her 
husband 'to the home of his fathers,' unless he richly 
deserves it. Much is said of the inferior position of women 
among Indians. With all the advanced tribes, as with the 
Zunis, the woman not only controls the situation, but her 
serfdom is customary, self-imposed and willing absolutely. 
To her belong, also, all the children ; and descent, in- 
cluding inheritance, is on her side." 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



39 



As the Governor and Gushing were leaving the pueblo 
they met the young lady, lu-i-tsaih-ti-e-tsa, and the Gov- 
ernor casually hinted that Gushing would be lonely while 
he was gone. As they parted, a few moments afterward, 
the Governor talked to him soberly about getting married, 
and concluded the conversation with this benediction, 
which Mr. Gushing notes in one of his articles : 

" Little brother," said he, and he laid one hand on my shoulder, 
while with the other he removed his head-band, and pressed both of 
mine, '* this day we have a father who, from his ancient place, rises 
hard holding his course ; grasping us that we may stumble not in the 
trails of our lives. If it be well, may his grasp be firm zintil, happily, 
our paths join together again and zue look one upon the other. Thus 
much I make prayer — I go." 

With this he turned suddenly, a tear in his eye, and walked hastily 
along the river-side. And I stood there watching him, until his bent 
form disappeared, and trying hard to bear the loneliest moment of my 
exile in Zuni. God bless my Indian brother! 

Two days afterward the young lady made the usual ad- 
vances, and brought a present to him. It was a handsome 
tray of flaky he-we. The Governor's wife disliked the 
girl very much, and when Gushing returned to the house 
and found the gift there, he asked her who brought it. 

'■'You ask who brought it?" exclaimed the old lady. 
*' Well ! Who should it be but that shameless wench who 
lives over the covered way, whose mother has clog feet, 
and wliose father is so poor that no one knows how they 
live? No matter if young fools do grow crazy over her ; 
she's nothing, nothing at all, Medicine Flower, nothing 
but a common creature that is not human enough to know 
what shame is. She only thinks of what you have and 
your fine buttons." 

Peace was made with the Governor's wife when Gushing 



40 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

told her he should not accept the advances, and he de- 
cided to make short work of this courtship. He went to 
the house of lu-i-tsaih ti-e-tsa, and left word for her to 
come and eat with him at sunset. ''When she came," 
writes Mr. Gushing, "I was writing. She was accompa- 
nied by her aunt. I bade them enter ; set coffee, bread, 
he-wcj sugar, and other delicacies before them. Then I 
merely broke a crust, sacrificed some of it to the fire, ate 
a mouthful, and left them, resuming my writing. The girl 
dropped her half-eaten bread, threw her head mantle ov'er 
her face, and started for the door. I called to her and 
offered her a bag of sugar in payment, I said, for the he-we. 
At first she angrily refused ; then bethinking herself that 
I was an American and possibly knew no better, she 
took the sugar and hastened away, mortified and almost 
ready to cry with vexation. Poor girl ! I knew I was 
offering her a great dishonor — as runs the custom of her 
people — but it was my only way out of a difficulty far 
more serious than it could have possibly appeared to her 
people." 

Then Mr. Gushing told the Indians of his engagement 
to a young lady in Washington, and of his intention to 
marry her and bring her to live with them; and although 
their preference would have been for him to take a wife 
from the tribe, their gallantry overcame their prejudice, 
and they received the pale face, brown-eyed bride with a 
respectful and cordial welcome. 

While the party of Indians were in Washington Mr. 
Gushing presented them to his fiancee, and they immedi- 
ately conceived a great fancy for her ; but the Governor 
told him he must not go back to Zuni without taking his 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 4I 

bride. She cheerfully consented to accompany him to his 
pueblo home, and to share his novel experiences. 

Mrs. Gushing was the daughter of the late Mr. Magill, 
who was for many years connected with the venerable 
banking house of Lewis Johnson & Co., of Washington. 
Her devotion to her husband runs parallel to his devotion 
to science, and there are (ew girls who would leave a beau- 
tiful home at Washington for a mud hut in an Indian 
pueblo, even for men they loved. A man or a woman 
who does not love luxury fails to reach or realize the privi- 
leges and possibilities of existence ; but he or she who can- 
not dispense with luxury and enjoy roughing it is a worth- 
less weakling, unfit for the tasks and the triumphs that the 
great world offers. Mr. Gushing belongs to that ancient 
fraternity, the badge of which is always apparent, even 
under the barbaric costume of the Zuni — the honorable 
order of gentlemen — and in his rude surroundings and 
primitive accommodations every sign he gives detects this 
order to which he belongs, and of which, in Washington 
or in Zuni, he will always be an ornament. 

Mrs. Gushing does not enjoy life in Zuni as her husband 
does. She does not and cannot share his fascination for 
the work in which he is engaged. She hates the uncouth 
women and the naked children, and despises their filthy 
ways, but she has made her mud hut a pretty little para- 
dise, and has developed the possibilities of comfort even 
in Zuni. 

The clay walls of her rude house are hung with blankets 
woven by the Zuni and Navajo Indians, and compare in 
brilliancy of color, texture, and design with the far-famed 
Gobelin tapestries. The ceilings of undressed trunks of 



42 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

trees are covered with bright figured cretons and Japanese 
silks. The clay floor is strewn with sheep skins, tanned 
by the Indians, that are softer to the slippered foot than 
the rugs of Oriental magnificence, and ornaments selected 
with refined taste or framed with clever hands after the 
models of decorative art, are hung here and fastened 
there, and strewn everywhere. The Gushing residence is 
a dirty mud hut without, but within a bower of beauty. 

She has her sister. Miss Magill, with her, who likes the 
Zunis better than Mrs. Gushing, and is talking of adopt- 
ing their peculiar dress and joining their tribe. 

''I would do it," said Miss Magill; *^it would be so 
funny and romantic, but I don't like to cut my hair." 

The family have a colored man for cook and '' maid of 
all work;" and while their diet is confined to the slender 
resources of the Indian garden and the provisions of the 
commissary store at Fort Wingate, all who have visited 
them can testify to the hospitality, the wholesomeness, and 
the enjoyment of their table. 



CHAPTER III. 

A SENATORIAL EPISODE. 

THE attempt of certain army officers to deprive the In- 
dians of a portion of their lands has excited news- 
paper controversy, and attracted much public interest. 
To understand the situation several important points must 
be explained. 

1. The Zuni Indians have occupied and lived peacefully 
within the same narrow valley for nobody knows how 
many centuries. The Spanish invaders found them there 
when they came 350 years ago, and the Zunis have not 
left the place since. 

2. They are not a migratory tribe, but live in dwellings, 
cultivate the ground, and have small herds of cattle, sheep, 
and donkeys. They do not receive and never have re- 
ceived any aid whatever from the government, but are 
entirely self-supporting, peaceable and happy. It is one 
of their proudest traditions that they have never killed an 
''American," as they distinguish the residents of the Uni- 
ted States from the Mexicans. 

3. Their reservation is almost entirely a barren desert, 
only a small portion being capable of sustaining herds of 
cattle, and a limited tract being susceptible of cultivation 
under a system of irrigation which they have practiced 
for centuries. They raise corn, wheat, and vegetables in 
limited quantities, sufficient only for their own sustenance, 



44 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

and the arable land could not well support more than the 
number who are now fed from it — about i,6oo people. 

4. The entire and absolute value of the Zuni lands de- 
pends upon four springs from which they obtain their 
water supply for themselves, their cattle, and their irri- 
gating ditches. If these springs should be lost, the 
Zunis must leave the village they have occupied for so 
many centuries or starve. The government could give 
them food, but it could not give them water. The two 
principal springs upon which their water supply depends 
are known as the Nutrias and the Pescado. 

Several years ago, when the railroad approached this 
locality, the Indian agent at Santa Fe, who exercises a 
supervisory control over the Zunis, although they receive 
no government aid, was solicitous about their welfare, and 
President Hayes directed him to survey and describe the 
lands occupied and used by the Zunis in order that it 
might be withdrawn from settlement and exempted from 
the land grant which Congress had given the Atlantic and 
Pacific Railroad Company. The agent, Mr. Ben M.. 
Thomas, supposed that he had performed his duty fully, 
and he, as well as the authorities at Washington and the 
Zunis themselves, believed that their lands were safe to 
them forever, and protected against the encroachments of 
civilization. The military officers at Fort Wingate so 
understood it, and no one doubts that it was the intention 
and determination of the government to protect the Zunis 
in the perpetual possession of their homes, their grazing 
lands, their farms, and the four springs from which they 
obtained their water supply. But it appears that there 
was an unfortunate and lam.entable error in the description 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 45 

of the boundary lines. Mr. Thomas explains the manner 
in which the mistake was made, as follows : 

^' In 1877 I was directed by the authorities at Washing- 
ton to furnish a description of the Zuni Reservation. I 
went over the ground carefully, and through an excess of 
caution took with me the surveyor who originally laid out 
the boundary line between New Mexico and Arizona. It 
was the intention of the government, and of course my 
own intention, to include in the reservation the lands oc- 
cupied by the tribe and the springs which supplied them 
with water. I left the description of the boundaries to 
the surveyor, not being a practical engineer myself, and 
he drew an angle from the boundary line of the territory 
a certain distance, which he said would bring the springs 
and the Nutrias Valley within the reservation. I am since 
informed that the angle as designated will fall short and 
leave them out. Had I been without the assistance of the 
surveyor I should have described the boundaries by natural 
landmarks, but supposing that he understood his business 
I adopted his imaginary lines, and that is the way the 
mistake was made." 

The Indian agent sent his report to Washington, and 
the following order was issued by President Hayes, defin- 
ing the Reservation, and withdrawing the land from sale : 
Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, March 16, 1877. 

It is hereby ordered that the following described tract of country, in 
the Territory of New Mexico, viz. : Beginning at the 136th mile stone 
on the western boundary line of the Territory of New Mexico, and 
running thence north 61 deg. 45 min. east, 31 8-10 miles, to the crest 
of the mountain a short distance above the Nutrias Spring ; thence 
due south to a point in the hills a short distance southeast of the Ojo 
Pescado; thence south 61 deg. 45 min. west to the 148th milestone 
on the western boundary line of said Territory ; thence north with 



46 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

said boundary line to the place of beginning, be and the same is here- 
by withdrawn from sale and set apart as a reservation for the use and 
occupation of the Zuni Pueblo Indians. R. B. Hayes. 

When the mistake was discovered, two army officers and 
a citizen located claims of 800 acres each, upon the valley 
of Las Nutrias, 640 acres under the Desert Land Act, and 
160 acres under the Homestead Act. The land officers at 
Santa Fe accepted the papers, and forwarded them to 
Washington, with an enquiry as to whether the lands were 
open to settlement. The following reply was received : 

Department of the Interior, General Land Office, 

Washington, D. C, Dec. 7, 1882. 
Register and Receiver, Santa Fe, N. M. 

Gentlemen : I arn in receipt of your letter of Nov. 23, 1882, asking 
whether townships 12 n, of rs 16 and 17 w, are within the reservation 
of the Zuni Indians, as the same are unsurveyed,andyou have several 
applications for desert land entries in said townships. 

In reply you are informed that as near as can be ascertained from 
our records township 12 north, of range 16 west, is outside, while 
township 12 n, of r 17 w, probably only sections 25, 26, 35, 36, are 
within the reservation. 

When those townships are surveyed the reservation may be found 
to embrace more of the land than mentioned, and if any desert land 
entries are found to have been located within the reservation they will 
be held for cancellation. Very respectfully, 

N. P. McFarland, Commissioner^ 

When the fact of the entry was discovered by the Indian 
agent, he submitted the following protest to the depart- 
ment at Washington : 

United States Indian Service, Pueblo Indian Agency, 

Santa Fe, N. M. T., April 12. 
The Hon. H. Price, Commissioner, Washington, D. C. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
April 5 marked " L, 3,606, 1883," inclosing letters of the honorable 
Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of the General Land Office 
in regard to entries recently made on the Zuni Reservation. The ac- 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 47 

tion taken, as shown by the inclosures, does not reach the real diffi- 
culty by any means. The difficulty lies in the manner of regarding 
the reservation, as shown on the maps, resulting in the contradiction 
of terms in the description of the boundaries of the reservation. " Be- 
ginning at the one hundred and thirty-sixth milestone on the v^^estern 
boundary line of the Territory of New Mexico, and running thence 
north 6i deg., 45 min. east * ^ ^ " does not run that line (the north- 
ern) of the reservation "to the crest of the mountain, a short distance 
above Nutrias Spring;" but leaves out that spring and the Nutrias 
farms which the Indians have cultivated from time immemorial, and 
which are necessary to their support. The intention of the reserva- 
tion was to secure to the Zunis three principal farming districts where 
they raise the means of subsistence, viz. : Nutrias, Pescado and Ojo 
Caliente ; but in making the original description of the boundaries I 
was misled by the surveyor who had surveyed the Territorial boundary 
line, and who was with me at the time I located the reservation. He 
assured me that the angle " North 61 degrees 45 degrees East" would 
run the line so as to take in Nutrias; but it seems that it does not. 
The outrage of taking Nutrias from the Zunis must not be consum- 
mated. The thing to do is to follow the apparent intent of the de- 
scription and run the north line to the crest of the mountain above 
Nutrias, regardless of the angle given, and then run the eastern line 
far enough south to take in Pescado Spring, which is still more im- 
portant to the Indians than Nutria. I trust that you will secure an 
order to be issued to the Surveyor General of New Mexico to so lay 
off the reservation. The persons who have taken the preliminary steps 
to secure the land at Nutrias are mostly army officers, I understand, 
and one of them assured me to day that if the land was subject to 
entry by any one they wanted it ; but if it belonged to the Indians, and 
they (the Indians) were to have it, they would not press their claims 
as against the Indians, provided the money already paid were refunded 
to them, and their act would not exhaust their right to enter land. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Ben M. Thomas, United States Indian Agent. 

As Surveyor General Atkinson explains the case, the 
trouble was in the description of the reservation in the ex- 
ecutive order of President Hayes ; that was very loosely 
drawn, and its terms are conflicting. Although the inten- 
tion was clearly to include the springs in the reservation, 
and they are named in the document, they cannot be in- 
cluded if the angles, distances, and directions stated are 



48 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

preserved. If the natural landmarks as announced are to 
govern, and the description " by metes and bounds " is to 
prevail, the farms and springs of the Zunis will be includ- 
ed in the reservation : but if the description " by direction 
and distance" is accepted, they lie outside the reservation. 
General Atkinson raises another interesting and important 
point. He says that in the Gaudaloupe-Hidalgo treaty, 
under which New Mexico was annexed to the United 
States, all Indians residing in villages and cultivating the 
land, were expressly described as citizens, and that they 
have since been so recognized by the courts. This in- 
cludes the Zuni tribe, and if the fact is sustained the 
President had no right to give them a reservation, and 
they are entitled to no land whatever unless they enter it 
under the laws. The Indians are not taxed as citizens, 
however, and never have been regarded or treated as such, 
either by the National or territorial government. 

The Indians were first made aware of the invasion of 
what they supposed was their own property, by the ap- 
pearance of a ranchman at the Nutrias spring, who com- 
menced preparations for the establishment of a ranche. 
They were very much alarmed, and held several excited 
councils, appealing to Mr. Gushing to assert their rights, 
but he was powerless to do more than present their side of 
the case to the authorities. While at Zuni we talked with 
the old priest, Nai-iu-tchi, concerning the matter, and he 
showed great grief. He said "my heart is sick with anx- 
iety for my people." 

Q. What will you do if the white man does come on 
your reservation ? 

A. What do you suppose we can do? It is easy for 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 49 

the Zuni to grow poor and have trouble. It is easy for 
the American to grow rich and take our lands away. If 
there be one thing upon which we depend for our lives, 
and our cattle, and our corn, it is the four springs. Take 
those away and you take away the life of the Zuni. 

Q. Is that all the water you have? 

A. The land of the Zuni is dry and sandy, and those 
are all the springs we have. We want the water to make 
food. We do not want to keep others away, but we want 
the water from the springs in order that we may live. 

Q. Have the Zunis always been friendly to the whites ? 

A. Never, since the time when first our grandfathers 
grew old enough to have thoughts of their own, has it 
been known in Zuni that any bad deeds were done by us 
to the Americans or to us by them. The Navajos, the 
Apaches and other tribes have wandered off their reserva- 
tions, but the Zuni always stays at home. They have killed 
white men, and stolen horses and cattle, and have put 
on war paint in the face of the Americans, but the Zunis 
have never killed a white man. They have stayed on their 
reservations and cultivated the land; unceasingly we be 
here and we have never borrowed country from others. 

Q. You have a letter from President Hayes giving you 
this reservation ? 

A. Yes. This is our country, because Washington 
said it, and he said that the Utes, and the Apaches, and 
the Navajos should cease to trouble us, and since he said 
it we go about with our hands hanging at our sides. 

The situation was fully explained to the President and 



50 CHILDREN OF THE RUN. 

the Secretary of the Interior, and after an examination into 
its details, the following order was issued : 

Executive Mansion, May i. — Whereas, it is found that certain 
descriptions as to boundaries, given in an executive order issued 
March i6, 1877, setting apart a reservation in the Territory of Nev^^ 
Mexico for the Zuni-Pueblo Indians, are not stated with sufficient 
definiteness to include within said reservation all the lands specified 
in, and intended to be covered by, said Executive order, especially 
the Nutrias Spring and the Ojo Pescado, said executive order is 
hereby so amended that the description of the tract of land thereby 
set apart for the purposes herein named shall read as follows : 

Beginning at the 136th mile-post, on the west boundary line of the 
Territory of New Mexico; thence in a direct line to the south-west 
corner of township 11 north, 18 west; thence east and north follow- 
ing section lines so a5 to include sections i, 12, 13, 14, 22, 23, 24, 
25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 in said township; thence from 
the northeast corner of said township on range line between ranges 
17 and 18 west, and the third connection line north; thence east on 
said connection line to the northeast section line in range 16, from 
whence a line due south would include the Zuni settlements in the 
region of Nutrias and Nutrias Springs and the Pescado Springs; thence 
south, following section lines to the township lines between townships 
9 and 10 north, range 16 west; thence west on said township line to 
the range line between range 16 and 17 west; thence in a direct line 
to the 148th mile post on the western boundary line on said Territory; 
thence north along said boundary line to place of beginning. 

Chester A. Arthur. 

The announcement that claims had been located upon 
the Zuni Reservation was first published in the columns of 
the Boston Herald, the facts being briefly stated in a letter 
from Santa Fe. This article alleged that Senator John A. 
Logan was interested in the scheme, one of the parties to 
file a claim being his son-in-law, W. F. Tucker, recently 
appointed a paymaster in the United States army. The 
publication was brought to the attention of Senator Logan 
by the Washington correspondent of the New York Times^ 
who sent the following dispatch to that paper, which was 
printed in its columns on the 13th of December, 1882: 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 5 1 

Washington, Dec. 12. — A correspondent of a Boston newspaper, 
writing from Santa Fe, New Mexico, asserts that Senator Logan, of 
Illinois, has taken steps to secure possession of the Nutria Spring, near 
the land of the Zuni Indians, and to establish a cattle ranch around it. 
This correspondent says that the spring has always been regarded as 
situated on the Zuni reservation, but that recent surveys have shown 
that by some inadvertency the reservation lines do not include it. It 
is further said that the Zunis have had possession of the spring for 
centuries, and that the land around it contains their best wheat-fields, 
and that to take it away would reduce their agricultural resources one- 
half, and threaten them with famine. Senator Logan said to-night 
that he had not taken the land in question. If it was public land, 
however, he saw no reason why it should not be pre-empted. He had 
looked at the land and thought that he wottld take it if he could get it. 

It was also fully believed and freely asserted at Zuni, 
Fort Wingate^ and other places in the neighborhood, 
that the Senator was associated with his son-in-law, 
but he took no public notice of the reports until after 
the proclamation of the President restoring the lands. 
Then he addressed an indignant letter to the press, 
denying that he is interested in the transaction in 
any way, but defending the right of his son-in-law to 
the land. Among other things he declared that the 
disputed valley was not and never had been occupied by 
the Indians, that they did not need it, nor the springs 
from which it is watered. They already had more land 
than enough, and were a dirty, miserable people, un- 
worthy of any regard or attention. He also intimated his 
intention to appeal from the decision of the President 
restoring the reservation lines, and further said: 

If the recent order that has been issued giving the Zunis 65,000 
acres additional stands (which I cannot believe possible after the 
authorities at Washington investigate and understand this matter) it 
will cover all the permanent water not now taken in an easterly and 
westerly direction for a great number of miles, thereby forever pre- 
venting the government from making any sales of public lands in that 
locality. It will also take 32,000 acres of land donated to the Atlantic 
& Pacific railroad by congress, which has already been platted and 
offered for sale by the railroad company, as I am informed. How the 



52 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

government will settle with the railroad company in the future it is 
not for me to determine. 

And now I would like to propound one or two questions for any 
intelligent and fair-minded person to answer. 

If a civilized Indian who makes his living by peaceful and agricul- 
tural pursuits, being the head of a family, is eniitled to over i,ooo 
acres of land gratuitously, without being required to live on or culti- 
vate it, how much land ought a civilized white man to be entitled to, 
provided he cultivates it and pays the government price for it? 

If a civilized white man can now get only 1 60 acres of land as a 
homestead by paying for it, and an Indian can get over 1,000 acres 
without paying for it, had not the white man better adopt the Gushing 
plan and become one of the Zuni Indians ? 

If a white citizen cannot locate a homestead on public land within 
five miles of the reservation of peaceful and self-sustaining Indians, 
pray tell how far he must go from their sacred soil in order to make a 
proper location ? 

If a Zuni Indian is entitled to 1,000 acres, being the head of a 
family, without having rendered the government any assistance what- 
ever, and without giving any compensation therefor, how much 
land should a citizen of the United States be entitled to who has not 
only been a good citizen but has served his country well in time of 
war? 

Capt. Lawton served gallantly during the war of the rebellion. He 
located his homestead on the Nutrias Spring; as well also did he 
locate a desert act claim, adjacent, justly claiming under the law his 
time of service duting the war to count on his homestead location. 
His locations were not on any Indian land or reservation; he paid 
the Government price under the law for said land. The question to 
be answered is, who has the best right to the land in controversy, a 
soldier by paying for it, or the Indian by asking for it? 

The Senator's anxiety lest the railroad company should 
lose a few acres of the great empire it has received from 
the Government as a gratuity, is not shared by the officers 
of that corporation, who are willing to leave the Indians 
undisturbed in possessson of their ancient heritage ; and 
his apprehensions that the old veterans who paid for 
homesteads with their loyal blood may not be able to find 
them on the public domain, is ill-founded as long as mil- 
lions of square miles of land, infinitely better than that on 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 53 

which the Zunis live, is open to their settlement without 
disturbing those who now have peaceful and rightful pos- 
session. The Indians are entitled to what they need, and 
no more ; and that can be secured them without depriv- 
ing Captain Lawton or any other gallant soldier, or any 
other worthy citizen, of a single right or claim he may 
possess. That the equity of the case is all on the side of 
the Indians is beyond controversy, and the point to be 
decided by the Government is, how many centuries must 
a community occupy and use its lands before a legal title 
to them can be acquired. If the case were reversed ; if a 
Senator's son-in-law had cultivated his corn, and fed his 
flocks upon the land in question for three or ten centuries, 
whether he had a written title to the property or not, an 
army with banners would be sent to protect him against 
invasion, and the Senator would laugh at any proposition 
for his ejectment. No one denies that there was a mis- 
take in the description of the boundary lines ; no one 
doubts that it was the intention of President Hayes to in- 
clude the disputed valley and springs in the reservation. 
The question General Logan has raised, is, whether the 
Indians should suffer and his son-in-law profit by the error 
of the Indian agent. 

General Logan bitterly attacked the personal character 
and professional reputation of Mr. Gushing, denouncing 
him as an imposter, and unworthy of belief. It appears 
that while Mr. Gushing was absent in the east with the 
Indians, in the summer of 1882, General Logan made a 
visit to Zuni, and his friends claim that he then and there 
discovered the young scientist to be a fraud, his articles in 
the Century Magazine to be groundless fiction, and that 



54 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

the ceremonious journey of the Zunis to Boston was a de- 
ception and an imposition upon the public. The sacred 
reeds and gourds and plume sticks which they carried 
3,000 miles to fill with water from, ''the Ocean of the Sun- 
rise" were discovered by the Senator to be vulgar and 
meaningless vessels, and all their religious demonstrations 
in the worship of the sacred water to be a flagrant sham. 

The object of Mr. Cushing's work among the Zuni In- 
dians was detected to be a morbid desire for notoriety, 
and the fact that he had been originally employed at the 
Smithsonian Institution several years ago, to dust the 
shelves and keep the specimens in order, was offered as 
evidence of his utter ignorance of the science of ethnol- 
ogy. The work did not stop here. It was a cruel and 
relentless war against a young man who could not know 
of the attacks that were being made upon him, and had 
no means of making a defense of his private character or 
his professional reputation. So far as can be ascertained, 
the confidence of the directors of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion in Mr. Gushing and their faith in the integrity of his 
character and his work was not impaired. The petty 
spite and the selfish motive that inspired the war 
upon him was too apparent to be influential, and for a 
long time Mr. Gushing was totally ignorant that his repu- 
tation had been assailed and his fidelity questioned. 

The evidence advanced to show that he is an imposter 
and a writer of falsehoods in the name of science was 
based upon the investigation made by General Logan's 
party at Zuni during a two hours' visit while Mr. Gushing 
was absent. The General's friends relate with sober faces 
the fact that he asked an old man if it was not true that 



CHILDREN OP THE SUN. 55 

Gushing was a fraud, and the Indian nodded his head in 
assent. The distinguished Senator then asked him if 
Gushing was not a worthless and a wicked man, and if all 
the stories he had written about Zuni in the magazine 
were not lies, and again the Indian nodded acquiescence, 
as if a savage who never knew the meaning of a written 
word, was familiar with The Century and the Smithsonian 
reports. This convincing conversation was carried on 
with no interpreter but a lady who had visited Zuni but 
twice before and understood little if any of the language, 
which it has required Gushing three years of constant 
study to master. 

The Senator has recently, over his own signature, de- 
nounced Mr. Gushing in the most violent language, with 
no other reason than that the latter was supposed to have 
assisted in some way to thwart the schemes of the Sena- 
tor's son-in-law. Mr. Willard L. Metcalf, a well-known 
artist of Boston, who was sent to Zuni by the publishers 
of The Century magazine to make the illustrations for Mr. 
Gushing's articles, and having spent many months there, 
knows more of the tribe, its condition, its necessities, its 
customs and its history, than any one except Mr. Gushing, 
replied to Senator Logan's assault upon his associate by 
saying: "A man who would make such a narrow and 
bigoted statement as that (referring to the Senator's pub- 
lished letter) I would not attempt to answer. It carries 
its own condemnation with it. Any man who knows 
Gushing, or any man outside of those interested in this 
scheme to get the springs and lands away from the Zunis, 
would laugh at it. Gushing is doing a noble work for 
science. He has nearly ruined his health, in his self- 



56 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

sacrificing labor, but it goes for naught with him in case 
he is allowed to continue to the end, which he now thinks 
is approaching. He believes that his work will prove very 
valuable to ethnological science, and that he will establish 
conclusively that the Zunis are the true descendants of 
the Aztecs. Cushing had no thought of arousing the anger 
of Logan, and was only desirous to be permitted to re- 
main undisturbed among the Zunis until able to complete 
his studies of them and their traditions. He knows, how- 
ever, as does every one else acquainted with the country, 
that the taking away of the springs from the Zunis will 
necessitate their removal, as without the springs the country 
would be almost entirely barren and unproductive." 

In reply to Senator Logan's assertion that the Indians 
have plenty of land and water without the disputed tract, 
Mr. Metcalf says : " General Logan must have been sadly 
misinformed in some particulars and grossly deceived in 
others. In regard to his own observations I can only say 
that he visited the Nutrias Valley at the wrong season of 
the year to see the Indians. They reside most of the time 
in Zuni. When the time comes for planting Zuni is al- 
most deserted. The people move out bag and baggage 
into the Nutrias and the other valleys, stay a month or six 
weeks until the crops are in and started, and then go back 
to the pueblo. They go out again to harvest. Their 
chief crop is corn, but they also raise some wheat, onions, 
and other vegetables. The latter are generally cultivated 
in small gardens. The water from the Nutrias and Pes- 
cado Springs unite and form the Zuni River, and the loss 
of either of these sources of supply would almost imperil 
the existence of the river itself. Before the issuance of 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 57 

the President's proclamation the land around Nutrias 
Spring was known as 'Logan's land/ and its advantages 
as the headquarters of a large cattle ranche was frequently 
discussed at Fort Wingate. In these conversations it was 
often canvassed how many cattle the spring would supply, 
and it was an understood thing that the spring was to be 
dammed so as to make a reservoir for the cattle business. 
It would be necessary to do this to make the spring avail- 
able for stock. In addition to the Nutrias and Pescado, 
there is a small spring nine or ten miles from Zuni, where 
one can scarcely water a horse. Then there is the Ojo 
Caliente, twenty-five miles south. These and a small 
drinking spring in the pueblo form the entire water supply 
for that country. From this you can see how terrified the 
Zuni must have been when they learned that one of their 
largest springs, furnishing fully one third of their entire 
supply, was to be taken away by Logan." 

Mr. Gushing carefully avoids taking any part in the dis- 
cussion with General Logan, and has maintained a digni- 
fied silence under the latter's attacks upon him, but has 
succeeded in quieting the Indians with assurances that the 
President, or "the Great Father Washington," as they 
call him, would protect them in their rights. It is believed 
that the Spanish authorities two or three centuries ago gave 
the Zunis, and other Pueblo tribes, written titles to their 
land, and that the record still exists somewhere. In his 
report of a visit to Zuni in 1853, while making a survey 
of New Mexico for railway purposes, Lieut. Ives, of the 
army, speaks of seeing some curious old Spanish manu- 
scripts in the home of the Cacique, which were written 
upon parchment and bore an ancient date. As nearly as 



55 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

could be ascertained they had been handed down from 
generation to generation of priests, until they were con- 
sidered very precious. Lieutenant Ives was not permitted 
to handle or copy them, as the Cacique feared such sacri- 
lege might bring evil upon the people. Mr. Gushing is 
aware of the existence of some such documents in the 
tribe to-day, but as yet has not been able to secure them. 
They are supposed to be a grant from the Spanish Govern- 
ment to the Indians of the land they now occupy, and may 
be useful in the event that the attempt to rob them of the 
Nutrias Valley should be persisted in. 

Mr. W. H. H. Davis, who was the first United States 
District Attorney for New Mexico, from 1849 ^^ 1854, 
once wrote a very valuable and interesting work upon the 
Pueblo Indians of the Territory, which is regarded as high 
authority, and is freely quoted by Schoolcraft, Bancroft 
and other historians. With reference to this subject, Mr. 
Davis says : 

" Soon after the conquest by Cortez, the government became sensi- 
ble of the policy of conciliating a people so numerous and powerful 
as the aborigines of the country, and hence grants of land were made 
to the respective Pueblos for purposes of agriculture. 

•' The first decree upon this subject is that of Charles V., given in 
1523, only three years after the conquest, which authorizes and directs 
the viceroys and governors to grant to each village as much land as 
might be necessary for agricultural and building purposes. 

" The next decree is that of 1533, which makes the mountains, 
pastures and waters common to both Spaniards and Indians. 

" On the 2Jst of March, 1551, the Emperor Charles promulgated a 
third ordinance touching the Pueblo Indians, but which concerned 
their spiritual more than their temporal welfare. 

"The "(iecree of Felipe II., of June, 15S7, confirmed to each of 
the different Pueblos a grant of eleven hundred square varas of land, 
to be measured from the last house in the village toward the four points 
of the compass. The quantity was afterward increased to a league 
square." 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



59 



When the news of the proclamation of President Arthur 
was received at Zuni, the entire village shouted for joy, 
and old Nai-iu-tchi, the priest, sent for Gushing to write 
for him a letter to '^the Washington." Mr. Gushing took 
his pencil, and wrote at the priest's dictation, as follows : 

" I speak to my father as though he were a Zuni and a visitor within 
my door : 

" Father, you have thrown the light of your favor upon a nation 
small and poor, yet, with the gratitude of a grander and wealthier 
nation, I speak the thanks of my children to you this day. My broth- 
ers and I had the sublime fortune to grasp your warm hand and 
breathe upon it and from it, and to listen to your words and those of 
your chiefs in the great pueblo of Washington; and although to-day we 
do not hear those words or grasp that warm hand, yet, as if we heard 
them, they ring in our ears and rest in our hearts. 

*' Father, ever since I visited you in your house of gold and white 
stone you have been with me and I have been with you as if we were 
in one house. Though far asunder, I have dwelt with you since that 
day. It has been said, and I have heard it, that our lands and waters 
would be taken from us, and, I said to myself, when our pueblo eats 
up the substance of another, whither will the inhabitants of the 
other go ? Will they, who are men, become dogs, and sit at the door- 
ways of the other, owned and yet disowned, fed and yet hungry? I 
have heard the one pueblo is the nation of the Americans, the other is 
the nation of the Zunis. No, the father would not suffer his. children 
to become as dogs at the doors of strangers. And we have a father. 

" Father, through your will we are this day happy, when but for 
your will we had been heavy with thoughts. Thank you, our father. 

" May the sun of all summers that number your years finc^ you as 
happy as were your Zuni children when they listened to the words of 
you and your chiefs — words which sounded to their ears and to their 
hearts as beautiful as to the eyes look a vale of flowers." 

When men talk of civilization they mean the measure 
of aggregated human experience, — liberty, morality, in- 
dustry, humanity and justice ; generosity to the weak, re- 
sistance to oppression, and self confidence toward the 
strong. If that be civilization the Zunis have it to a high- 
er degree than some of our law-givers. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SOME STRANGE COINCIDENCES AND CURIOUS CUSTOMS. 

TO decide the age of Zuni would be to terminate a dis- 
cussion that has been going on for three hundred and 
fifty years. It puzzled the Spaniards of the time of Cortez, 
as it puzzles the ethnologists of the Smithsonian Institute 
to-day. There are theories enough, almost as many as the 
number of those who have studied the question, and 
sufficient evidence to convince the learned pundits that its 
people are the oldest upon the American continent, now in 
the fading twilight of their existence, almost as old and 
weary as the land upon which they live; but who they are, 
whence they came, and how they gained their knowledge 
of the mechanic and agricultural arts, is a problem no 
mortal mind can solve. It is known that the pueblo at 
present occupied by them was erected after the Spanish in- 
vasion of 1540, when old Zuni was destroyed, and its in- 
habitants driven to the mountains to escape punishment 
for no crime except that of defending their own house- 
holds; but the original town bore the rust and wrinkles of 
centuries when Cabaza de Vaca first saw it in 1530, and 
the report of Coronado, the invader, who visited the place 
at the head of his army ten years after, regards its antiquity 
with wonder and awe. Later investigations have dis- 
covered that even old Zuni stood upon a heap of ruined 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 6 1 

walls, which must have been centuries old when the town, 
whose age no one can number, was begun. 

When I asked the old priest Nai-iu-tchi how long his 
people had been at Zuni, he replied : '*So long that could 
any one tell it, the reply would be, How long was that ?" 
and then he went on to say, that they had been there 
'' since the time when our fathers were born from the womb 
of the earth. When they came here they brought with 
them the scalp of a great priest, which was as full of hair 
as my own head. Eight hundred years after they came, 
the world was filled with water, and they went into the 
mountains for safety. They carried the scalp with them, 
and each year they sacrificed a hair. More generations 
ago than I could count on all my fingers the last hair was 
sacrificed. Then my people thought the world would 
turn over, but it didn't turn over. In comparison to that 
time it was only a few days ago that the ancient Washing- 
ton came and asked us to show him the roads to the 
springs of the Navajos. (This is a reference to Lieutenant 
Ives' exploration in 1853.) We passed over the plains and 
the hills covered with pines to a canon filled with sage 
brush and yellow tops and flags. It was a little country like 
a bowl, and in the center was a spring, and we called it 
the country of flags — I mean cat tails. There the Ameri- 
cans sat down and they held a council and built a town." 

There are other old pueblos whose origin cannot be 
fixed, but around Zuni the most interest clusters. The 
traditions in the several villages generally differ ; at least 
three, and, perhaps, four languages are spoken among 
them ; their modes of worship and mythology bear but 
little resemblance, but upon some points, and the more 



62 CHILDREN OF THE STIN. 

essential ones, they show fraternal relations, and un- 
doubtedly are the children of the same sire. The tradi- 
tions in all the tribes are that they came from a far country, 
and that when they die they will return whence their 
fathers came ; they have prophets who receive revelations ; 
they have fast days on which they abstain from food and 
drink. They possessed the knowledge of irrigation and 
were using it when their existence was discovered ; and 
the ruins which lie all over an area of many thousand 
square miles show not only that their population was at 
one time very large, but that nations extinct for centuries 
practiced irrigation in agriculture also. They grew to- 
bacco long before Captain John Smith discovered it in 
Virginia, and taught the Spaniards how to make cigarettes, 
using the corn husk for wrappers; they cultivated wheat 
and maize when the Spaniards found them, ground it into 
flour, and baked their dough as it was done in the time of 
Abraham ; they have cotton, the same kind that is pro- 
duced in Egypt, and they spin and weave it on the same 
sort of looms that are seen in the pictured Bibles. Their 
plows and their ox-carts are described by Josephus, and 
they thresh their grain as the good old prophets used to do. 
Their pottery is of the same form and bears the same dec- 
orations as the antique Egyptian wares, and in some of the 
old sacred caves there are relics to show that their fathers 
possessed at least a meager knowledge of the mechanic 
arts. They had cattle and sheep when the Spaniards came 
here, and the trustful burro which has been their beast of 
burden for centuries, is the same patient, enduring donkey 
that carries the tourist through the streets of Jerusalem to- 
day. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 6^ 

Zuni is a fragment of Syria, darkly bronzed. The cus- 
toms of the people are more like those of the Syrians than 
those of the ordinary North American Indian ; their lan- 
guage, their salutations, their social deferences, their eti- 
quette is all oriental, and their speeches read like the poet- 
ry of Porsia. Some of their fables are almost identical with 
those of ^^sop, and their religious ceremonials are strik- 
ingly similar to those of the Egyptians. 

In the extreme southeastern corner of Utah are some 
wonderful ruins which show that they were inhabited by 
an enlightened race of people, centuries ago, and the tra- 
ditions of the Zunis indicate a probability that their fore- 
fathers once resided in that direction. The ruins lie in the 
fertile valley of the Animas, and show the remains of 
houses, corrals, fortifications, irrigation ditches, and pot- 
tery ware. The houses were built of sand stone, cemented 
with mud, very much in the same style of the pueblos of 
to-day. The finest of the ruins, as described by Professor 
Hayden, are about thirty-five miles below Animas City, 
where the valley at one time was literally covered with 
buildings of every size, the two largest being 300 by 6,000 
feet. The outer walls are sand stone laid in adobe, four 
feet thick, while the interior division walls are built in the 
same manner, being from six inches to three feet thick. 
No signs of doors appear, and the dwellings must have 
been entered from the top with ladders, as is the custon 
nowadays. That the builders had axes of some kind is 
shown by the cedar poles that were cut and hewn before 
being placed in the buildings. The inside walls and ceil- 
ings were once white washed and covered with decora- 
tions, drawings and inscriptions. In one of the rooms 



64 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

the impression of a human hand, dipped in white wash and 
then placed upon the brown wall, is as plain as if only 
made yesterday. In some of the rooms have been found 
human bones, bones of animals, corn cobs, straw, cigar- 
ettes, leather, tanned and raw, and all colors and variety 
of pottery. Portions of the village were once d^estroyed 
by fire, the timbers having burned out and the roofs caved 
in. Around the village are old irrigating ditches. The 
Indian traditions point to a residence in these ruins about 
600 years ago, and the probability is that the inhabitants 
were overcome, driven out or slaughtered by the savage 
Ute Indians, who also have traditions of wars for the ex- 
termination of their enemies. 

Senor Altamirano, of Mexico, said to be the best Aztec 
scholar living, disputes the theory that the Aztecs radiated 
from the Garden of Eden at the time of the scattering of 
the nations, and argues that they were a race as old as 
the Asiatics themselves, and the probability is that the 
other continent was peopled from this. The ruins in 
Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico can be traced 
in a continuous chain along the inhabitable valleys to 
Mexico, where they culminate in massive and imposing 
structures, as if that place had been the end of the ex- 
odus. In the San Luis valley, of Northern New Mexico, 
where the Rio Grande river is snow born in the mountains 
of the Sangre del Christo range, are some wonderful cave 
dwellings — a colony, at an altitude of 8,000 feet above the 
sea, and two and a half miles from the nearest water. Ap- 
pearances indicate that these dwellings were inhabited 
when the San Luis valley was an immense lake, and the 
question is asked, while that great valley was filled with 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 65 

water, where was the rest of America? The valley is 7,000 
feet above the ocean, and when it was submerged most of 
the continent must have been the bottom of a sea. It is 
easy to follow these cave dwellers, according to the theory 
of Senor Altamirano, as they passed southward, apparently 
following the receding waters, a generation at a time, at 
intervals of centuries, and stopping for ages in the places 
where their ruins now lie, along the rivers of the La 
Plata, Mancos, San Juan, Gila and the Colorado, reaching 
Mexico at the end of their march and erecting the Aztec 
Empire. 

Baron von Humboldt fixed New Mexico and Colorado 
as the region inhabited by the Aztecjsin the tenth century, 
and believed that the Pueblo Indians are from them 
descended. Other scientists theorize that they must be 
remnants of Toltec colonies; but to go back of the Aztecs 
and Toltecs, where did they come from, and how did 
they learn what they know? It is the opinion of other 
learned men that their fathers crossed the Behring Straits 
from Asia, and brought with them the customs and the 
cattle, the plowshares and the sheep, the poetic idioms and 
the burros of the Orient. 

Another curious theory has been advanced, and 
has found its way into so orthodox a work as School- 
craft's History of the Indians; and it is that the Zunis 
sprang from a party of Welsh navigators who went off 
with Prince Madoc in the twelfth century, and were 
never heard from again. Curiously enough, some of the 
words of the Zuni language are similar in meaning and in 
sound to those of the Welsh, but this is not the case in any 
of the other pueblos,, and is the only straw to which these 



66 CHILDREN OF THE SUN, 

ingenious theorists cling. Perhaps there is one other, 
however, in the presence at Zuni of several albinos, with 
perfectly white hair, blue eyes, and a dead white com- 
plexion which exposure to the sun does not darken. Dr. 
Tenbroek, of the United States army, who visited Zuni in 
1 85 1, saw traces of Welsh features in the physiognomy of 
these albinos, and caught in their conversation the tongue- 
twisting consonants of the language of Wales. At that 
time Dr. Tenbroek says that Zuni had 4,000 inhabitants 
— to-day it has only 1,600. Lieutenant Ives, of the army, 
who visited Zuni in 1853, says that the presence of albinos 
was explained by the Mexican guide by a tradition, which 
he admits is too vague for credence, that several centuries 
ago a company of Welsh miners coming northward from 
Mexico were killed by the Zunis and their wives and chil- 
dren retained as members of the tribe. This, the Lieu- 
tenant says, is the only explanation he could gather of 
the presence of the Welsh accent in the vocabulary, and 
the Welsh features in the faces of the albinos of the tribe ; 
but there are albinos in other pueblos as well as Zuni. In 
describing his visit to Moquis, Lieutenant Ives says: ''A 
woman with a fair white complexion has been in camp 
this morning. It seems incredible that she should be of 
Indian parentage, but such cases are by no means rare in 
the pueblos of New Mexico." 

It sefems scarcely reasonable to found a theory of Zuni 
origin upon these two circumstances, and the fact that a 
party of Welshmen sailed away and never came back 
again. The Zunis have no tradition referring either to 
the Welsh navigators or to taking the wives and children 
of murdered Welsh miners into their tribe. I saw one 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 67 

albino at Zuni, a monstrous fellow, with a pallid face that 
was covered with freckles. He seemed to avoid observa- 
tion, but such as he are treated well by the Indians. The 
governor has a nephew who is an albino — the son of tawny- 
parents. He is the pet of the family and receives much 
deference, as cripples do in the households of civilization. 
There seems to be the same sort of superstition about these 
lonesome oddities that there is in the savage tribes regard- 
ing persons who are insane. 

The Zunis have an unwritten epic, like the Iliad of 
Homer, which is intrusted to the memory of a priest, who 
has nothing to do but to remember its lines and recite 
them upon occasions when such a ceremony is in order. 
He is a sort of bard or historian for the tribe, and is sup- 
ported at public expense. In order that by no accident or 
fatality the legend should be lost, this priest has four as- 
sistants, who are selected from the tribe and taught the 
lines by the old man, so that they may be competent 
to assist him in the recitals and succeed him when his 
days are over. Chapters from this bible are recited upon 
different public occasions, at the feasts and the fasts, but 
it is seldom repeated entire. 

The work begins with the mythical origin of the people, 
and then enters into what may be considered accurate tra- 
dition and genuine history. It is in perfect rhyme and 
rythm and abounds in the same poetic orientalism that 
adorns all the utterances of the Zunis. The recitals re- 
garding the invasion of Coronado compare very accu- 
rately with the conqueror's own reports, and the descrip- 
tion of the places where their forefathers lived centuries 
previous to the conquest, corresponds with the location of 



68 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

famous ruins, which the Indians for several generations 
back, at least, could not possibly have visited. Every i 
place to which their bible refers as the deserted dwellings i 
of the people can be identified with unerring accuracy by 
those familiar with the ruins of Arizona. 

The old, blind priest, who, until death released him, 
was the keeper of the traditions, related the genesis of the 
tribe to Mr. Gushing in the following beautiful legend : 

In the days of the new, after the time when all mankind had come 
forth from one to the other of the " four great cavern wombs of earth " 
(a-wi-ten-te-huthl-na-kwin), and had come out into the light of our 
father, the sun, they journeyed, under the guidance of A-hai-iu-ta and 
Ma-tsai-le-ma, twin children of the sun, immortal youths, toward the 
father of all men and things, eastward. 

In those times a day meant four years, and a night the same ; so 
that, in the speech of the ancients, "Between one sunrise and another," 
meant eight years. 

After many days and nights the people settled near the Mountain 
of the Medicine Flower, and a great cacique sent forward his two chil- 
dren, a young man and a young girl — the passing beautiful of all 
children — to explore for a better country. When they had journeyed 
as far as the region where now flow the red waters (Colorado Chi- 
quito) they paused to rest from their journey. Ah ! they sinned and 
were changed to a demon god and goddess. 

The world was damp. Plant corn on the mountain tops, and it 
grew. Dig a hole into the sands at will, and water filled it. 

The woman in her anger drew her foot through the sands, that she 
might — from shame — separate herself from her people ; and the waters, 
collecting, flowed off until they were a deep channel ; yet they settled 
most about the place where she stood, and it became a lake which is 
there to this day. And the mark in the sands is the valley where 
now flow the red waters. 

No tidings came from the young messengers, and after many days 
the nation again journeyed eastward, carrying upon their backs not 
only their things precious but also their little children. When they 
reached the waters they were dismayed ; but some ventured in to 
cross over. Fear filled the hearts of many mothers, for their children 
^rew cold and strange, like others than human creatures, and they 
dropped them into the waters, changed indeed; and they floated away 
crying and moaning, as ever now they cry and moan when the night 
comes on and the hunter camos near their shores. But those who 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 69 

loved their children and were strong of heart passed safely over the 
flood and found them the same as before. 

Thus it came to be that only part of our nation ever arrived at the 
" middle of the world." But it is well, as all things are ; fot others 
were left to remember us and to make a home, not of strangers, but 
of " our others," for those who should die and to intercede with the 
" Holders of the Waters of the World" that all mankind and un- 
finished creatures, even flying and creeping beings, might have food 
to eat and water to drink when the world should harden and the land 
should dry up. And in that lake is a descending ladder, down which 
even the smallest may enter fearlessly who has tjassed its borders in 
death; where it is delightful, and filled with songs and dances; 
where all men are brothers, and whence they wander whither they 
will, to minister to and guide those whom they have left behind them ; 
that is the lake where live "our others," and whither go our dead. 
At night he who wanders on the hills of the Ka-ko'k-shi may some- 
times see the light shining forth and hear strange voices of music 
coming up from the depths of those waters. 

The Moquis, who live in Arizona, seventy miles north- 
west of Zuni, have a legend that the earth was once a small 
island, inhabited by one man, whose father was the sun, 
and whose mother was the moon; that the gods sent a wife 
to him to cheer his Ibneliness, and that the earth grew as 
their family multiplied. The children became dissatisfied 
and restless after years, began to wander, and built up 
towns. Visits between them became infrequent, and 
finally ceased, until in generations their common ancestry 
was forgotten. Centuries ago a war broke out between 
the Pueblo, or permanent Indians, and the wandering 
tribes, and the former were driven to the rocks and caves, 
where they built nests like wrens and swallows, erecting 
fortifications and watch-towers, dug reservoirs in the rocks 
to catch the rain-fall, and held their enemies at bay. The 
besiegers were beaten back, but the hollows in the rocks 
were filled with blood, and it poured in torrents through 
the canons. It was such a victory that they dare not try 



70 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

again, and when the fight was over they wandered to the 
southward, and in the deserts of Arizona, on isolated, im- 
pregnable bluffs, they built new towns, and their descend- 
ants, the Moquis, live in them to this day. 

The Navajos, a mighty tribe which inhabits the country 
between the Zuni and Moquis, and around them both, 
have their own novel theory of the origin of man. It goes 
that in the beginning all men lived in the center of the 
earth. One day \ Navajo accidentally touched the top of 
the cave and heard a hollow sound, which awakened their 
curiosity and tempted them to dig through the ground. 
After digging some distance they found they were nearing 
the top, and they sent a raccoon up as a pioneer. He 
failed to make any progress, and, coming down discour- 
aged, an earth worm was put in his place. He bored a 
hole through the earth into the air, and sat down to rest 
awhile, when he discovered four great swans at the four 
cardinal points, each bearing an arrow under its wing. 
The swan from the north first rushed upon him, and, hav- 
ing thrust his arrow through the body of the worm, retired. 
This was repeated by the other three. The worm being 
frightened, went back into his hole with the arrows still 
through his body. This made the hole large enough for 
the raccoon to climb up, and after him followed the men. 
At that time there was no heaven, neither was there sun, 
moon, or stars. It was determined that these were essen - 
tial to the comfort and convenience of the Navajos, so a 
council of old and wise men was called to manufacture 
them. When the sun was finished it was placed in posi- 
tion on the top of a rock, and the priests puffed smoke in 
its face. It commenced to rise, and they kept blowing 
until it reached its present position. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 7 1 

Nearly every water course, every spring, and every 
empty canon where a stream has sometime been, in the 
whole territory, from the grand continental divide to the 
Colorado river, have about them evidences that an enor- 
mous population once inhabited this dreary waste. Often 
the ruined walls of cities are found remote from water, 
and the topography of the country gives additional testi- 
mony that the streams which fed them centuries ago have 
either changed their course or ceased to exist. Around 
these ruins are scattered innumerable fragments of broken 
pottery, and that they were once the dwellings of a peace- 
ful and agricultural people is shown by the irrigating 
ditches, or acequias, which lead from the valleys to the dry 
beds of gravel, where the water has once been. 

A few miles east of Zuni is a quadrangular mass of white 
sand stone, known as Inscription Rock, which has attracted 
much attention. It is nearly a mile in length, and more 
than 200 feet in height. Upon its weather-beaten surface 
are numerous inscriptions in Spanish, cut by persons who 
have passed that way, some of them deeply and beautifully 
engraved, and dated as far back as 1606. Upon the top 
of the rocks are the ruins of two pueblos the size and 
shape of which can be distinctly traced, and many pieces 
of painted pottery are lying about. The inscriptions often 
contain short histories of the object of the visit of those by 
whom they were engraved ; either explorers of the country, 
Spanish soldiers on the march to the conquest, or early 
Franciscan friars penetrating the wilderness to convert the 
native heathen to the living God. What a field for sober 
reflection and poetic romance this rock presents to the 
mind with its inscriptions and its ruined villages ! It is a 
mute but eloquent historian of an unknown past. 



72 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

In 1853 Lieutenant Whipple and Lieutenant Ives, of the 
corps of Topographical Engineers, made an exploration of 
the thirty-fifth parallel under an act of Congress directing 
a survey for the purpose of ascertaining the most pj-actic- 
able route across the continent for a railroad. The line 
these gentlemen followed is very nearly that adopted by the 
Atlantic and Pacific company for their road already in 
operation west of Albuquerque, and its proposed eastern 
extension to St. Louis. These officers left Fort Smith, 
Ark., crossed the Indian Territory and New Mexico, and 
in November, 1853, reached Zuni, where they spent some 
days. The tribe had recently been ravaged by small-pox 
and half the population carried off, so that the occasion 
was not a favorable one to see the town. This accounts 
for the reduction of the population, which Dr. Tenbroek 
gives as 4,000 in 1851, to the 1,600 that exist there to- 
day. When Coronado made his famous march the Zunis 
must have nuinbered many thousands of people, although 
no estimate of their population is given by him. There 
were seven cities of Zuni then, only two of which are to- 
day inhabited ; five were destroyed or have yielded to the 
tooth of time. Another has since been built, and that is 
the Zuni of to-day. Oppression and pestilence, wars with 
the Apaches and Navajos and a disregard of sanitary laws, 
have diminished their number to a mere handful, com- 
pared to the tribe they once were, and the entire nation 
will soon be extinct. They are nothing now but a few 
peaceful people, invested with a most remarkable sense of 
the poetic, and having the custody of volumes of beautiful 
ideas and traditions. 

The coat of arms of the Zuni Nation is the Sacred 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 73 

Water Spider (Shi-wi-nas), and this' symbol, engraven up- 
on the rocks and walls of ruined towns ages ago, is evidence 
in addition to that already noted, of the extent and multi- 
tude of their kindred and ancestry, whose decayed and 
forsaken houses furnish one of the most absorbing studies 
for the scientist of this generation. Curiously enough, 
when the archaeologists who are examining these heaps of 
stone send to the Smithsonian Institute the results of their 
researches, and the theories which their investigations 
enable them to frame, they are found to correspond 
approximately, if not always accurately, with the traditions 
Mr. Gushing pumps out of the reticent priests who jeal- 
ously treasure their proud history. 

The Zuni of to-day is the largest of all the pueblos of 
New Mexico and Arizona, and with the exception of the 
Moquis and the Kuhnis tribe of Arizona, is the least 
known and most isolated. The latter tribe, sometimes 
called the Java Supais, occupy a small and almost inacces- 
sible village in one of the canons of the Colorado, and is 
so far unknown that its name does not even appear in the 
official list of Indian nations. The Pueblos of the Rio 
Grande reverence Zuni, as the oldest member of their 
family, the least tainted with the hateful and hated Mexi- 
can, and the unadulterated remnant of the Aztec source 
from which their religion and their peculiar institutions 
sprang. 

The four Zuni villages are Zuni, Las Nutrias, Pescado 
and Ojo Caliente, the three latter being known as the 
farming Pueblos, being situated near springs of the same 
names, and in valleys whose soil is fertile, and can be 
reached by irrigating ditches. They may be called the 



74 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

country villas, or summer resorts of the tribe, for during 
the winter the houses are nearly all sealed up, and the 
entire population, except a few families who are left on 
guard, retire to Zuni until the planting season shall come 
again. One of the most curious customs they have is this 
sealing up of their houses, which are usually entered from 
the roof, through a sort of scuttle hole, by going up one 
ladder from the ground and down another to the floor. 
They have no bolts or locks or bars, but when a citizen 
retires to his country residence for the summer, or leaves 
the latter for city life in the fall, he spreads a bundle of 
straw upon the entrance to his dwelling, and smears it over 
with a thick coating of mud, upon which, at the proper 
place, some mark or seal is impressed that is known only to 
the owner. 

Las Nutrias is a collection of about sixty houses, piled 
up in terraces, as all the Pueblos are, and is surrounded 
with queer looking corralls, where the beasts are kept, that 
resemble a girdle of thorns. It is sixteen miles from Zuni 
and is the principal farming Pueblo. Around it is a fine 
pasture and a fertile soil. The cultivated plats are fenced 
off to protect the gardens from the cattle and sheep, and 
upon them are raised wheat, corn, onions, garlic and 
other toothsome vegetables. The crop of peppers is always 
very large, and never fails, for they compose the principal 
ingredient of the hideous mixtures which form the Zuni 
diets. A very accurate idea of the taste of burning brim- 
stone can be obtained by swallowing a mouthful of one of 
the most delicate dishes of their menu, composed of mut- 
ton boiled in peppers and garlic. It was such stuff as this 
that ruined Mr. Cushing's stomach, which suffered martyr- 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 75 

dom until he became so firmly entrenched in the tribe as 
to safely insist upon cooking his own food and getting his 
rations from the Army Commissary at Fort Wingate. 

Another dainty dish of the Zuni cuisine is roasted lo- 
custs. It usually strikes one with repugnance, but there 
ought to be no more objection to eating locusts than 
shrimps. To catch them, the holes where the locust 
larvae lie are watched in the early morning. Just as the 
first rays of the sun strike the earth, they all appear sim- 
ultaneously, as if at a signal call. The ground is suddenly 
covered with them, and they are captured by thousands, 
and taken home in baskets and bowls. They are put to 
soak in cold water, and left to stand over night. This 
fattens them, and in the morning they are roasted in a 
dish over the fire, the mass being continually stirred until 
it becomes a uniform brown. 

Parched corn is a staple article of diet. The cuticle 
is removed by boiling it in lye, and it is then parched 
upon hot stones, being quite palatable to the taste. The 
corn is also parched a little before it is ground into meal, 
and is then baked in the dome-shaped ovens of stone and 
mud that stand around the villages, and are often seen 
upon the housetops. The same method of grinding flour 
is in vogue in all the pueblos, and has its counterpart in 
the customs of the early Egyptians, as almost every char- 
acteristic of the Indians is linked by some resemblance 
to the early races of scriptural history. A row of girls, 
three, four, or five, are generally seen grinding together, 
— the Bible says that **two women were grinding at the 
mill." They all kneel beside a series of small bins, each 
of which has a stone bottom worn as smooth as glass by 



76 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

friction, either concave in shape, or lying at an angle of 
40 degrees. Each girl has a bar of stone in her hands, 
and crushes the corn between that and the bottom of the 
bin by rubbing it up and down as clothes are rubbed upon 
a washboard. The corn or wheat is put into the first bin 
and ground a while, when it is put into the second, and 
so on until it becomes as soft and fine as that produced by 
the modern processes of civilization. The girls have well 
developed muscles, and crush the grain with an energy 
that is commendable. They make a pretty picture as they 
bend over their work, with their glossy black hair tossing 
to the rythm of their motion and their roguish eyes look- 
ing out from under it in a most coquettish way. Very 
often they carry a baby strapped upon the back, which 
sleeps as soundly and solemnly through the process as if it 
were cuddled in a cradle. 

There are two kinds of bread made at Zuni ; the "he- 
we," and " he-per-lo-ki." Both are notably peculiar. 
The latter looks, and is said by the few who have tried 
it, to taste like Boston brown bread, but the manner in 
which it is made does not recommend it to civilized pal- 
ates, the coarse, unbolted corn meal being chewed by the 
cook before it is baked. The object of this, singularly 
enough, is to sweeten it, the acid of the saliva, when 
united with the starch of the corn, forming a sort of glu- 
cose that is said to contain a high degree of saccharine. 
Some of the tribe, including the Governor's family, fol- 
low this process no longer; Mr. Gushing, during the 
time he boarded with them, having demonstrated the ad- 
vantage of sugar over the natural process. After being 
thoroughly chewed it is moistened with water, kneaded in 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN, 77 

an earthen bowl, and baked between corn husks. It is 
heavy as lead, and looks indigestible, but those who have 
had the courage to eat it declare that it is agreeable to 
the taste, and causes no distress to the stomach. The 
other class of bread, '*he-we," is quite as curious in its 
appearance and manner of manufacture, and resembles 
the marros of the Hebrews. Fine meal is mixed with 
water until it forms a thin paste, when it is smeared over 
a very hot stone slab with a quick motion of the hand. 
It is baked almost instantly, the stone being so hot and 
the dough so thin. As soon as done, the sheets are laid 
one above the other until they form a considerable pile. 
They are in various tints, blue, pink, green, and yellow, 
according to the color of the corn, which is sorted when 
shelled, with a view to securing this effect. This bread is 
eaten dry and has a pleasant, wafery taste. It is also 
eaten by dipping rolls of it into mutton broth. In his 
visit to Moquis in 1857 Lieut. Ives describes this bread. 
He says: *'Our host courteously asked us to be seated 
upon some skins spread along the floor against the wall, 
and presently his wife brought in a vase of water and a 
tray filled with a singular substance that looked more like 
sheets of thin blue wrapping paper rolled into bundles 
than anything else. I afterward learned that it was made 
from corn meal, ground very fine, made into a gruel and 
poured over a heated stone to be baked. When dry it 
has a highly polished surface like paper. The sheets are 
folded and rolled together, and form the staple article of 
food with the Zuni Indians. As the dish was intended 
for our entertainment and looked clean, we all partook of 
it. It had a delicate fresh bread flavor, and was not at 
all unpalatable, particularly when eaten with salt." 



78 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

The pueblo of Las. Nutrias, with its spring and gardens, 
lies in the disputed portion of the Zuni Reservation. The 
next largest farming pueblo is Pescado, an older town than 
Zuni, which at one time was of considerable population 
and importance, but is now only a temporary residence 
during the farming season for a portion of the tribe who 
have their gardens there. The name Pescado means fish, 
and the village is so called from the fact that in the spring, 
which gushes out of a great lava rock near by, are a few 
peculiar representatives of the finny tribe. Though eating 
many strange things, the Zunis will not touch fish ; not 
from a lack of appetite, but from religious scruples, as 
every thing that lives in the water, which they worship, 
is as sacred as a crucifix. Around Pescado are a few small 
farms or gardens, one of which belongs to Mr. Cushing's 
"brother," the Governor. This village and spring is 
also in the disputed territory. 

The third village is Ojo Caliente, so named from a 
spring of warm water, which also finds its source in the 
lava rock, and is undoubtedly heated by the same subter- 
ranean fires that warm the waters of similar fountains 
which have been discovered in other portions of the 
territory. 

At Zuni village, outside of the corrals in which the ani- 
mals are kept, are the queer little gardens which supply 
fresh vegetables and herbs during the summer, and are 
cultivated by the women. They are separated by curious 
looking fences, built of stakes driven into the ground, 
closely together, and sometimes by walls of stone or adobe. 
The little inclosures are cut up into rectangular beds, and 
before the seeds sprout, look like brown wafiles. They 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



79 



are irrigated entirely by hand, it being the duty of the 
boys and girls of the family each morning to bring a jar 
of water from the spring and empty it in the little ditch 
that surrounds each bed. 

The ground is ploughed with just such an arrangement 
as the Egyptians used, pictures of which can be seen 
in the illustrated Bibles, and Rollin's Ancient History. 
The valleys are easily tilled, and need only moisture 
to produce enormous crops. The corn is planted by 
punching holes in the ground with a stick, and the wheat 
is sown by the same method that civiMzed farmers use. 
All the farming labor is done by men, with the exception 
of tending the gardens at Zuni, as the pueblo tribes do 
not consider manual labor within the sphere of woman. 
In this they differ from all the other Indians in America. 

The Zunis are indolent and take life easy, like the Mex- 
icans, and all the other residents of their climate ; but 
they are not lazy, and are wonderfully systematic and 
methodical in their labors. They are constitutionally a 
happy and contented people, require but little here below, 
and are able to gain it without much toil. A few cattle and 
sheep, an acre or two of land is all they need to sustain 
life ; and it is well that this is so, for ninety-nine per cent, 
of the area they occupy is a barren desert, incapable of 
sustaining anything but lizards and horned toads, which 
produce in profusion. The men, as well as the women, 
are great gossips, and sit around in the shady places doz- 
ing and dreaming, or talking of the glories of the past. 

The women spin, weave, and knit, make pottery, and 
bake bread. One of the most interesting sights to be seen 
at Zuni is the weaving of their woolen fobrics, blankets. 



8o CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

and clothing, on their curious hand looms, which are two 
poles, one suspended from the ceiling and the other 
attached to the floor. They produce beautiful and accur- 
ate designs without patterns, and with no measurement but 
the eye. Their brilliant and imperishable colors are se- 
cured by the use of roots, herbs, and the offal of animals. 
The Navajos produce the finest blankets in the world, 
which the looms of civilization have never been able to 
equal. The Zunis have not the art to so great perfection 
as the Navajos, but their blankets are beautiful, and are so 
tightly woven as to hold water. Each family makes its 
own pottery, as well as clothing ; and some of the women 
are adepts in the moulding and decoration of jars, pitch- 
ers, and bowls. The work is finely glazed, and although 
fragile, is easily replaced when broken. 

The Zuni houses have large rooms, and are scrupulously 
clean. Neatness is a characteristic of the tribe, and they 
are particularly dainty about their hair. Vermin is almost 
unknown among them, but the streets suffer from the 
cleanliness of the houses. All the refuse and offal are cast 
into the roadways, where what is not eaten by the dogs 
and donkeys, is allowed to fester and decay, producing 
an abominable stench. Most of the interior walls of the 
houses are whitewashed, and some are hung with bril- 
liantly-colored blankets, and, in rare cases among the 
wealthier classes, with cheap calico prints. In the corners 
of the rooms are fire places that have a quaint, medieval 
look. They are usually built with a large, round hood 
flaring out over them from the chimney. In the evening, 
light is furnished by the blazing pinon wood, and they 
have a sort of cactus, called candle wood, which is sat- 



\ CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 8 1 

ilrated with a natural oil, and burns brightly. The houses 
aie always owned by the women, and within them they 
exercise supreme authority. When a man marries, he goes 
to live with his wife, and all the property he possesses be- 
comes hers. 

The streets and houses of Zuni all bear a resemblance 
to Oriental life, and are like the teocaliis of ancient Mex- 
ico, that Prescott describes in his absorbing volumes about 
the conquests. The graceful romanesque costumes of the 
women are oriental, and the bright colors they weave into 
their garments add a picturesque beauty to the street 
scenes. The monotony of the blank mud walls is broken 
by gaunt ladders stretching their arms sky-ward, up and 
down which the inhabitants clamber with agility that sail- 
ors would envy. The women and girls climb them with 
jars brim full of water, without spilling a drop, and the 
babies are able to go up and down as soon as they can 
walk. Even the dogs nimbly run this ladder gauntlet 
as easily as squirrels. 

The Zunis are strictly monogamous, while the savage 
tribes are invariably polygamous, and as a rule the women 
are chaste. Adultery is severely punished, and while there 
is a limited amount of prostitution, those who engage in 
it are the outcasts of the tribe, ostracised and condemned 
as in civilization. The vice of Zuni is gambling, and it 
prevails not only there, but among all the Mexicans and 
Indians. It is no recent thing, but existed even in a 
greater degree when the Spaniards invaded the land. The 
old chroniclers, gazing half in admiration and half in con- 
tempt upon the amusements and customs of pueblo life, 
noticed particularly, and in their reports minutely de- 



82 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

scribed, a game which the natives played so eagerly that 
when they had lost all they would stake even their own 
bodies, and gamble themselves into slavery, as Tacitas 
says the old Germans used to do. According to the de- 
scription, this game was one of lots, or dice, and must 
have been something like backgammon. Mr. Gushing de- 
scribes many of their games, which are peculiar and com- 
plicated, and are worthy the study of science. 

Mr. Klett, of the Wheeler Exploring Expedition, leaves 
on record a testimonial to the character of the Zunis. He 
says: '* One can not but admire their regard for truth, 
their industry, unobtrusive disposition, hospitality, and 
uniform courtesy and kindness to strangers. Their hatred 
of the Mexicans is intensely bitter, and is not concealed. 
On every favorable occasion they give vent to expressions 
indicative of outraged feelings, by reason of the persecu- 
tions that have been inflicted upon them by their enemies; 
and these, with the feeling manner in which they are made 
known, warrant the belief that the injuries they have suf- 
fered have been numerous and severe. Their love for, and 
kindness toward the people of the United States (or " the 
Americans," as they call them,) is in striking contrast with 
the hatred and revenge they bear the Mexicans. Yet the 
benefits they have received from our government are 
neither many nor great. Although these Indians, like all 
Pueblos, do not impress the stranger favorably at first 
sight, on closer acquaintance he is compelled to yield to 
the conviction that they are among Nature's noblemen, 
that they are the descendants of a race long freeholders of 
the American continent, and are in every way worthy of 
confidence, admiration, and respect. Industrious and 
self-sustaining, they are temperate and quiet." 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 83 

The Ziini children are permitted to run around the 
streets in a condition of almost cherubic nakedness, with 
seldom more clothing than a short cotton shirt ; and, until 
they are able to walk, the babies lie as nature clothed 
them, except for the blanket in which they are wrapped 
and slung over the mother's back. The faces of all the 
little ones are smeared with food, and their fat little 
bodies are generally caked with mud, v/hich clings to 
them from the pools of tepid water along the river bed, 
where they lie soaking during the hot hours, or scamper 
about splattering each other. They are as mischievous 
as any children are, and the poor dogs fare badly at their 
hands. The parents are very tender and affectionate 
toward their offspring, and corporal punishment is 
entirely unknown. The little ones are obedient and 
docile, and have the usual childish love for toys. Once 
a year there is a dance held in the plaza, for the express 
purpose of frightening the children and keeping them in 
good behavior. Characters of horrible appearance par- 
ticipate in the ceremonies, which are explained to be gob- 
lins who come to carry off and devour naughty boys and 
girls. They make the round of the village, and at their 
approach the parents pretend to conceal the little ones 
and fight off the demons, to prevent any of them being 
carried away. The scene is said to have a lasting effect 
upon their minds, and the mother has only to say that 
the bugbears will come, to secure obedience to maternal 
authority. They also have a legend of a ceremony that 
used to be performed, in which the worst child in the 
village was sacrificed to the Evil one. This is also related 
to the children in such a way as to promote good be- 
havior. 



84 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

Lieut. Ives describes the system of government very 
much as Mr. Gushing does, and was the guest of Pedro 
Pino, who was then Governor of the village, and is still 
alive. He was one of the party that visited the East in 
the summer of 1882. Pedro is a very old man, and was 
Governor of Zuni for thirty years. He was moved to 
tears when his party were received by President Arthur, 
and grasping the hand of *' Washington," as they call all 
the Presidents, was the crowning event of his long life. 
When Mount Vernon was visited Pedro wept uncontroll- 
ably over the tomb of the original Washington and be- 
came sick. He explained that "while he was engaged in 
prayer his heart wept until his thoughts decayed," but 
the doctors said he caught cold on the journey down the 
Potomac River. While the remainder of the party went 
to Boston to fill their sacred reeds with water ''from the 
Ocean of the Sunrise,'' the old man was compelled to re- 
main in Washington, where he was handsomely enter- 
tained by Col. James Stevenson, of the Smithsonian In- 
stitute, and was made much of by the people. He tried 
very hard to adapt himself to civilized ways, and even in- 
sisted upon using a finger-bowl as well as a napkin at the 
table. One day his son, the present Governor, climbed 
the Wa'shington Monument, and in explaining how fatigu- 
ing it was, said that he ''went up and up until his 
thighs said no !" The old man heard the description of 
the view from the top of the monument with great inter- 
est, and it so excited his curiosity that he slipped out the 
next day, and made the attempt himself. He succeeded 
in reaching the top, but it exhausted him so much that he 
could scarcely move for the next twenty-four hours. 



* CHILDREN OF THE SUN. ^5 

Lieut. Ives describes a visit he made to the ruins of Old 
Zuni, and says it is on a table land at the foot of which is 
a deep canon with a spring of water. Here, hollowed 
from the sandstone, was a cave, and an artificial path 
to it that seemed hewn out of the rocks. At various 
points in the ascent were barricades of stone, which the 
Zuni guide told him had been erected as a protection, 
and from which rocks had been hurled at the Spaniards 
at the time of Cornado's conquest. On the opposite 
• side of the mesa (or table land) in the valley were two 
i stone pillars, of which a curious and interesting legend 
was told relating to a flood, to which Nai-iu-tchi alluded 
in the conversation quoted on a preceding page. The 
legend goes that many centuries ago the waters sud- 
denly covered the whole earth, and only those of the 
people who climbed to the top of the mountain were 
saved, the rest being swallowed by the. greedy flood. As 
the waters kept rising the Zunis realized that the gods 
were angry, and intended to destroy the whole people. 
To appease them a sacrifice was ordered of the bravest 
young man and the most beautiful maiden in the village. 
The victims were decorated with plumes and gifts, each 
member of the tribe offering something, and were then 
cast over the precipice into the roaring torrent. The 
waters at once began to subside, and when the valley be- 
came dry again the young man and the maiden were found 
standing together, having been changed by the gods into 
everlasting stone, as a monument to the obedience of the 
Zunis and a token of promise that the floods shall never 
come again. It may be said that the same flood is re- 
ferred to in the traditions of other tribes on the Western 



86 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

slope of the continent, and probably occurred several cen- 
turies before Cornado's invasion. 

In his description of the ruins of Old Zuni, Lieut. Ives 
says that the crumbling walls were standing from two to 
twelve feet high, and covered several acres of ground, be- 
ing surrounded by large quantities of broken pottery. 
The walls were built upon ruins of still greater antiquity. 
In one .place was a large, flat rock, which appeared to 
have been an altar or place of sacrifice, and upon it lay 
many sea shells, plumes, and other ornaments, which the 
Indians would not permit the explorers to touch, explain- 
ing that the slightest molestation would cause the gods to 
be very angry and bring sorrow and trouble upon their 
people. 

When the party were about to leave, the old Cacique 
took from a pouch he wore upon his breast a pinch of 
white powder, which he sprinkled upon the altar, and a 
second pinch, which he blew toward the sun, muttering 
prayers for the blessing of Montezuma and the sun upon 
his guests, as well as his own people. The powder was 
found to be '^ periole," or the flour of parched corn. 



CHAPTER V. 

ZUNI RELIGION AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE SEA. 

THE Zunis are an extremely religious people. Every- 
thing they do is done under the inspiration or sanc- 
tion of their gods, and they cling to their creed as tena- 
ciously as any professor of theology in civilization. At 
the hazard of their lives they defended it against the mili- 
tary and priestly pressure of the Spaniards for 300 years. 
While other pueblos of Indians yielded to the force 
and persuasion of the armed missionaries of Rome, the 
Zunis successfully resisted and stand to day, as they stood 
in 1540, clinging to their mythical gods and worshiping 
the sun and the rain. There stands a church in the cen- 
ter of Zuni, which is now a ruin, and is used as a stable 
for their donkeys, that was erected, with money sent from 
Spain 300 years ago, by Franciscan monks, who for over 
two centuries endeavored to save the souls of this people ; 
but not one of them was converted, as far as known, and 
early in the present century the work and the chapel were 
deserted, and the priests folded their vestments and carried 
their images away. 

The Indians have a great respect for the Catholic relig- 
ion, not only here, but all over the country ; and in the 
minds of the entire savage race the same reverence exists 
for the cross that is found among those who better under- 
stand its significance. The Sioux and the Apaches, the 



88 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

two most fierce and bloody enemies the white man has met, 
will never disturb the telegraph, not only, as some writers 
have said, because of a knowledge of the mysterious cur- 
rent which permits the operators to tell their misdoings im- 
mediately into the ear of the great father at Washington, 
but because with its bar at the top the telegraph pole 
forms a cross. 

On every road in New Mexico one will constantly see 
rude crosses arising from stone heaps. These crosses, 
according to an ancient custom, mark the places where 
people have died, or where some corpse has rested on its 
way to the burial. Every pious Mexican or Indian who 
passes is expected to toss a stone upon the heap, in order 
to protect the body from the wolves, and say a prayer for 
the repose of the soul. 

These customs the Zuni Indian respects, but he can not 
be divorced from his creed, and it is useless to try to per- 
suade him to abandon it. Even to the present day the 
Indians resist anything that looks like an attack upon their 
religion. They are particularly hostile to Mexicans, 
whom they regard as representatives of a religion which 
caused much of their blood to be shed ; and when the 
new Indian agent for New Mexico visited them recently, 
they detected at once that he was a Mexican, and regarded 
him with suspicion. When a council was held and the 
agent introduced himself as the representative of the gov- 
ernment, and told them he had come to see what he could 
do to improve their condition, the first question that they 
asked him was, ''What about our religion?" The agent 
explained to them that they lived under a government 
whose laws prohibited interference with any man's relig- 



I 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 89 

ion, and that they were free to worship the gods of their 
fathers, but even with this assurance they were not very 
cordial. 

There is a little mission and school north of the village, 
supported by a religious denomination, and a missionary 
resides there, but he makes little if any progress. They 
are as fixed in their convictions as the rocks upon which 
their village stands, and the only method of reaching them 
is to begin with the coming generation and educate the 
children from the cradle up. 

Mr. Gushing says the teachings of Confucius are nearer 
the religion of the Zunis than any of the modern creeds, 
although they are fatalists like the Turks, and many of 
their ceremonials are similar to those of the ancient Egyp- 
tians and Greeks. There is a striking analogy also be- 
tween their mythology and that of the old Saxons. They 
have many gods, but only two devils, one of them being 
the spirit of intelligent wickedness and cunning malice, 
and the other the inspirer of mistakes and blunders. They 
have been repeatedly described as fire-worshipers, but 
this is scarcely true, although they use fire a great deal, as 
a symbol of the sun, which is their Supreme Being, Ha- 
no-ona Wi-lo-na, or, as Mr. Gushing translates it, "the 
holder of light," and under him they have a large my- 
thology. He is omnipotent and omniscient and reads the 
thoughts of men. The moon is the Mother of Women, 
as the sun is the Father of Men, and there is a female 
cacique, ''the priestess of the seed," to represent her in 
the religious ceremonies. 

Noticeable everywhere at Zuni on the housetops are 
chained eagles, haggard and unkempt birds, weary and 



90 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

miserable in confinement. They are to this people as 
sacred to-day as they were under the old Aztec Empire^ . 
and are worshiped here as among the children of Monte- 
zuma in the other pueblos, besides furnishing feathers; 
for the plume sticks that are such a common feature in 
the religious ceremonies. These are all secret, a sort of 
masonry embracing the entire religion of the tribes, being; 
divided into thirteen different branches, or societies, 
which, taken together, may be said to constitute the 
national sect or church, as well as the political system, the 
highest official being the cacique of the sun. 

Mr. Gushing found the greatest difficulty of his whole 
experience in securing admission to these religious orders, 
but has succeeded in entering the highest class, known as 
the *' Priesthood of the Bow," which may be compared to 
the 33d degree of Masonry, since members of it are ad- 
mitted to the meetings of all the others, while members of 
the others are strictly excluded from the meetings of this. 
It is confined to twelve members only, who have the 
supreme authority in the tribe, civil as well as religious, 
and is the court of final appeal before which are tried all 
crimes that stand above the jurisdiction of the governor, 
who is a sort of police magistrate. There are only two 
crimes punishable by death, sorcery and cowardice in bat- 
tle, but he who commits a murder, or even threatens it, is 
regarded as a wizard ; and should crops fail or any misfor- 
tune come upon the tribe after the threat, or should the 
threatened man die, even from natural causes, he who 
made the assault or uttered the threat is dragged at night 
before the secret council of the A-pi-thlan-shi-wa-ni, or the 
Priesthood of the Bow, where a form of trial is gone 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



91 



through with, and the accused tortured into a confession 
or put to death. In case the latter sentence is pronounced 
upon him, he is secretly executed and secretly buried, 
none but the Priesthood knowing the manner of his death 
or his place of burial. Twice have men been executed 
since Mr. Cushing's residence in Zuni, one of them for 
having tried to poison his niece, and the other for murder. 
At certain seasons of the year, on holy days, this highest 
Priesthood engages in mysterious ceremonies, which take 
place upon the top of the sacred Thunder Mountain, 
where, in the secret caves, decorated idols are set up and 
sacrifices made to them. Human sacrifices are not un- 
known in Zuni, but none have taken place since the 
Spanish invasion, although in their traditions references 
are made to such events in times of great distress. 
Since Mr. Cushing's admission to the Priesthood of the 
Bow, he has twice attended the ceremonies upon these 
lofty shrines, and has seen the idols placed among their 
predecessors of many centuries' accumulation in the se- 
cret caves. The initiation of candidates to the secret 
religious orders is attended with practices of the most bar- 
barous and cruel character, the fitness of applicants being 
tested by their powers of endurance. In his papers for the 
Century, Mr. Gushing describes some of these occasions, 
although he has never told of the ordeals which he has 
himself experienced. Referring to them he says: *'Far 
from blaming my foster people for these things, I look 
rather to the spirit of their at first imposed, but afterward 
voluntary sufferings, that they may place themselves be- 
yond the evil they strive to overcome in others ; may 
strengthen the faith of their patients in the sublime power 



92 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

of their medicines, given, they aver, by the gods them- 
selves for the relief of suffering humanity. So, annually, 
they and their brother orders give public exhibitions of 
their various powers — sometimes, as is the case with the 
slat swallowers (or ''Bearers of the Wand"), producing 
injuries for life, or even suffering death ; but, nevertheless 
unflinchingly, year after year, performing their excrucia- 
ting rites." 

The Moquis Indians believe in the transmigration of 
souls, and the Zunis may have done so at some remote 
period. At present they believe in the immortality of the 
soul, and their views of a future life are a sort of mixture 
of Spiritualism and the doctrines of Swedenborg. The 
spirits of their ancestors form what may be called the 
body politic of the great system of gods, and are supposed 
to act as mediators between the powers of Heaven and 
the inhabitants of the earth." Their gods and the spirits of 
the dead have a definite place of residence at the ''city of : 
the sun " somewhere in the sky, but the latter are supposed | 
in some vague way to inhabit the air at their will. While 
the party were in Boston three of Mr. Cushing's friends 
in that city were adopted into the tribe, two by Nai-iu- 
tchi and one by Lai-iu-ah-tsai-lun-k'ia. The names given 
them were K'ia-u-lo-ki (the Great Swallow), 0-nok-thli- 
k'ia (the Great Dance Plume), and Thli-a-kwa (the Blue 
Medicine Stone, or Turquoise), all names of great honor, be- 
ing those of sacred objects. The following was the prayer 
said by Nai-iu-tchi on the adoption of the last : Jj 

My child ! this day I take you in my arms and clasp you strongly, 
and if it be well, then our father, the sun, will, in his road over the 
world, rise, reach his zenith, hold himself iirmly, and smile upon you 
and me that our roads in life may be finished. Hence I grasp you by 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 93 

the hand with the hands and hearts of the gods. I add to thy wind 
of life that our road of life may be finished together. My child, may 
the light of the gods meet you ! My child, Thli-a-kwa. 

Mr. Gushing in one of his articles describes the death 
of a prominent member of the tribe, and the conversation 
he had with him as his end was approaching, which illus- 
trates the convictions of the Zunis regarding the future 
life: 

" To dwell with my relatives, even those whose names were wasted 
before my birth, is that painful to the thought ?" said the old man. 
'* Often, when we dream not, yet we see and hear them as in dreams." 
" A man is like a grain of corn — bury him and he molds ; yet his 
heart lives, and springs out on the breath of life (the soul) to make 
him as he was, so again." 

The burial of the old man is described in a most graphic 
manner. ^* Two hours after his death," writes Mr. Gush- 
ing, ''the women of the same clan which had sprinkled 
water and meal on him when a baby, adopting him as 
' their child of the sun,' bathed his body and broke a 
vessel of water by its side, thus renouncing all claim to 
him forever, and returning his being to the sun. Then 
four men took the blanket-roll by the corners and carried 
it, amid the mourning wails of the women, to the ancient 
burial-place. They hastily lowered it into a shallow 
grave, while one standing to the east said a prayer, scat- 
tered meal, food, and other offerings upon it; then they 
as hastily covered it over, clearing away all traces of the 
new-made grave. Now I know not the bone-strewn 
grave of ' my uncle ' from those of a thousand others, for 
the ' silent majority ' of the Zuni nation lie in the same 
small square. Four days later, down by the river, a little 
group of mourners sacrificed, with beseeching in the name 



94 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

of the dead, the only flowers their poor land affords — the 
beautiful prayer plumes of the ' birds of summerland.' "- 

The Zunis refer to their departed friends as ''Our 
Lost Others," and at a council preceding the journey 
to the East Nai-iu-tchi repeated a beautiful tradition 
of the people of their tribe who went eastward "at 
the time when all mankind were one," and suggested per- 
haps that they might find traces of some of them among 
the Americans. At these councils all the traditions, 
legends, and rumors regarding the palefaces were revived 
and repeated over and over again. Among these was one 
of the first accounts that had ever been brought to Zuni 
concerning the whites, and it ran thus : ''A strange and 
unknown people are the Americans, and in a far-off and 
unknown land they live. Thus said Our Old Ones. It is 
said that they are white, with short hair, and that they 
touch not food with their fingers, but eat with fingers and 
knives of iron, and talk much while eating." 

After the ceremonies in the sea at Boston, the party 
made a trip to Salem, Mass., and as witchcraft is a capital 
crime in Zuni, they were very much interested in hearing 
the story of the energetic steps which Cotton Mather and 
his contemporaries took in the anti-witch crusade. One 
of the tribe, in making an address to the citizens on 
the occasion of their reception, thanked the good people 
of Salem for the eminent service they had done the world 
in exterminating the witches, and attributing to it the 
prosperity the whole country has since enjoyed. He told 
them that if they should ever be troubled with witchcraft 
again "not to consider their own hearts," but to put the 
witches to death, even if they were their dearest relations 
or friends. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 95 

Water is the principal object of Zuni worship, and well 
it may be, for it is the most precious and needful thing 
they have. The brightest sunshine rests upon their valleys 
and nestles among their canons. The earth is always 
covered with a generous flood of light. They have an 
infinite variety of landscape, and in some places a fertile 
soil. Nothing seems wanting for a full measure of joy but 
moisture, for with that the valleys would be rich and 
glowing with beauty and promise. But the earth is 
parched by drought and scorching suns, and the wind, 
when it rises, always carries upon its wings a heavy cargo 
of sand, which shifts from place to place like billows of 
water, destroys their gardens, and chokes up their springs. 

One can scarcely find a more remarkable country; 
remarkable in landscape and in history. Barren hills of 
clay and sandstone, flung up at random out of the earth ; 
strange jagged peaks and grotesque cliffs, yellow banks 
serrated by floods, and shells glistening in the billows of 
sand, scattered by the sea when it receded, all overhung 
by a rich, glowing, dreamy atmosphere, with glimpses of 
haze far off in the horizon, inspire a feeling of awe 
and wonder that a fertile country can not produce. Here 
is a desolate, mystic land, nothing but sunshine, burning 
sands, and legends, where human enterprise, in centuries 
that are forgotten, battled with hunger and thirst and 
barbarity, and where, before and since the wind swept 
away their trails, the silence of desolation has reigned. 
Everything dries here. The earth dries, the grass dries, 
the river dries, the wagons dry and fall to pieces. There 
is no juice in anything, animate or inanimate, and one 
listens to hear if the men and mules can walk without 
creaking. 



96 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

The Zunis say that their gods brought them to a dry and 
sterile country for a home, but that their forefathers taught 
them the prayers and songs whereby the land might be 
blessed with rain. They therefore address their prayers 
to the spirits dwelling in the ocean, the home of all water, 
as the source from which their blessings come. They 
believe their prayers bring the clouds from the ocean, 
guided by the spirits of their ancestors, and the clouds 
give the rain. These prayers could not be efficacious, 
however, without the help of a drop of ocean water to 
start them aright. 

At some unknown time in the past their fathers visited 
" the Ocean of the Sunset," as they call the Pacific, on a 
pilgrimage of adoration, and brought home with them a 
few pints of its water, which was guarded in their sacred 
reeds — as precious as a splinter from the true cross to a 
papist. This was almost exhausted by evaporation when 
Mr. Gushing proposed to them a visit to ^' The Land of 
Day," where they could re-fill their sacred vessels with 
water from ^'the Ocean of the Sunrise." The tribe was 
filled with joy at this suggestion. 

Mr. Gushing' s principal object in arranging the trip 
was to extend his influence in the tribe, and gain, if possi- 
ble, admission to their highest secret religious order, the 
** Priesthood of the Bow." And he believed, also, that 
it would materially assist him in his researches to reveal 
to them the greatness of the people and the government 
he represented. The motives of the Indians were more 
interesting and complex. It was not only a religious duty 
they had long desired to perform, but they were anx- 
ious to see the glories of civilization. Tales of the 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 97 

marvelous things the Apaches and Navajos had seen on 
their journeys to Washington to hear the voice of the Great 
Father had reached the ears of the Zunis, and they con- 
sidered it a great injustice and slight that representatives 
of their tribe had never been invited to go. "The Apaches 
are bad, but they have been to Washington," said the 
Zunis, '' the Navajos are bad, and they have been also. 
All Indians have gone except the still-sitting ones." 

At the first council of the Priesthood of the Bow, after 
Mr. Gushing had proposed the journey, Old Nai-ui-tchi 
(whom I have alluded to as a Plato in bronze), solemnly 
declared that as the most important reason for going, was 
to bring back to Zuni sacred water from the " Ocean of 
Sunrise," he must certainly go, as he was the custodian of 
the few precious drops of water from the " Ocean of the 
Sunset," which had been bequeathed to the tribe by their 
ancestors ages before. 

He was the first man selected, and the remainder of the 
party as chosen were Pa-lo-wah-ti-wa, the governor, or 
political head chief of Zuni, and Mr. Cushing's brother 
by adoption ; Lai-iu-ai-tsai-lu, or Pedro Pino, as he is 
commonly known, the father of Pa-lo-wah-ti-wa, and form- 
erly governor of Zuni for thirty years, now a wrinkled old 
man of between eighty and ninety years; Lai-iu-ah-tsai- 
lun-k'ia, the priest of the temple and Mr. Cushing's father 
by adoption ; and finally, Na-na-he, a Moqui who had 
been adopted into the nation by marriage. 

It took a great while for them to prepare for such an 
arduous undertaking, and many curious ceremonies were 
gone through with. The start was made on the 2 2d of 
February, 1882, and religious services were held by the 



98 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

entire tribe in front of the Governor's residence, old Nai- 
ui-tchi ascending to the top of the pueblo, and blessing it 
with an appropriate prayer. As the little caravan moved 
off, the priesthood continued the services, having first 
prayed over every member of the party and sprinkled up- 
on them sacred meal. When they arrived at the railway 
station at Wingate, they uttered a prayer of gratitude, and 
when the train started they opened the car windows, and 
praying in loud voices scattered sacred meal upon the 
ground. Their first astonishment was caused by the 
arrival of the train at Laguna, the nearest pueblo of 
neighbors, at the sight of which they marveled greatly, as 
the locomotive had taken them in four hours, a distance 
which it usually required them three days to make upon 
their fleetest ponies. They took their own food with 
them, and were allowed to dine in the baggage car. On 
the second day of the journey Nai-ui-tchi was given a ride 
upon the locomotive, and was quite enraptured. He 
regarded the iron horse with reverence and considered it 
a god, but was puzzled because it had to eat material food. 
When the fertile fields of Kansas were reached, they won- 
dered at the great farms that lined the railroad track, and 
began to realize the grandeur of the country they were 
entering. 

At Chicago they were not only interested in the attrac- 
tions already referred to, but were very much astonished 
during a visit to the water-works, where the monstrous 
engines filled them with wonderment. They were anxious 
to touch the machinery in order that they might absorb 
some of its strength and influence, and were vexed with 
the attendants, who compelled them to remain at a safe 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 99 

distance. They could not leave the place, however, with- 
out going through a religious ceremony and offering 
prayers — not to the machinery, but to'the gods who in- 
spired genius 'enough in men for its construction. The 
lake was also a source of great joy to them, as they had 
never supposed there was so much water in the world as 
its shores embraced. When_Mr. Gushing explained to 
them the superiority of the ocean they could scarcely be- 
lieve him ; but as everything had so far turned out just as 
he said it would, and as all the wonders he had described 
had been seen with their own eyes, they were willing to 
accept as the truth everything he said to them, although 
before _ leaving Zuni they did not consider it possible 
that such wonders could exist. 

'' It showed that the Americans are a truthful people," 
they said, " and not liars, like the Navajos." 

They were very deferential to every one they met, and 
made laughable attempts at imitating the customs of 
civilization, considering it their duty to do honor to the 
Americans by adopting their manners. At Chicago they 
first tried American food, and the gratification was so great 
that they would have been gluttons but for the restraining 
injunctions of Mr. Gushing. At home they are a strictly 
temperate people, and have none of the intoxicating de- 
coctions that other savages brew, but when wine was 
offered them in the East they accepted it as an American 
courtesy, and it pleased their palates. One of the party 
in explaining the influence of alcohol remarked that it 
*' was good to the taste, but filled him with much fight- 
ing." They attempted to go through a religious ceremony 
jj at every stream they crossed, and when the railroad train 



lOO CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

hurried them over the brooks and rills of New York and 
New England they were kept busy with their bags of 
sacred meal and incessant prayers. 

Mr. Gushing arranged it, upon their arrival in Boston, 
so that their first view of the ocean should be sudden and 
unexpected. The morning after they came they were 
taken to the tower of a lofty building without being made 
aware of the purpose, and when the curtains were drawn 
the magnificent harbor and the illimitable waters appeared 
suddenly before them. The Zunis stretched out their arms 
in adoration, breathed their silent prayers, and scattered 
their sacred meal toward the East. It is a view which 
profoundly impresses even one familiar with it, and the 
Indians absorbed its grandeur with mingled exultation 
and reverence. Their escort permitted them to feast their 
eyes and hearts as long as they desired, and the savages 
gazed silently with awe and wonder over the boundless 
blue waters twinkling under the brilliant sunlight. Finally 
Nai-iu-tchi broke the silence, exclaiming : 

'^ It is all as Oar Old Ones told us, and as I knew it 
would be. The blue is the ocean, and the white is the 
froth it throws up when it is angry." 

After a week of sight-seeing it was decided to perform 
the ceremonies, and the Indians were taken to Deer Island, 
where a tent had been provided for them. Here they put 
on their official robes, and in the order of their rank 
marched out upon the beach. When they had arranged 
themselves in line, with their faces to the sun, their father, 
Nai-iu-tchi, the High Priest, blew a handful of the sacred 
medicine powder — the yellow pollen of flowers — upon 
them, uttering prayers to the water and to the sun. The 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. lOI 

sacred cigarettes and plumes (bunches of eagle feathers) 
of special sacrifice were borne in a sacred basket, and 
Nai-iu-tchi carried the ancient net-covered jar which 
had for centuries held the water their fathers brought 
from "the Ocean of the Sunset." Sacred meal was 
scattered about upon the beach, and the ground con- 
secrated. Then grasping their plumesticks in their hands, 
and moving them up and down to keep time to the song, 
they joined in singing a low plaintive chant, without 
melody, and in the minor key, the burden of which was 
adoration and entreaty to the Father of Waters — the 
source of all moisture — the ocean. At intervals plume- 
sticks and sacred meal were cast upon the waves. As the 
tide rose with every increasing wave the priests thought 
the coming of the waters nearer them was a token of its 
pleasure at their worship. Then a circle was formed upon 
the beach ; all being seated, the sacred cigarettes were 
lighted, and the smoke was puffed toward the six points 
of the universe, to the north, south, east, and west, to the 
sky, and to the earth below. As the smoke rose prayers 
were uttered, which it was expected to bear to the gods. 
The feathers of the plume-sticks were invested with smoke 
and cast upon the sea. Then Nai-iu-tchi entered the 
water, filled the sacred gourds and jars, and returning to 
the tent another chant was sung to bless the acquired 
waters ; prayers were said for the children of the Zunis, 
for the Americans, for all living men, for all living beasts, 
for all birds, fish, and reptiles, which concluded the 
ceremonies. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SEARCH FOR THE SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD. 

THE first news the world had of Zuni came from the 
lips of a slave. His name was Tezou, and he told 
his master, a grandee of the court of New Spain, as Mexico 
was then known, that three hundred leagues to the north- 
ward lay a kingdom of seven enormous cities, known as 
Cibola, the land of the buffalo, which were full of gold and 
silver existing in virgin purity and monstrous masses ; 
that its people knew more wealth and luxury than the 
courts of the old world had ever enjoyed, and that their 
towns were grander than those of Montezuma, which Cor- 
tez had conquered, or Peru, which Pizarro had compelled 
to pay tribute to the coffers of royalty and religion. He 
said that in these wild and mystic regions were races of 
highly civilized and wealthy men and beautiful women, 
fair as the pearls of India, and adorned with richer jewels 
than ever shown in the crown of the king. 

The invaders of Mexico, from Cortez down, were a set 
of splendid marauders, so fired with chivalry, lust and re- 
ligious zeal, so wildly visionary, so fanatically pious, so 
ambitious to conceive and so daring to execute, that they 
gave the history of their time the glow of romance, and 
the alluring tales of Tezou set their souls on fire. The 
Viceroy, Nuno de Guzman, organized an army of 24,000 
men to overcome the kingdom of Cibola, and started over 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. J03 

the mountains with the slave as a guide. But the difficul- 
ties were so formidable and the country was so barren that 
starvation stared him in the face, and, after plunging 
around Northern Mexico for several months, de Guzman 
became disheartened. The slave Tezou dying gave him a 
good excuse to abandon the enterprise, and he returned 
to the city of Mexico no wiser, and much poorer than 
when he left it several months before. 

The subject of conquering the upper country lay in sus- 
pense for a couple of years, until the arrival at Mexico of 
Cabaza de Vaca after his long and weary journey over 
half the continent. Cabaza's experience was the most re- 
markable ever undergone by man. In 1528, Pamphilo 
de Narvaez sailed from the West Indies with a fleet of four 
vessels and four hundred men, for Florida, of which he 
had been made Governor. The vessels became separated 
during a storm, and that of which Cabaza was com- 
mander went to wreck somewhere on the cost of Texas, 
all hands being lost except the captain and three of his 
comrades, including Estaphan, a Moor, who played an 
important part in subsequent transactions. For nine 
years these four men wandered about the country between 
the Mississippi river and the Rocky mountains, searching 
for their companions, under the supposition that they 
were in Florida. They finally arrived at the old pueblo of 
Pecos, where they were cordially received by the natives, 
who had never seen the face of a white man before. The 
gentle savages welcomed Cabaza and his companions as 
the children of the sun, and brought their little ones to 
them in order that they might be blessed. Everywhere 
they found order, thrift and hospitality, and saw practiced 



104 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

the curious religious rites of the Aztecs. Here Cabaza 
learned rumors of the conquest of Mexico, and deciding to 
abandon the search for Florida, started southward to join 
his countrymen. The Indians gave them gold and sil- 
ver and turquois, loaded donkeys with provisions for their 
use, and escorted them from pueblo to pueblo down to the 
valley of the Rio Grande. At last the little party 
reached Mexico in safety, and told their marvellous story 
to eager listeners who were still gloating over the hith- 
erto uncorroborated tales of the slave. 

Cabaza had gifts as a ranconteur, and, without realizing 
the consequences, gave his experience and observation a 
richer color .than even Tezou had been able to apply. He 
said the cities he had visited, seven in number, were all 
they had been described to be, and that he had there been 
entertained in a manner befitting an official envoy of His 
Majesty the King. The people, he said, were of wondrous 
wealth, and boundless hospitality, that their palaces were 
paved with silver and lighted with jewels, and that stored 
away in secret vaults were untold treasures, richer than the 
ransom of a hundred kings ; that the people were clad in 
a curious raiment softer than the velvet of Utrecht, that 
the women wore priceless gems, long ropes and chains of 
turquois ; that the gates and pillars of their houses were 
of silver and gold, and studded with jewels that glistened 
in the sun. In them, he said, lived princes by whom he 
had been entertained, and that lying upon divans that 
were as soft as the down of angels' wings, he had been 
served by beautiful maidens with wine in cups of gold that 
weighed a pound, and with curious food borne upon 
platters as costly as a crown. The valleys through which 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I05 

he had passed glistened with jewels, and lumps of gold 
could be picked up in the streams as plenty as pebbles. 
At one point in his travels he passed over solid acres of 
pearls, larger than a man could carry, that glistened like a 
mirror in the sun. These stores of wealth were in a 
measure lost, he explained, because the natives did not 
know what use to put them to. 

Most of Cabaza's story was pure fiction, told for the 
purpose of accentuating his really marvellous adventures, 
and with the expectation of gaining a royal reward for his 
discoveries ; for as near as his trail can be traced, he only 
saw the mud villages of the Rio Grande Valley, and his 
acres of pearls must have been abed of gypsum over which 
he passed. After he had rested a while at Mexico he sailed 
for Spain to repeat his marvels in the ears of Charles V., 
and lay at the feet of his royal master a few nuggets and 
ornaments of gold, silver and turquois, which he bore as 
trophies to prove the truth of what he told. 

The invaders at Mexico were already suffering with a 
disease that nothing but conquest could cure, and Cabaza's 
story excited them beyond restraint. But not unmindful 
of his expensive failure in the former expedition, the 
Viceroy decided to send out a small party of explorers 
into the fabulous land, to continue and supplement the re- 
searches of Cabaza, under the guidance of Estaphan the 
Moor. The leadership of the party was assigned to a 
monk, named Marcos de Niza, and they started out in the 
summer of 1539. Traveling three hundred leagues north- 
ward de Niza came within sight of a city he called Cibola, 
which is clearly identified from his description as the old 
town of Zuni, afterward destroyed, and now a pile of 



Io6 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

ruins. Here he went into camp, set up a cross, and claimed 
possession of the country in the name of God and the 
king, under the scriptural authority that '* the heathen 
shall be an inheritance." Estaphan was sent forward to 
the town with an escort of Mexican Indians, as an envoy, 
to parley with the natives, and see what sort of a reception 
the monk might expect. Arriving at Zuni the lustful 
Moor insolently demanded not only the wealth but the 
wives of its citizens, and was summarily put to death. 
Those who accompanied him fled back to the place where 
the monk was encamped, and after the sorrowful story 
of Estaphan's execution was related, de Niza retreated in 
dismay, without learning more of the country than the 
Indians could tell. 

Upon his return to Mexico the mendacious monk covered 
his failure with golden lies. He reported that all Cabaza 
had described was strictly true ; that he himself had seen 
the gold and jewels in the palaces of Zuni, and that his 
own hands had stroked the soft and feathery garments 
which its princes wore, but had not dared make any de- 
tailed exploration because of the turbulence Estaphan's 
indiscretions had created. 

The ambition and avarice of the Spaniards were alread] 
inflamed by the stories of Tezou and Cabaza, and aj 
once upon the return of de Niza an expedition was fitte( 
out to overcome the alluring wealth and grandeur oj 
which the old reprobate had told. An army of four hunf 
dred Spaniards and seven hundred warriors from their" 
Aztec allies was equipped and placed under the command 
of a valiant soldier named Francisco Vaques de Coronado. 
Among his followers were many knights of noble birth 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I07 

and military renown, and they were all with great cere- 
mony on Easter day sworn upon a missal containing the 
holy Evangels, not to abandon the enterprise until the 
country had been conquered for the church and the king. 
The next day the army took up its march, and did not 
return for two years. 

Accompanying the expedition as secretary to its com- 
mander, and chronicler of events, was Castaneda, a literary 
gentleman with more regard for accuracy than the voyager 
Cabaza, or the Friar Marcos, and from his reports, which 
were written with painful detail, we learn the incidents of 
the journey. He describes the pitiless desert which the 
army entered, and the sufferings it endured, and says 
that when Coronado ''saw there was nothing good, he 
could not repress his sadness, notwithstanding the marvels 
th'at were promised farther on." At the end of a fifteen 
days' march across the deserts of Arizona, Castaneda con- 
tinues, "they came within eight leagues of Cibola, of 
which so much had been boasted, and it was there that the 
first Indians were discovered. The Indians, who knew the 
land, escaped easily, M\d not one of them was captured. 
On the following day, in good order, we entered the in- 
habited country. Cibola was the first village we discov- 
ered, and on beholding it the entire army broke forth in 
maledictions on Friar Marcos de Niza. God grant that he 
may feel more of them ! " 

''Cibola," writes Castaneda, " is built upon a rock, and 
the village is so small that in truth there are many barns 
in Spain that make a better appearance. The houses are 
built in three or four stories; they are small, not spacious, 
and have no courts, as a single court serves for a whole 



I08 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

quarter. The province contains seven towns, some of 
which are larger and better fortified than Cibola. The 
Indians, ranged in good order, awaited us at some 
distance from the village. They were very loath to accept 
peace, and when they were asked to do so by our inter- 
preters, they menaced us by gestures. Shouting our war 
cry of Saint lago, we charged upon them and quickly 
caused them to fly. Nevertheless it was necessary to get 
possession of Cibola, which was no easy achievement, as 
the road leading to it was both narrow and winding. The 
general was knocked down by a blow from a stone as he 
mounted in the assault, and would have been slain had it 
not been for Garci Lopez de Cardenas and Hernandez de 
Alvarado, who threw themselves before him and received 
the blows of the stones which were intended for the com- 
mander, and fell in large numbers. As it was impossible 
for the inhabitants to resist the charge of the Spaniards, 
the village was gained in less than an hour. It was filled 
with provisions which were sadly needed, and in a short 
time the whole province was forced to accept peace." 

In this way Castaneda dismisses 3 long chapter of 
cruel slaughter and malicious destruction. The towns 
were destroyed in the spiteful disappointment of the 
Spaniards at the failure to secure the plunder which their 
mendacious forerunners had described, and the inhabi- 
tants were driven to the cliffs and caves of the mountains. 

In his report to the viceroy, which is dated from ." the 
Province of Cibola," Aug. 3, 1540, Coronado quaintly 
describes his conquest and his disappointment as follows : 

'' It now remaineth for me to certify to your Honor of 
the seven cities, and of the kingdoms and the provinces 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I09 

whereof the Father Provincial (Niza) made report 
unto your Lordship, and to be brief, I can assure your 
Honor that he spake the truth in nothing that was re-' 
ported by him, but all quite contrary, saving only the 
names of the cities and great housesof stone ; for although 
they be not wrought with turquoises, or silver or gold, 
nor with lime or bricks, yet they are very excellent good 
houses, of two, three, four and five lofts high, wherein 
are good k)dgings and fair chambers, with ladders instead 
of stairs, and contain cellars under the ground ; and the 
ladders which they have for their houses are all in a man- 
ner movable and portable, which are taken away and set 
down where they please ; and they are made of two pieces 
of wood and their steps as ours be. The seven cities are 
seven small towns, all made of the kind of houses I speak 
of, and they stand all within four leagues together, and 
they are called the kingdom of Cibola, and every one of 
them hath their particular name, and none of them are 
called Cibola, but all together they are called Cibola. In 
this town where I do now remain there be some two hun- 
dred houses, all compassed with walls, and I think that 
with the rest of the houses that are not so walled there 
may be five hundred. There is another town near this 
which is somewhat bigger than this and another of the 
same bigness that this is of and I send them all painted 
to your lordship. The people of this town seem unto me 
to be of reasonable stature and witty, yet they seem not 
to have such wit as should be." 

After the ruin of Cibola, and the dispersion of its peo- 
ple among the mountains, Coronado commenced an ex- 
ploration of the adjacent country. He sent an expedition 



no CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

to Moquis, and another to the Grand Canon of the Col- 
orado, of whose wonders he learned from the Indians. 

•While these parties were out, and the main army lay, en- 
camped in the valleys around Zuni, the knowledge of the 
invasion spread rapidly among the other tribes of the 
Territory, and there came to see Coronado a party of In- 
dians from Cicuye (Pecos), at which Cabaza had first 
arrived, to offer their friendship and allegiance and treat 
for peace. They offered gifts of tanned skins, shields 
and helmets, and the General reciprocated by giving them 
glass beads and bells, which, as Castaneda observes, ''they 
had never beheld before." From these emissaries the 

• Spaniards first learned of the existence of the buffalo, and 
at the same time discovered that the art of tatooing was 
known to the Indians, as the subject was introduced by 
the pictures of the animal painted upon their shields, and 
pricked upon the arm of one of the priests. 

Coronado sent Captain Hernando d' Alvarado and a 
party of twenty men to accompany the Indians to their 
home, with instructions to return in eighty days and re- 
port what he had seen. Hernando departed, and on the 
third day arrived at the village of Acuco, (Acoma), the 
inhabitants of which he reported were ''the most formid- 
able brigands m the whole province. The village," 
Hernando continues, "was very strongly posted, inas- 

. much as it was reached by only one path, and was built 
upon a precipice on all the other sides, at such a height 
that a ball from an arquebus could not reach its summit. 
It was entered by a stairway cut by the hand of man, 
which began at the bottom of a declivitous rock and led 
up to the village. Tiiis stairway was of suitable width 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. Ill 

for the first two hundred steps, but after these there were 
a hundred much more narrow, and when the top was 
finally to be reached it was necessary to scramble up by 
placing the feet in holes cut in the rock, and as the 
ascender could scarcely make the point of his toe enter 
them, he was forced to cling to the precipice with his 
hands. On the summit was a great arsenal of huge stones 
which the defenders, without exposing themselves, could 
roll down on the assailants, so that no army, whatever its 
strength might be, could force the passage. There was 
upon the top of the mountain a sufiicient place to culti- 
vate and store a large quantity of corn, as well as cisterns 
to contain water. The Indians traced lines upon the 
ground and forbade the Spaniards to pass over them, but 
seeing the latter kindly disposed they quickly sued for 
peace, and presented a supply of bread, deer skins, pine 
nuts, seeds, flour and corn." 

This description applies accurately to the Acoma of the 
present day, which lies about fifteen miles from the track 
of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway, midway between Albu- 
querque and Fort Wingate. 

Three days later Alvarado reached the province of 
Tiguex (Isleta) where he was kindly received on account 
of the Pecos guides who were known there. The captain 
from this point sent a letter to Coronado by an Indian 
runner relating what he had seen, and suggesting a re- 
moval of the camp to Tiguex which was a much better 
country than Zuni. In five days Cicuye (Pecos) was 
reached, where was found a Cacique (priest) named Bigotes, 
who had long mustaches, and was influential as well as 
noticeable on this account, because it is the practice of the 



112 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

Pueblo Indians, like that of the savage tribes, to pluck the 
hair from their faces in youth. The Spaniards called this 
Cacique El Turco, because of his resemblance to the 
Mahomedans, and paid him a great deal of attention. 
From this time on El Turco became their constant com- 
panion and guide, until he suffered martydom in mistaken 
zeal for the welfare of his people. 

According to the suggestion contained in Hernando's 
letter, Coronado moved his camp from Zuni to Isleta, and 
was there to receive the former upon his return from the 
upper province ', being not a little pleased, so Castaneda 
writes, with the news he bore. The Turk, who returned 
with Alvarado, when he discovered the object of the in- 
vasion, told tales that surpassed those of Cabaza, and 
when questioned as to the existence of gold and jewels in 
the country, convinced Coronado that he had made a 
mistake in visiting Zuni, for the wondrous cities Cabaza 
described lay far north across a river that was two leagues 
wide, in a country called Quivira. Cabaza's narrations 
were the inventions of a man who sought the reputation of a 
hero and discoverer ; the romances of the priest. El Turco, 
were intended to tempt the Spaniards to destruction. He 
had seen the ruin of Zuni, and had ascertained the object 
of the invasion to be plunder. With subtle diplomacy he 
gained the confidence of the invaders, and to save his 
people from the fate of their neighbors, sought to lead 
Coronado away into a desert where they should die of 
thirst and starvation. 

As he lingered in the camp of the conquerers he drew 
from them the reports Cabaza and de Niza had made, and 
learned the story the slave Tezou had told so many years 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



113 



before. He revived the withered hopes of the Spaniards 
by solemnly asserting the truth of all these fictions, 'and 
they came to believe again that the sailor and the monk 
were not such liars after all, but that they themselves had 
been suffering the penalty of their own mistake in direct- 
ing their invasion too far to the westward. The Turk 
learned from the soldiers all the knowledge they had of 
Florida, and the great river DeSoto had discovered (the 
Mississippi), and then pretended that he came from that 
country, and was familiar with the wonders it contained. 

He told them that in the great river were fishes as large 
as horses, whose skins were used for tents, and whose flesh 
was food of the most delicious flavor; that there were 
canoes with twenty oarsman on either side, and that the 
lords of the land made long journeys in them to the sea, 
sitting upon a silver dias in the stern ; while the prows of 
the boats were ornamented with eagles as large as men 
and made of solid gold. He declared that the commonest 
vessels these people used were made of sculptured silver, 
and that their bowls, and plates and dishes were made of 
gold. The Turk was believed because he spoke with 
great assurance, and his knowledge of metals was tested 
by showing him utensils of iron, copper and brass which 
he immediately declared were not of the same substance 
as those used by the inhabitants of Quivira, although 
bearing some resemblance in weight and color. The land 
where all this wealth and wonder existed lay to the north- 
ward, he said, and in May, 1541, the army took up its 
march, the chagrined and alarmed El Turco being im- 
pressed into service as a guide. 

The good news the Turk told them wiped out the 



114 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

memory of past sufferings, fatigue and disappointment, 
and they pressed on with enthusiasm. All this time the 
Pueblos had been cheerfully subsisting Coronado's army, 
and had received the missionary efforts of his priests 
with respectful consideration, but the soldiers robbed some 
of the Aztec temples, and the monks extinguished their 
sacred fires. These insults and injuries might have been 
patiently borne without resistance, but before commencing 
his journey to the unknown land, Coronado demanded of 
them supplies which their scanty stores were not able to 
furnish. Their failure to comply with his exactions 
brought down upon their villages fire and pillage, and the 
entire valley of the Rio Grande was a trail of blood and 
brands, as Coronado passed through it on his northward 
march. Several of the towns were burned and entirely 
destroyed, hundreds of people were slaughtered, and nearly 
all the cattle and sheep were seized. 

From Spanish testimony, which, with the traditions of 
the Indians, is the only evidence we have, the peaceful 
occupants of the country met the invader* with a cordial 
greeting and a friendly hand, fed and clothed them, and 
received as a reward the most frightful punishment. The 
Spaniards, made ferocious by the greed of gold and con- 
quest, were not satisfied with robbing them of their pos- 
sessions, but raped their wives, burned their homes, and 
finally made them slaves. Even before the deception of j 
the Turk was discovered, the invaders were guilty of re- 
morseless cruelty and brutal duplicity, and while the 
priests who accompanied the expedition said masses for 
the souls of the Indians, and taught them sweet hymns of 
Mary and her Son. the soldiers cut their throats, butch- 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. II5 

ered their wives and children, and robbed houses whose 
thresholds were slippery with innocent blood. The tem- 
ples were pillaged, and the rude altars destroyed by the 
soldiers, while the priests planted the cross before the 
terrified people and told them the story of redeeming love. 
As a mixture of mad avarice, religious solicitude and 
frightful cruelty, the raid of Coronado stands without a 
parallel or a resembling incident in history. Here began 
the long story of fireside tragedies, of slaughter, suffering 
and slavery, that extends over three centuries of Spanish 
rule, from which the simple Pueblos were released only 
when the flag that represents freedom was planted in 1847 
upon the so-called palace of the remorseless Dons. 

The fourth day after leaving Cicuye (Pecos), the army 
reached what they described as a large and deep river, 
(probably* the Cimarron), and in ten days more they 
came upon " tents of tanned buffalo skins, inhabited by 
Indians who were like Arabs, and wandered incessantly in 
the desert." The Indians claimed to be the owners of the 
immense herds of buffalo around there, and the Spaniards 
who had never seen the animal before were very much 
astonished at its size and appearance, as well as at the 
enormous wealth the savages had invested in such stock. 
In his matter of fact way, Castaneda writes of the buffalos: 

" These oxen are of the bigness and color of our bulls, but their 
horns are not so great. They have a great bunch upon their fore- 
shoulders, and more hair upon their forepart than on their hinder part; 
and it is like wool. They have, as it vv^ere, a horse mane upon their 
backbone, and much hair, and very long from the knees downw^ard. 
They have great tufts of hair hanging down their foreheads, and it 
seemeth they have beards, because of the great store of hair hanging 
down at their chins and throats. The males have very long tails, and 
a great knob or flock at the end, so that in some respects they resemble 
the lion, and in some other the camel. They push with their horns, 



Il6 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

they run, they overtake and kill a horse when they are in their rage 
and anger. Finally, it is a fierce beast of countenance and form of 
body. The horses fled from them, either because of their deformed 
shape, or else because they had never seen them. Their masters have 
no other riches nor substance ; of them they eat, they drink, they ap- 
parel, they shoe themselves; and of their hides they made many things, 
as houses, shoes, apparel and ropes ; of their bones they make bod- 
kins; of their sinews and hair, thread; of their horns, maws and 
bladders, vessels ; of their dung, fire ; and of their calf skins, budgets, 
wherein they draw and keep water. To be short, they make so many 
things of them as they have need of or as may suffice them in the use 
of this life." 

Coronado went to the Missouri River near a point south 
of the present location of Omaha, crossing the entire 
length of Kansas, but found nothing of which El Turco 
had told him. Says Castaneda : '*The Indians of this 
region, so far from having large quantities of gold and 
silver, do not' even know of such things. The Cacique 
wore on his breast a copper plate, of which he made a 
great parade, which he would not have done had he known 
anything about precious metals." El Turco was put to 
torture, and confessed that all his wonderful stories had 
been invented by him in order to decoy the Spaniards 
into the desert, where he supposed they would die of thirst 
and starvation, if they escaped slaughter at the hands of 
the Indian nomads. He explained that he had done all 
this as a means of ridding his people of their oppressors, 
but that Coronado had prevented the accomplishment of 
the purpose by carrying with him so many supplies, plun- 
dered from the pueblos. The man who had led this great 
army so far in search of destruction was by Coronado's 
orders strangled, and Kansas received its first baptism of 
martyr's blood. The indignation of the Spaniards, when 
they found that they had been duped, found vent in curses 
upon the Indians, who were afterward punished severely 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. • I17 

for El Turco's sins. Coronado went into winter quarters 
at Tigeux, and intended to resume his explorations in the 
spring, but as Castaneda relates : ^' Nevertheless, as often 
happens in the Indies, things did not turn out as people 
intended, but as God pleased. One day of festival the 
general went forth on horseback, to run at the ring with 
Don Pedro Maldonado, * * whose horse in springing 
over him kicked him in the head and placed him within 
two fingers of death. The result of this was, that being of 
a superstitious nature, and having been foretold by a cer- 
tain mathematician of Salamanka that be should one day 
find himself omnipotent lord of a distant country, but that 
he should have a fall which would cause his death, he was 
very anxious to hasten home so as to die near his wife." 

So, after a march of six thousand miles, covering a period 
of more than two years, and an exploration that has no 
parallel in history, Coronado turned his face homeward, 
disheartened and discouraged, the houses of gold and 
silver which had allured him into the desert having van- 
ished like a dream. The returning adventurers were not 
cordially welcomed by the'^viceroy, for instead of being 
laden with rich booty, the haughty prince found them at his 
door a ragged, half famished, empty-handed band. Cor- 
onado was severely censured and deprived of his authority. 
He soon sailed for Spain, but received no sympathy from 
his royal master, and died in obscurity and disgrace, while 
the mendacious Cabaza had been loaded with gifts and 
honors as a reward for his gorgeous lies. 

There is every reason to believe that Zuni was the Cibola 
of the Spanish fables. The description of the place in 
Coronado's reports and Castaneda's journal correspond, 



Il8 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

as well as its location with reference to Moquis, the grand 
canon of the Colorado and other points the invader 
visited. If it was not Zuni the place has been entirely 
swept away, and no traces left. There are and always will 
be differences of opinion upon the subject, but the great 
majority of antiquarians are sure that Zuni and Cibola are 
identical. There is an old Spanish record in the archives 
of the Secretary of State at Santa Fe that seems conclusive. 
It is the report of Captain General Don Domingo Jeronso 
Petriz de Cruzate, who visited Zuni in 1688, and he says 
clearly that it was the same place referred to by Castaneda 
as Cibola. This was before any question of identity was 
raised. 

Following Coronado were priests who remained among 
the Indians, establishing missions and churches in the 
newly discovered country, making long and dangerous 
journeys among the barbarous nations, and their traces can 
be seen to-day in the ruined churches and the vestiges of 
the Christian faith that exist among all the tribes of the 
mountains and the valleys. Nothing in the pages of 
romance can surpass their adventures, and nothing in the 
history of religion can exceed their zeal. 

That mendacious monk, Marcos de Niza, left an illegiti- 
mate son, who also became a friar, and in 1580, with a 
party of Franciscans, went to Zuni to establish a mission 
and convert to the true religion the Indians of whom his 
father had told such falsehoods. They were driven away, 
and one of the party murdered. This angered the Vice- 
roy and he sent the monks back with one Don Antonio 
Esperjo, at the head of a party of soldiers to reason with 
the resisting heathen. Then was built the old church 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. II9 

which Still stands in the center of Zuni, and is used to-day 
as a stable for donkeys, but no Gloria or Te Deum has 
been sung in it for a hundred years. Intimidated by the 
sabers of the Spaniards the Indians accepted the religion 
of the self-appointed guardians of their souls, and under 
the direction of the monks built what was in its time, and 
under the circumstances, a splendid edifice. It is large 
enough to hold four or five hundred people, and the walls 
are massive. The altar timbers were handsomely carved 
by skillful monks, and it was decorated with handsome 
pictures and ornaments given to the cause of evangeliza- 
tion by the pious Queen of Spain. In this church the 
Zunis went through the forms of worship, and kneeled 
before a cross, the significance of which they could not 
appreciate, until the rebellion of 1681, when they killed 
their priests and threw off the religious as well as the civil 
yoke. 

There is a tradition that the priest at Zuni saved his 
head by abjuring the faith and turning Indian. The story 
goes that when the Spaniards went there at the time of the 
re-conquest, about 1690, and again chased the natives 
into the rocks, they inquired for the padre, who called 
out over the barricades that he was alive and well ; but 
being shorn of his priestly robes and wearing the Zuni 
costume they did not recognize him, and asked if he could 
write. He answered that he could, but had no pens or 
paper. They passed him up a piece of parchment upon 
which he traced a message with the end of a brand. This 
satisfied them of his identity, and through him they made 
terms with the Zunis without further slaughter. But there 
is no allusion to this interesting incident in the records of 



I20 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

the time, which are otherwise complete, and the antiqua- 
rians repudiate it. 

It is, however, true that although the Indians in other 
pueblos endeavored to obliterate every trace of their cruel 
rulers in this rebellion, the Catholic church at Zuni was 
undisturbed. The altar stood until a few years since 
when the most valuable pictures and carvings were borne 
away by relic vandals, and the timbers were used from 
time to time to supply the need of fire wood. 



CHAPTER VIL 

QUEER PEOPLE IN QUEER PLACES. 

DURING Coronado's invasion he visited eight prov- 
inces, as he called them, populated by Pueblo Indians. 
From his descriptions and those of his comrades they can 
all be identified, and exist at the present day. His list, 
however, does not include all the pueblos, and while some 
may have escaped his attention, it is more probable that 
in the use of the word '' Province " he intended to include 
several villages under a single name ; some of which no 
longer exist, and others are only heaps of ruins. The 
places which Coronado names are Cibola (Zuni), Tu- 
sayan (Moquis), Acuco (Acoma), which probably included 
Laguna; Tigeux (Isleta), Quirex (San Felipe), Cicuye 
(Pecos), Hermez (Jemez), and Brada (Toas). When the 
Territory of New Mexico was ceded to the United States 
there were twenty-six pueblos, extending from Toas in the 
north to Isleta in the south, a distance of two hundred 
miles along the Rio Grande River, not including Moquis, 
which is in Arizona. These towns were Toas, Nambe, 
Tezuque, Pojanque, San Juan, San Yldefonzo, Santa Clara, 
Sandia, and Isleta, speaking one language ; Pictoris, Je- 
mez, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Anna, Cocluti, 
Silla, Laguna, and Acoma, speaking another, and Zuni, 
speaking a third. The Zunis and Moquis have entirely 
different languages from the remaining pueblos, and are 



122 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

not understood by each other; but in the pueblos of the 
Rio Grande the fundamental principles of the vocabularies 
are the same, although two dialects are spoken. 

At the time of annexation the pueblo population was 
about 20,000, but since then it has been greatly reduced 
by disease, the small pox being the great exterminator. 
For example, in the census of 1850, as given by School- 
craft, the Zunis numbered 2,985 people, while in the cen- 
sus of 1880, taken by Gushing, the total was but 1,602. 
This ratio of depopulation has been going on ever since 
the time of the Spaniards, and therefore when Coronado 
discovered their existence the pueblos of New Mexico 
must have contained two hundred thousand people or 
more. One nation, the Tagnos, has entirely disappeared 
from the face of the earth, and many of the villages, like 
Pecos, have nothing but memories and a few ruins to 
mark where once lived a populous and prosperous com- 
munity. Many of these towns were destroyed during the 
Spanish invasion, others were razed during the several re- 
bellions, while more have been depopulated by disease 
and abandoned by the survivors. The small pox, brought 
in by the whites, has destroyed more than war, and the 
filth of the villages has tempted other contagions. A well- 
known physician of Santa Fe observes that if it were not 
for the pure atmosphere epidemics would never cease. 

That inordinate thirst for gold which marked the Span- 
ish pioneer in all parts of the world was accentuated in 
New Mexico, and not content with stripping the natives 
of their property and compelling them 10 bow allegiance 
to the king, the conquerors compelled them to abandon 
their religion and made them slaves. Their ancient rites 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 23 

were prohibited and their temples destroyed ; the women 
were debauched and the men were driven by task-masters 
more cruel than those of Egypt. Finally, a rebellion broke 
out in i68o,in which the pueblo of San Juan alone remained 
faithful to the Spaniards, in token whereof it has since 
been called San Juan de los Caballeros, or " San Juan of 
the Gentlemen." After several battles the Spaniards took 
refuge in Santa Fe, from which they were driven with 
the most bloody slaughter. The Indians gathered in the 
plaza, and held rejoicings in honor of their victory. Every 
trace of the hateful Spaniards was destroyed, their houses 
and their churches were sacked, and a great fire was kin- 
dled of the plunder in the plaza, in which the bodies of 
the dead were burned. The monument which stands there 
to-day in honor of the heroes of 1861 rests upon the bones 
of tyrants who died a century before our government was 
founded. 

When the destruction was complete the Indians went 
back to their homes and resumed the life they led before 
their country was invaded. In 1693, however, a Spanish 
army from Mexico, under Diego de Vargas, recovered 
possession, destroying some of the pueblos, and whipping 
others into submission. The rebellion taught the Span- 
iards a lesson of humanity, and a new regime was inaugu- 
gurated, in which the Catholic religion was enforced and 
slavery was continued, but with less barbarism, and not 
until 1837 was there another revolt. This time the Indians 
were assisted and encouraged by Mexican politicians. The 
head of Perez, the Governor, was kicked about the plaza 
of Santa Fe like a football, and the bodies of his officials 
were hacked and torn asunder by the maddened peons. A 



124 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

Toas Indian named Jose Gonzales was made Governor, 
but his authority was brief, as the Mexican Government 
took immediate steps to crush the insurrection, and Gen- 
eral Armijo was installed in the old, low adobe building 
called the Palace del Gobernador, and reigned there until 
he fled before the advance of the gallant Phil Kearney in 
1847. Kearney was heralded as the redeemer which Mon- 
tezuma had prophesied would come, and ever since he 
rescued them from slavery the Indians have worshiped 
him as a saint. 

Toas has been better known than any of the other 
pueblos, as it was a trading post in early times and at- 
tracted the residence of many Mexicans. It was the head- 
quarters and base of supplies of many of the earlier ex- 
ploring expeditions, and the rich mines in the mountains 
around drew to it much notoriety and emigration. Kit 
Carson and Maxwell, his partner, lived and married there, 
and the old home of Fremont's guide, companion, and 
friend is now a boarding house. 

The Indians of Taos were more influential, less scrupu- 
lous and shrewder than those of the other pueblos, and all 
of the rebellions originated there. The rebellion of 1680 
was planned and led by a Toas native named Pope, who 
pretended to have the gift of supernatural powers, and 
convinced his simple-minded brethren that the gods had 
revealed to him their will that all the Spaniards be de- 
stroyed. In the rebellion of 1837 Jose Gonzales, a native 
and resident of Taos, was the chief conspirator. In 1847 
the first Governor of New Mexico under United States 
authority, Colonel Bent, was assassinated at Taos in the 
most fiendish way. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I 25 

The pueblos in the Rio Grande valley have lost much of 
their primitiveness by contact with the Mexicans and 
Americans, and to see Aztec life one has to go into the 
isolated villages of the mountains. About fifty miles west 
of Albuquerque, close to the track of the Atlantic and 
Pacific railroad, on the west bank of the Gallo river, is the 
curious old town of Laguna. It stands upon the top of an 
enormous rock, and is built without any particular order, 
the houses being small, scarcely any of them more than 
two stories high. The walls are of mud and the structures 
are in terraces, entered by ladders, but are not as com- 
fortable as those of Zuni and some of the other pueblos. 
In the center of the villaga is a plaza, on one side of which 
is the estufa or Aztec temple, and on the other a curious 
old Catholic church, with quaint pictures and rude deco- 
rations. Service is occasionally held here by an itinerant 
priest, but the protestants have a firmer hold upon the peo- 
ple, having been represented by a missionary for nearly 
forty years. The Rev. Mr. Gorman, a Baptist, was the 
first in the field, but the Rev. John Menaul is now there. 

The Lagunas are the most advanced of the Pueblo tribes, 
principally because of the successful labor among them of 
Mr. Menaul, a quiet, unassuming gentleman, who has 
secured their confidence, and has led them gradually away 
from their barbarous practices and heathenish rites. He 
has not attempted to convert them to Christianity, nor has 
he endeavored to overturn their customs of centuries, but 
by the force of example and kindly influence has intro- 
duced among them civilized methods, and by improving 
their temporal welfare is slowly drawing them toward the 
light. Some of them have adopted the American mode 



126 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

of cookery, and sleep in civilized beds. The first step 
toward voluntary citizenship ever taken by an Indian was 
made by one of the Lagunas recently in filing a pre-emp- 
tion claim at the land office. Several can talk English, 
which they learned from the track layers of the Atlantic 
and Pacific railroad, who camped and worked near their 
town for many months. 

Dr. P. G. S. Tenbroek, a surgeon of the United 
States army, writing of a visit to Laguna in 1852, says: 
" The town is forty-five miles west of Albuquerque. The 
people live in fixed abodes and cultivate the soil. Many 
of them have embraced the Catholic faith, but still retain 
their ancient superstition, and preserve the sacred fire of 
Montezuma. The town is built upon a rocky eminence 
near the base of which is a small lake (laguna) which sup- 
plies them with water. Their farms are in the valley to 
the north. The population is about 900. The houses are 
built of mud, and like all other pueblos consist of several 
stories built up in a terraced form, and as they have no 
doors opening upon the ground one must mount the roof 
by means of a ladder to gain admittance. The govern- 
ment consists of a Governor, elected annually by the peo- 
ple, who has the entire control of affairs in the pueblo, 
and settles all disputes. He has a council of old men called 
caciques. They have a kind of under ground room called 
the estufa, which is like our city halls, and is the place 
where all their councils, religious ceremonies and dances 
are held. In another place the sacred fire, which is attended 
by the oldest men, and never allowed to go out, is kept. 
They also have a war captain, who is chosen from the 
most distinguished braves. No man or woman is allowed 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 27 

to marry out of the tribe. In spinning and weaving they 
use a spindle and a single upright loom. The men knit 
their own stockings. They use mill stones similar to those 
employed by the Mexicans^ and upon these they grind a 
very fine flour from corn, which is made into paste and 
baked upon a flat stone in sheets no thicker than letter 
paper. This bread is called gugave. They make earthen- 
ware, some of which is beautifully painted. Their cus- 
toms are similar to those of the ancient Aztecs, from whom 
they are derived. This pueblo is very old as the deep 
worn trails in the rock testify. They have Spanish docu- 
ments dating back three hundred years." 

Dr. Tenbroek describes a funeral he saw at Laguna. 
'^The grave was dug and the corpse, sewed up in a 
blanket, was lowered into its narrow house. When it was 
placed in the grave each friend of the deceased threw in a 
handful of earth, then the females of the family approached 
in a mournful procession (while the males stood around in 
solemn silence), each bearing on her head a tinaja, or 
water jar, filled with water, which she ernpfied into the 
grave, and whilst doing so commenced the death cry, till 
the sad lament, growing louder and louder, swelled through 
the whole place. Out of the yard they passed in Indian 
file, sending forth the most doleful cries, and long after I 
lost sight of them I could hear the plaintive moans. I 
never in my life heard any sound so touchingly sad and 
plaintive. The great men are all buried in the church, and 
none of their bodies are allowed to remain long in the 
grave, but after a certain time are disinterred, and the 
bones placed in storehouses built for the purpose. One of 
these on the east side of the church has fallen down, and 



128 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

discloses an immense pile of skulls and bones. They be- 
lieve that on a certain day (in August I think) the dead 
rise from their graves and flit about among the neighbor- 
ing hills, and all who have lost friends carry out quantities 
of bread and meat, and such other good things as they can 
obtain, and place them in the haunts frequented by the 
dead." 

The Laguna Indians worship Montezuma, and have an 
image of the god. A traveler who visited the place in 
1865 writes of seeing it. He says : '' Having expressed a 
desire to see their god, Montezuma, my young guide led 
the way to the house where the famous deity is kept. This 
is the most cherished and probably the only one still re- 
tained of all their ancient heathen gods. It is greatly in 
vogue in a dry time, when it is brought forth from the 
sanctuary, and, with dancing and other rites they invoke 
it for rain. But whether it has ever been able to bring re- 
freshing showers to the parched earth is a question open 
to discussion. 

'^ We picked up one of the head men on the way, who 
accompanied us. We ascended a ladder and entered a 
small and badly lighted room, where we found a shriveled 
up old Indian, entirely naked except a small cloth about 
his loins and moccasins upon his feet. The guide made 
known the object of our visit and told him we wtfre not 
Mexicans, and would neither injure nor carry away the 
god, which assurance was necessary, as none of that race 
are permitted to look upon it. A conference was now held 
between the man who accompanied us, the old keeper, and 
an old hag of a woman, who in the meantime had come 
in ; and in a few minutes we were informed that we could 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



129 



see Montezuma. The old woman was dispatched to bring 
it in, who returned after a short absence carrying something 
in her arms wrapped up in an old cloth, which she placed 
carefully upon the floor. The cloth was then removed, 
and their favorite god stood before our eyes. 

*'I was much disappointed in its appearance, it being a 
much ruder affair than I was prepared to see. I had ex- 
pected to see something in imitation of man or beast, but 
there was presented to our sight an object that neither re- 
sembled anything upon the earth, the heavens above, or in 
the sea beneath, and I felt that it could hardly be sinful in 
the poor ignorant Indian to worship such an object. 

^' The god is made of tanned skin of some sort, and the 
form is circular, being about nine inches in heighth, and 
the same in diameter. The top is covered with the same 
material, but the lower end is open, one half being painted 
red and the other green. Upon the green side is fashioned 
a rude representation of a man's face ; two oblong apera- 
tures in the skin in the shape of right angle triangles, with 
the bases inward, are the eyes. There is no nose, and a 
circular piece of leather fastened about two inches below 
the eyes represents the mouth. Two similar pieces on 
each side, opposite the outer corners of the eyes, are in- 
tended for the ears. This completes the personel of the 
god, with the addition of a small tuft of leather upon the 
top, which is dressed with feathers when it is brought out 
to be worshipped on public occasions. The three Indians 
present looked upon it with the greatest veneration, who 
knelt around it in the most devout manner, and went 
through a form of prayer, while one of the number 
sprinkled upon it a white powder. Matteo, the Indian 



130 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 



who accompanied us, spoke in praise of Montezuma, and 
told us that it was god and the brother of the sun." 

Twenty miles north is an ancient ruin, so old that the 
present Indians have no knowledge of its origin or former 
occupants. They only know that it was there when their 
fathers came. Under the ruins are excavated cellars which 
are not often found in the pueblos of to-day. 

The town of Acoma, which lies fifteen or twenty miles 
north of Laguna, is one of the most ancient and remarka- 
ble in the Pueblo group, and with the exception of Moquis 
and Zuni, has yielded less of its ancient customs to the 
influence of civilization. The place stands upon the sum- 
mit of an enormous rock, white, and almost perpendicular. 
The only way to get to it is up a path carved by human 
hands in the crevices of the sandstone, which is long, steep 
and narrow. No wheeled vehicle has ever entered the 
pueblo, but supplies are carried upon the backs of sure- 
footed donkeys. There has been little if any change since 
Coronado came here in 1540. The careful Castaneda, the 
chronicler of his expedition, described Acoma as ''a very 
strong place built upon a rock, very high and on three 
sides perpendicular. The only means of reaching the top 
is by ascending a staircase cut in the solid rock. The 
first flight of steps numbered two hundred, which could 
only be ascended with difficulty. The second flight num- 
bered a hundred more, narrower and more difficult than 
the first, and when they were surmounted there remained 
about twelve more at the top which could only be ascended 
by putting the hands and feet into the holes cut in the 
rock." 

At Acoma the same customs exist as at Zuni, and the 



I 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 13! 

inhabitants of the two places are very much alike except 
in language. A visitor in 1871 describes a manuscript 
he .saw there in the possession of an old cacique, which 
was regarded with the greatest reverence, and the people 
feared that some misfortune would befall them if it 
were touched by sacrilegious hands. It was discovered 
to be a very ancient missal, written upon parchment 
with a plain round hand. The document was probably 
left by the Franciscan monks, who built an adobe 
church there centuries ago, and until recently occupied 
an ancient and shattered house adjoining it. The church 
is a curious old structure, and is decorated with two pic- 
tures, a Virgin and Child and a St. Joseph, which 
are said to be of value, having been imported from 
Spain at least two hundred years ago. The ceiling bears 
a rude fresco representing the sun, moon and stars, which 
the Indians say was the work of an artist priest. His 
name and tiie date (1702) can be found under the dust 
that has been accumulating for generations. There is a 
pair of bells in the tower of the church, which are said to 
be the gift of the Queen of Spain, but the date when they 
were brought there cannot be ascertained. 

Although the Catholics have maintained their mission 
here for three centuries, the people still cling to the Aztec 
rites, and keep the sacred fire burning in the estufa. It 
was seen several years ago by an army officer, who found 
four old caciques watching it, busying themselves with the 
weaving of blankets. The people have no doubt lost the 
substance of the Aztec religion, but retain this, with some 
of the ceremonials. They go to the house-tops each 
morning to watch for the coming of Montezuma, their 



132 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

Messiah. As the first faint streak of red lights up the low 
horizon, tall dark figures appear upon the parapets of the 
town, and remain facing the dawn until the sun is fairly 
in the heavens. Then the muffled forms drop away slowly 
and sadly, for another morn has brought disappointment 
to the patient souls that have watched, oh ! so long and 
persistently, for the arrival of their redeemer. What they 
expect him to do for them, what hopes they have in his 
bright coming, has not been clearly determined; but in their 
steadfast hearts there is an enduring faith which centuries 
of waiting have not dimmed, nor the showers of blood 
from Spanish sabres extinguished, that the dawn of his 
appearance will bring a brighter day. 

The Moquis are an isolated relic of a once great nation. 
Their home, like Acoma, is upon a high, rocky island, separ- 
ated from the rest of the world by an ocean of sand. It is a 
natural fortification, and can be approached only by climb- 
ing a long, narrow serpentine path in the crevices of the 
rocks. In Coronado's time Moquis was known as the 
Province of Tusayan, and consisted of seven towns with 
a population of about 20,000. All the villages stand to- 
day, but the people are reduced to a mere handful. 
The villages occupy the entire width of a broad mesa or 
table land, and standing immediately in front of the 
houses one may look down a precipice 500 feet. On the 
rim of this rocky wall the children play and the goats 
feed. The houses are the same as those of Zuni, except 
that they are built of stone instead of adobe, and the cus- 
toms of the two places are similar. 

Like the inhabitants of all the other pueblos, the Mo- 
quis are rapidly dwindling away, and in the thirty years 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 33 

during which civilization has known something of them 
their numbers have decreased from 6,000, according to 
the census of 1850, to 1,604 to-day. 

The Moquis have lost some of the land they formerly 
occupied in the same way which the Zunis narrowly 
escaped losing theirs. They had cultivated cotton from time 
immemorial in a certain fertile valley, and when the Span- 
iards came here in 1540, had large fields from which they 
traded the surplus to other tribes. But a few years ago 
the Mormons, which are now swarming over Arizona, 
came here, pre-empted the Moquis' cotton fields, and are 
now actually selling cotton to the Indians from the fields 
which they owned and cultivated for hundreds of years. 

The Moquis tradition is that their fathers used to live far in 
the North, and that long years ago barbarous tribes of Indians 
drove them from their houses into the mountains, where 
they now reside, and where they fortified and defended 
themselves. The Moquis houses are of the same order of 
architecture as the ruins of Colorado, their general form 
is identical, and the same material is used. The present 
villages are upon high, impregnable cliffs, while the ruins 
are all in the valleys. When the emigration took place 
cannot be determined, but it must have been centuries 
ago, as the houses of the present pueblos were old when 
the Spaniards found them in 1540, and were even then 
crumbling in decay. One evidence of the age of the present 
villages is that across the space between them paths have 
been worn in the solid rock to a depth of several inches, 
and remembering that the shoes of the people are soft- 
soled moccasins, the geologists think it must have been a 
thousand years. 



134 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

Dr. Tenbroek, who visited the place in 1852, 
placed the population of the seven Moquis pueblos 
at 8,000. He says ''they believe in a great father 
who lives where the sun rises, and a great mother 
who lives where the sun sets. Many, many years ago 
their great mother brought from her home in the west 
nine races of men. First, the deer race; second, the 
sand race;- third, the water race; fourth, the bear race; 
fifth, the rabbit race ; sixth, the wolf race ; seventh, the 
rattlesnake race; eighth, the tobacco plant race, and 
ninth, the reed grass race. Having placed them here where 
their villages stand, she transformed them into men, who 
built the pueblos, and the race distinction is still kept up. 
One told me he was of the sand race, and another that he 
was of the rabbit race. The Governor is of the deer race. 
They are firm believers in metempsychosis, and that when 
they die, will resolve into their original forms and become 
deers, bears, etc. Shortly after the pueblos were built, 
the great mother came in person and brought them all the 
domestic animals they have, cattle, sheep and donkeys. 
Their sacred fire is kept burning constantly by the old 
men, and they fear some great misfortune would befall 
them if they allowed it to be extinguished. 

*' Their mode of marriage might be introduced into 
civilized life. Here, instead of the swain asking the hand 
of the fair one, she selects the man of her fancy and then 
her father proposes to the sire of the dusky youth. Polyga- 
my is unknown among them, but if at any time husband 
and wife do not live happily together they are divorced 
and can remarry. They are a happy, simple, contented 
and most hospitable people. The vice of intoxication is 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I35 

unknown and they have no kind of fermented liquors. 
When a stranger visits them the first act is to set food 
before him and nothing is done till he has eaten. The 
women are the prettiest squaws I have ever seen, and are 
very neat and industrious. While virgins, their hair is 
done up on either side of the head in rolls ; after marriage 
they wear it in braids or loosely." 

Dr. Edward Palmer writes : in May, 1869, in com- 
pany with the Rev. Vincent Colyer, I visited the Moquis 
Indians. One night, while camping near the town, we 
wished some corn for our horses. The Governor being 
made aware of the fact, mounted the top of the house and 
called aloud. A movement was soon discernable, house- 
tops and doors being occupied by listeners. The Governor 
repeated his call several times. Soon from every quarter 
corn was brought in flat baskets, until more than enough 
was procured, for which we were expected to pay nothing, 
but Mr. Colyer gave them some flannel. They were sur- 
prised to see us giving corn to our horses, because it is 
raised with so much difficulty that they use it only for their 
own consumption. 

"The Governors of the Moquis towns are accustomed 
to mount their house-tops at night and give instructions 
regarding the labors of the following day. The night be- 
fore we left the town of Oraybi one of these harangues was 
made, and we were informed that the Governor had in- 
structed all the people to go out early the next morning 
and kill the jack rabbits, which were eating up the corn. 
Early the next morning the men turned out, according to 
orders, acco iipanied by the women, whose business was to 
take care of the game. Rabbits are an important article 



136 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

of food with these Indians, and their skins are cut up into 
clothing. The implements used in capturing them is the 
boomerang, which is shied at the legs of the animals. 

'^The Governor invited Mr. Colyer, Lieut. Grouse and 
myself to dine with him at his house. He received us cor- 
dially, showing us a silver-headed ebony cane, a gift from 
President Lincoln. Dinner being announced, a blanket 
was spread upon the floor, and upon it were arranged dishes 
of dried peaches, a good supply of boiled mutton, and a 
large basket of corn cakes as blue as indigo, made from 
the meal of the blue corn. There were also some dishes 
filled with a sweet liquid made by dissolving the roasted 
center of the agave plant in water. There were neither 
plates, knives, forks, spoons or napkins, but the dinner 
was clean, as was everything else about the house. The 
bread answers for both plate and spoon. You take a 
piece, lay a fragment of mutton and some peaches upon 
it, or a little of the sweet liquid, and bolt the mass, plate, 
spoon and all. This dinner, though prepared and cooked 
by Indians, of food produced entirely by themselves, tasted 
better than many a meal eaten by us in the border settle- 
ments, cooked by whites." 

The most interesting of all the ruined pueblos, that about 
which the most romance clings, is Pecos, the mythical 
birthplace of Montezuma, — the Nazareth of the Aztecs. It 
is situated on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, 
within sight from the car windows, between the two min- 
ing camps that appear on the maps and railroad time tables 
as Kingman and Levy. The place was inhabited as late as 
1850, but is now only a heap of ruins, having been stripped 
by vandals of everything except its curious legends. 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 37 

General W. H. Emory, then a Lieut, of Topographical 
Engineers, accompanied General Kearney's army to New 
Mexico and California in 1846, and made the first official 
report of the ruins of Pecos. He says: 

** Pecos, once a fortified town, is built on a promontory 
or rock, somewhat in the shape of a human foot. Here 
burned, until seven years ago, the eternal fires of Monte- 
zuma, and the remains of the architecture exhibit, in a 
prominent manner, the engraftment of the Catholic 
Church upon the ancient religion of the country. At one 
end of the short spur, forming the terminus of the promon- 
tory, are the remains of the ^' estufa'^ (temple), with all its 
parts distinct,-— at the other are the remains of the Catholic 
Church, both showing the distinctive marks and emblems 
of the two religions. The fires from the ^^ estufa^^ burned 
and sent their incense through the same altars from which 
was preached the doctrine of Christ. Two religions, so 
utterly different in theory, were here, as in all Mexico, 
blended in harmonious practice. The town has frequently 
been sacked by the Indians, but amidst the havoc of plun- 
der the faithful priests managed to keep the fire burning in 
the ^^ esfufa,'" and it was continued until a few years since, 
when they abandoned this place and joined a tribe of the 
original race over the mountains, about sixty miles west. 
There, it is said, to this day they keep up their fire which 
has never been extinguished." 

Gen. Fremont tells the story of Montezuma's birth. His 
mother was a woman of exquisite beauty, sought after and 
admired by all men. There came a drouth and famine in 
the land. Her prayers brought rain, and as the drops 
touched her, the fair Artemis of the Pueblos conceived. 



138 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

She bore a son ; a summer shower was his father, and his 
name was called Montezuma. 

The same resemblance this myth bears to the sacred 
story of the Immaculate Conception, exists in the legends 
of Montezuma's youth, that are strangely similar to those 
we read in the New Testament of the days of the Child 
Christ. When he grew to manhood Montezuma became 
a prophet and priest, and one day a white eagle came and 
bore him away on its back. Before he left Pecos, the 
Pueblos say, he told them he would come again with the 
rising of the sun, but laid upon them the injunction to 
keep the sacred fire alive until his reappearance. The 
Spaniards came and conquered them, a harsh language 
was heard in their streets, and a new religion was forced 
upon them, but, true to their unwritten creed, the Pueblos 
still dream of the day when their Messiah shall descend 
with the dawn, crowned, plumed and anointed with the 
glory of Divine presence. They believe his promise is 
sure, and will not abandon hope till the Sun, their father, 
dies. 

The religious faith of all the Pueblo Indians is based 
upon the same fundamental creed, showing a common 
origin ; although they differ in their forms of worship, and 
in what may be termed the details of their theology. The 
difference between the creeds of the Indians in the Rio 
Grande valley, and those upon the mountains is marked ; 
the former tribes having much in common, and the latter 
differing to a greater extent. Those in the valley believe 
there is but one god, — those in the mountains worship 
many. The former hold Montezuma as equal to God, and 
have a sort of trinity composed of God, Montezuma and 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN, 1 39 

the Sun. They address their prayers to the two latter, as 
the Christians do to the Father and to the Son. They ad- 
dress the Sun more frequently and freely because, as they 
say, they can see him, because he looks upon them, knows 
their wants and answers their prayers. The Moon is the 
wife of the Sun, and the Stars are their children. 

The legends of the Rio Grande Pueblos are nearly all 
similar. The story of Montezuma exists with very little 
variation among them all. They agree that he was born 
at Pecos, and that in the flight of the eagle which carried 
him away wherever he stopped a Pueblo arose. Pecos is 
the first in order, — the farthest north of all the Pueblos^ 
then come Taos, San Juan, Tesuque, San Domingo, San 
Felipe, Laguna, Acoma, Zuni, Moquis, and others in 
order, marking the stops which the eagle made, until it 
finally alighted at the base of the mountain Popocatapetl, 
where Montezuma built a great city which was ruled over 
by a long line of kings bearing his name. 

At Pecos there used to be a pinon tree which was 
said to have been planted by Montezuma, and the old 
priests say that sitting under its shade he used to make his 
prophecies, and talk in parables, as the founder of the 
Christian religion did. Here he foretold, several centuries 
in advance of its occurrence, the Spanish invasion. He 
warned his people that the conquerors would come from 
the south, and make them slaves for 250 years, and that 
then a white race of mighty warriors, gifted in the arts 
of war and peace, riding upon snow-white chargers, would 
arrive from the east and rescue them ; that the earth then 
would be fertilized by rain, that the mountains would yield 
up their treasures to the pale faces, and that the people 



I40 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

would grow rich and fat with herds of cattle and sheep. 
This prediction, made before or after the fact, as the case 
may be, was strangely fulfilled in 1847, ^or the day after 
the tree fell by the force of a mighty wind, the gallant Phil 
Kearney came down the valley, mounted upon a magnifi- 
cent white stallion, at the head of 3,000 pale faced soldiers, 
and tipped over the deputy throne that the Viceroy Armijo 
had set up at Santa Fe. The pious Pueblos believe that 
Kearney was their deliverer from the Spanish yoke, and 
every morning when they go to the house tops to look for 
the coming of Montezuma, they take from the buckskin 
pouches they wear upon their breasts a pinch of sacred 
powder made from the flour of parched corn, and puff it 
into the air, breathing a prayer for the repose of Kearney's 
soul, and begging a blessing from Montezuma upon the 
work of the day. 

It is in this Oriental act that the strange anomaly in their 
mixed religion appears, as it does in so many other ways. 
The old Spanish marauders who invaded this land were 
pious cut-throats, and brought their priests with them when 
they came. At the head of the Spanish armies a cross 
was borne and the church militant was the church trium- 
phant. Everywhere a garrison was left, remained Francis- 
can monks, who, with the aid of the soldiery, compelled 
the Aztecs to adopt the creed of Rome. Religion was shot 
into them, and the prayers of the friars arose in the smoke 
of battle. The invasion was a grand, bloody missionary 
tour, and the peaceful heathen were compelled to bow be- 
fore the cross while the Spanish steel cut their hamstrings. 
The monks did their work thoroughly, and after a few 
generations every pueblo contained a church, and every 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 141 

time the shadow of the cross fell upon their eyes the people 
bowed to a symbol that represented at once the sacrifice 
and the triumph of the Messiah of Nazareth. 

There were never more sincere or devout adherents to 
the church of l^ome than are the people of some of the 
pueblos to-day, but in their piety appears that strange and 
pathetic contrast to which I have alluded. The priests 
were able to compel them to adopt a new religion, 
but were never able to persuade them to abandoja^e 
old. They go to the housetops at sunrise to watch for the 
coming of one Messiah, and then, entering their houses, 
drop upon their knees before the cross upon which another 
Messiah died. The Catholic faith was firmly and eter- 
nally engrafted upon the pre-historic religion of the 
Aztecs, but the old faith did not expire in the process. 
The sacred fires from the estufa send to the skies to-day, as 
they did five centuries ago, the incense of the pinons, 
but they burn upon the same aftar that bears the wafers 
and the wine that typify the body and the blood of Christ. 
The two religions, essentially so far apart in theory, are 
perfectly blended. The cross is reverenced even as much 
as the memories of Montezuma, and in both trusts the 
ignorant, unlettered people are sincere. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE GREATEST WONDER IN THE WORLD. 

THE most wonderful river in the world is on our own 
c6ntinent, yet it is that of which we know the least, 
and that which the fewest of us have seen. More citizens 
of the United States have crossed the Ganges and sailed 
upon the Amazon than have visited the Colorado of the 
West ; and the Rhine is familiar to hundreds, yes, thou- 
sands, of Americans, who could not tell, if questioned, 
where the waters of the Colorado come from and whither 
they go. Yet no scientist who has seen all the great 
natural wonders of the earth will deny its canons the 
foremost place among themf and no artist will admit that 
its grandeur and beauty can be anywhere surpassed. 
As a single scenic picture Niagara Falls stands with- 
out rivalry ; but if Niagara River from the foot of the 
falls to the whirlpool were extended a thousand miles, and 
the cliffs which enclose it were raised ten and twenty 
times higher ; if it were more than a mile from the floor 
of Suspension bridge to the surface of the water, instead 
of a few hundred feet, the grand canons of the Colorado 
would be reproduced, without the grotesque shapes and 
gorgeous colors in which its crags and peaks are framed 
and painted. 

In less than fifty years after the discovery of America, 
Spanish missionaries and explorers were traveling upon the 
Colorado, and along its banks, and more was known of it 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN, 1 43 

than of the Mississippi or the Potomac, and the Hudson 
River had not then been named. Before the landing of 
the Pilgrims its wonders were discussed in the Royal 
Courts of Spain, and there were boats upon it before the 
Bay of Boston was discovered. But for three centuries 
afterward white men saw and knew little of it, its gorges 
and cataracts forming an insurmountable barrier that 
obstructed its exploration. The traditions of the Zunis, 
that their forefathers had information of the ocean of 
the sunset, and frequently visited it for worship and other 
purposes, find a remarkable corroboration in the report 
of Fernando Alarcon, an officer in the Spanish navy, who 
set out by sea with the good ships St. Peter and St. Cath- 
erine to explore the Pacific coast at the same time Coro- 
nado began his march toward the seven cities of Cibola. 
Having followed up the coast of Western Mexico for a 
distance, he ascertained that the water in which he was 
sailing was a gulf (the Gulf of California), and not a strait, 
as was then supposed. He reached the mouth of the Rio 
Colorado, left his vessels there and then proceeded up the 
river in small boats, a distance of 290 miles, passed the 
mouth of the Rio Gila, where Fort Yuma is situated, and 
when he could go no farther by reason of the rapid 
current, he erected a massive cross and baptized the river 
'' Bon Guide," in honor of the motto upon the escutcheon 
of Don Antonio de Mendoca, the Viceroy of New Spain. 
Upon the bark of a tree beside the cross he carved these 
words, in Spanish characters : 

''Alarcon hath come thus far; there are papers at the 
foot of this tree.^' 

The buried papers consisted of a copy of his log book, 



144 CHILDRBt^ OF THE SUN. 

descriptions of what he had seen and encountered, a 
roster of his party and an outline of his future plans. 
They were afterward found by Melchior Diaz, a Spanish 
captain from Sonora, who made an exploration by land 
northward the next year (1541). He followed up the 
coast of the Gulf of California to the mouth of the Rio 
Colorado, which he afterward named Rio del Tizon, and 
being unable to cross it continued northward along its 
right bank to the spot where Alarcon had buried his 
papers. This expedition was terminated by the death of 
Melchior, who was accidentally killed by falling upon the 
point of his own lance. While Alarcon was exploring 
the river he came across a party of Indians, who told him 
of the arrival of Coronado at Zuni. They were then 
upon their way to the ocean, andseemed familiar with the 
country lying between the Rio Colorado and its shore, 
which is now California. 

Neither Alarcon or Diaz explored the canons which lay 
above them ; this discovery was left to Captain Cardenas, 
an officer of Coronado's army, who was sent by the latter 
with a small party of men to explore the country west of 
Zuni. His party went first to the Moquis villages, north- 
west of Zuni about eighty miles. Here they were cor- 
dially welcomed, were provided with provisions and pre- 
sented with gifts, for, as Castaneda, the private secretary 
of Coronado, and the historian of the expedition, says : 
*' Rumors had spread among the inhabitants that Cibola 
had been captured by a ferocious race of people, who 
bestrode animals that devoured men, and the information 
filled them with the greatest fear and astonishment." 

Moquis was called ''Tusayan," and here Cardenas 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I45 

secured guides for his journey, who gave him his first 
information of the wonderful river. After a journey of 
twenty days he reached its banks, and says he '' found 
them elevated three or four leagues in the air ; and some 
of the single rocks that were seen standing alone in the 
canon, and did not seem larger than a man, were discov- 
ered upon approaching nearer to be loftier than the tower 
of the cathedral at Seville." Several attempts were made 
to reach the stream at the bottom, but were unsuccessful, 
although some of the party succeeded in climbing down 
the crevices in the cliffs far enough to see the water. Car- 
denas gives a graphic description of the Grand Canon, 
and the point from which he observed it, some where near 
the 35th parallel, cannot be far from where the Atlantic 
and Pacific Railroad crosses to-day, but he certainly did 
not find the side canon through which parties now reach 
the bed of the river from Peach Springs. 

The marvelous story of Cardenas, which for centuries 
formed the only record of this almost mythical locality, 
was magnified by the reports of hunters and trappers, and 
scouts who professed to have seen the canons, and had 
conversed with Indians who had lived in them. Around 
the camp fire of the hunter, and in the prospector's cabin, 
stories were related that persons who entered the gorges in 
boats were seized by the remorseless waters and swallowed 
up; that there were whirlpools in which were still revolv- 
ing, in an eternal circle, the bodies and the bones of men 
that had drifted there years before, and that there were 
underground passages into which boats had passed, never 
to be seen again. One of the stories was that the river 
was lost under the rocks for several hundred miles, and 



146 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

another related to cataracts thousands of feet high, whose 
roaring waters could be heard on distant mountain sum- 
mits hundreds of miles away. There were many stories cur- 
rent of parties wandering on the brink of the canon, vainly 
endeavoring to reach the waters below, and perishing with 
thirst at last in sight of the river which was roaring its 
mockery into dying ears. And there was a myth about 
the canons being inhabited by a race of savage white men, 
unlike any creatures ever seen, and were supposed to be 
Indians whose color had been bleached by centuries of 
absence from the sun. 

The Indians, too, had woven the mysteries of the gorges 
into their religion. Major Powell tells of a legend, to the 
effect that long ago, there was a great and wise chief, who 
mourned the death of his wife, and would not be com- 
forted until Ta-vwoats, one of the Indian gods, came to 
him and told him she was in a happier land, and offered 
to take him there that he might see for himself, if, upon 
his return, he would cease to mourn. The great chief 
promised. Then Ta-vwoats made a trail through the 
mountains that intervene between that beautiful land, the 
balmy region in the great west, and this, the desert home 
of the poor Nu-ma. This trail was the canon gorge of the 
Colorado. Through it he led him; and, when they had 
returned, the deity exacted from the chief a promise that 
he would tell no one of the joys of that land, lest, through 
discontent with the circumstances of this world, they 
should desire to go to heaven. Then he rolled a river into 
the gorge, a mad, raging stream that should engulf any 
that might attempt to enter thereby. 

''More than once," says Major Powell, in the report of 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I47 

his exploration, ''have I been warned by the Indians not 
to enter this canon. They considered it disobedience to 
the gods and contempt for their authority, and believed 
that it would surely bring upon me their wrath." 

In the story of his army experience on the border, pub- 
lished in 1859, General Randolph B. Marcy, recently In- 
spector General of the Army, says : *'The great canon of 
the Colorado — that ' Colorado' which enters the head of 
the gulf of California — presents a canon more wonderful 
than any other on the globe. From vague reports this 
chasm is well nigh two hundred miles long, and of fabulous 
depth. More than three hundred years ago Coronado, in 
the course of his adventurous expedition, came upon it. 
He declares that for several days he traveled along the 
crest of a lofty bluff bordering the canon, which he esti- 
mated to be nine miles high. That is, pile Mount Blanc 
upon top of the highest peak of the Himalayas, and then 
cut a gorge down from the top to the level of the ocean, 
and it will not be within a mile as deep as this chasm." 

As late as 1858, Colonel Marcy was told by Antony 
Lereux, for whom he vouches as "one of the most reliable 
and best informed guides in New Mexico," that he had 
once ''been at a point of this canon where he estimated 
the walls to be three miles high — that is, equal to a gorge 
cut from the summit of Mount Blanc down to the level ot 
the Mediterranean." 

In 1853, Colonel Marcy proposed to the Government to 
explore the canon ; but there was then no appropriation 
which could be applied to this object, and his suggestion 
was not acted upon. 

"Imagine," says Colonel Marcy, "then, what must be 



148 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

the effect of a large stream like the Colorado traversing 
for two hundred miles a defile, with the perpendicular 
walls towering five thousand feet above the bed of the 
river. It is impossible that it should not contribute largely 
to the formation of scenery surpassing in sublimity and 
picturesque character any other in the world. Our land- 
scape painters would here find rare subjects for their study, 
and I venture to hope that the day is not far distant when 
some of the most enterprising of them may be induced to 
penetrate this new field of art in our only remaining unex- 
plored territory. 

''A consideration, however, of vastly greater financial 
and national importance than those alluded to above, which 
might, and probably would, result from a thorough explo- 
ration of this part of the river, is the development of its 
mineral wealth. That gold and silver abound in that re- 
gion is fully established, as those metals have been found 
in many localities both east and west of the Colorado. Is 
it not, therefore, probable that the walls of this gigantic 
crevice will exhibit many rich deposits. Companies are 
formed almost daily, and large amounts of money and 
labor expended in sinking shafts of one, two and three 
hundred feet, with the confident expectation of finding 
mineral deposits; but here nature has opened and exposed 
to view a continuous shaft two hundred miles in length and 
five thousand feet in depth. In the one case we have a 
small shaft blasted out at great expense by manual labor, 
showing a surface of about thirty-six hundred feet, while 
here nature gratuitously exhibits ten thousand millions of 
feet extending into the very bowels of the earth. 

"Is it, then, at all without the scope of rational conjee- 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I49 

ture to predict that such an immense development of the 
interior strata of the earth — such a huge gulch, if I may- 
be allowed the expression, extending so great a distance 
through the heart of a country as rich as this in the pre- 
cious metals, may yet prove to be the El Dorado which the 
early Spanish explorers so long and fruitlessly sought for; 
and who knows but that the Government might here find 
a source of revenue sufficient to liquidate our national 
debt?" 

In 1850 the first attempt at an exploration was made by 
the United States Government. Lieut. Derby, of the army, 
better known as a humorous writer — John Phoenix — made 
a reconnoisance from the Gulf of California to ascertain 
to what distance it was navigable, and was able to follow 
its course in a small steamer for 150 miles. In the follow- 
ing year Captain Sitgreaves, of the army, made an explora- 
tion of its banks, and looked down into the wonderful 
canons Cardenas described to Coronado. In 1854 Lieut. 
Whipple, in command of a surveying party of Government 
engineers engaged in seeking a practicable railway route 
across the continent, followed its banks for many miles, 
seeking a place to cross. In 1857 Lieut. J. C. Ives 
started up the river from the Gulf of California in a little 
steamer constructed for the purpose, and went to the 35 th 
parallel, at the foot of the Grand canon, but could go no 
farther. He climbed the walls, sent his steamer back to 
San Francisco, and returned to Washington by way of the 
old Santa Fe trail. In his report he says : '* For 300 miles 
the cut edges of the table-land rise abruptly, often perpen- 
dicularly, from the water's edge, forming walls from 3,000 
to 7,000 feet high. This is the Grand canon of the Col- 



150 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

orado, the most magnificent gorge as well as the grandest 
geological formation of which we have any knowledge." 

After Lieut. Ives' time a few exploring parties visited the 
canon and wrote wonderful descriptions of it in their re- 
ports, but until 1869, when Major Powell started upon the 
most daring and important exploration since the time of 
Fremont, no practical knowledge was furnished the public. 

Two great rivers, the Green and the Grand, born of the 
snows of the Rocky mountains, twelve or fifteen thousand 
feet above the sea, unite near the Eastern boundary of 
Utah, and form what is known as the Colorado of the 
West. The Grand River rises at the top of Long's peak, 
across the continental divide from Denver ; and the Green 
near the top of Fremont's peak in the Wind River Moun- 
tains of Wyoming. The two joining make the largest 
river on the Pacific slope, — a stream 2,000 miles long, 
draining a country 800 miles in length by 500 in width, 
and covering an area of more than 400,000 square 
miles, larger than all New England and the Middle States, 
with Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky added. The de- 
scent from the elevation at which it finds its source is ac- 
complished by a series of canons cut through a succession 
of plateaus, which spread out from the mountains like a 
gigantic stairway, each step a thousand feet or so in heighth, 
and many miles in breadth. Prof. Newberry estimates 
that the wearing away of the mountains has been on such 
a grand scale that they are all now only half their original 
size. 

The region through which the Colorado flows, says 
Major Powell, ^Ms set with ranges of snow-clad mountains, 
attaining an altitude above the sea varying from 8,000 to 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. I5I 

14,000 feet. All winter long, on its mountain-crested rim, 
snow falls, filling the gorges, half burying the forests, and 
covering the crags and peaks with a mantle woven by the 
winds from the waves of the sea — a mantle of snow. When 
the summer sun comes, this snow melts and tumbles down 
the mountain sides in millions of cascades. Ten million 
cascade brooks unite to form a hundred rivers beset with 
cataracts ; a hundred roaring rivers unite to form the Col- 
orado, which rolls, a mad, turbid stream into the Gulf of 
California." This stream has cut deeper and deeper into 
the ground until its bed lies between towering cliffs of 
rock. It once flowed upon the top of the mountain ; it 
has burrowed its way to the bottom. These deep, narrow 
gorges are called canons, and for a thousand miles or more 
the Colorado River has cut itself such a canon through the 
granite and sandstone and earth, which, piled together, 
are called the Rocky mountains. 

Major Powell took with him a party of twelve men, ex- 
perienced and hardy mountaineers, and four boats, which 
were loaded with rations for a year, and materials for build- 
ing cabins in case he should be frozen or snowed in. He 
had plenty of ammunition and other supplies, all of which 
was divided into four equal parts, and each part loaded 
upon one of the boats, so that there were three months 
provisions and all necessary supplies and equipments in 
each boat, in case one or more should be lost. Major 
Powell tells of the description given him by an old Indian 
of the experience of a member of his tribe in running a 
canon. 

''The rocks," he said, holding his hands above his 
head, his arms vertical, and looking up between them to 



152 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

the sky : ''the rocks h-e-a-p, h-e-a-p high; the water go 
hoo-woogh, hoo-woogh ; water poney (boat) h-e-a-p buck; 
water catch 'em ; no see um Injun any more; no see 'em 
squaw any more; no see 'em papoose any more ! " 

Several years before Powell went through, a man named 
Ashley, with several companions, attempted the passage, 
and went to wreck, the entire party, with the exception 
of Ashley and one other, being drowned. The survivors 
gained the top of the cliffs, and made their way to the Mor- 
mon settlement, living upon herbs and roots. At one 
place Major Powell nearly lost his life. In climbing to 
the top of the rocks he reached a ledge from which he 
could not return, and, having but one arm, his position 
was perilous in the extreme. His men observed him, and 
going to the top of the cliff took off their drawers and 
pantaloons, and tying them together were able to reach 
their commander, who grasping this novel rope with his 
one hand was drawn to the top over a chasm 2,000 feet 
deep. 

Three of Major Powell's men deserted him, having be- 
come tired by the hardships and frightened by the dangers 
of the voyage. They tried to induce the Major to go back, 
but he refused to do so, and the remainder of his men re- 
mained with him. The deserters were murdered by the 
Indians before they reached the settlements, and the ex- 
ploring party emerged from their rocky prison the next 
day. 

This Grand Canon, 200 miles long and from 3,000 to 
6,000 feet deep, is the work of erosion. The process by 
which the result was brought about is considered by the 
scientists under three heads: (i) Weathering; (2) trans- 



CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 1 53 

portation ; (3) corrasion. By weathering is meant the 
decay and disintegration of the rock by the action of the 
temperature, the beating of the rain, and the force of 
the wind. This process would have been greatly delayed 
if the loosened material had been allowed to remain and 
cover the surface. Hence, transportation becomes a pow- 
erful agent in erosion, not only by exposing the disinte- 
grating surfaces, but by mechanical wear in the act of 
removal. All rocks are more or less soluble in water, and 
impurities in the water intensify the solvent action. But. 
it usually happens that rocks disintegrated in this way 
merely fall to pieces, the hard portion remaining in the 
shape of sand and pebbles. The transportation of this 
residue by the stream is what the scientists call ^^ corra- 
sion." In this way the bed of the stream has been 
widened and deepened, but the work was also facilitated 
by the incessant action of the water in dissolving the 
rocks. The mechanical wear or erosion by a stream de- 
pends largely upon its velocity — upon the force of the 
waters. The geologists measure the amount of energy in 
a given stream by the quantity of the water and the verti- 
cal distance through which it descends. The velocity of 
the stream would continually increase if none of its en- 
ergy were consumed in friction, but very much of it is so 
consumed, and reappears in whirlpools and other innumer- 
able forms of motion. It is by some of these that the 
work of erosion is largely done. Of the Colorado plateau, 
the geologists say that the erosion, which began with the 
first lifting of a part above the ocean, has progressed con- 
tinually to the present time. The total elevation has been 
about 12,000 feet; only 7,000 feet remains, that being the 



154 CHILDREN OF THE SUN. 

present altitude above the level of the sea. Five thousand 
feet of the general surface of the country has been worn 
off and carried away into the ocean by the action of the 
waters. 

The walls of these canons, according to Prof. Newberry, 

who partially explored them in 1857, '* are formed of great 
masses of granite, and other volcanic rocks, with layers 
of highly crystalline limestone and conglomerates, which 
are of equal heights, and correspond exactly on either side 
of the river. The unavoidable inference from these facts 
is that the mountain ranges once crossed the bed of the 
river and dammed back its flow, filling the valleys with 
extensive lakes. These were connected by a series of cas- 
cades and rapids, which must have been of a grandeur 
unparalleled by Niagara, but, as Niagara is destroying 
itself, so have they destroyed themselves. The stupendous 
precipices which tower above the stream on either side are 
but the trophies of its unconquerable power, the remnants 
of the mountain barriers through which the cataract has 
eaten its way in the course of a million of years, and 
drained the great lakes of the interior." 

The canons of the Colorado are now easily accessible, 
and will be the resort of thousands of people from whom 
their wonders have hitherto been shut off by insurmount- 
able obstacles. The Utah line of the Denver and Rio 
Grande Railroad Company crosses the Colorado at the con- 
fluence of the Green and Grand, above which is the won- 
derful "Canon of Desolation," and below *' the Marble 
Canon," which is the most beautiful and picturesque of 
them all. The Grand Canon is reached by the Atlantic 
and Pacific Railway, which crosses the Colorado River 
just below its mouth. 



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