Part 12 (2/2)

[121] _On the Ruins of an Ancient Stone Pueblo on the Animas River_, Peabody Reports, 11 and 12.

[122] I must here call attention to a singular coincidence. Among the ruins of Uxmal in Yucatan there are, aside from the ”Teocalli,” or medicine mound, two general forms of structure,--one narrow rectangle like _B_, and hollow rectangles like _A_. The ”Casa del Gobernador”

would correspond to the former, and the ”Casa de las Monjas” to the latter. Of course, there is dissimilarity between the house of the ”Governor” and _B_, in so far as the former contains halls and the latter but cells. Still the fact is interesting that, whereas the great northern pueblos have each but one house alone, here, for the south, we have already two buildings within one and the same enclosure, similar in form and size to those of Central America. I call attention to this fact, though well remembering at the same time the friendly advice of Major J. W. Powell, the distinguished chief of the Bureau of Ethnology at Was.h.i.+ngton, ”not to attempt to trace relations.h.i.+ps.”

[123] _Relation du Voyage de Cibola_, ii. cap. v. p. 176.

[124] I am informed by Governor Wallace, and have permission to quote him, that these elevated plateaux grow exceedingly tall wheat, rye, and oats. He has seen oats whose stalks were 6 feet long and 1-3/4 inches in diameter. The heads were proportionally large.

[125] He became adopted, as I am told, from being, as a boy, a.s.sistant to the sacristan of the church of Pecos.

[126] It was Mr. John D. McRae who, together with Mr. Thomas Munn, led me to this spot. Subsequently the former, who has been for nearly twenty years among the northern Indians (in Canada and Oregon), gave me some valuable information in regard to their sign-language. He affirms that it is very highly developed and extensively practised by them; that tribes of entirely different stock-languages can converse with each other freely; and that he was himself present at one time when the Crees and the Blackfeet arranged for a pitched fight on the day to follow, the parley consisting almost exclusively of signs. Thus, killing is indicated by the spanning of a bow and the motion of throwing down; walking, by shoving both hands forwards successively, etc.; the time of day is very correctly given by describing an arc from E. to W. (facing S.) up to the point where the sun stands at the specified hour. These signs are not new to my distinguished friend, Lieutenant-Colonel G.

Mallery, to whom science owes the gift of this new branch of inquiry, but still they are interesting to those who may be less familiar with it. In regard to connection of this ”sign-language” and Indian ”pictography,” Mr. McRae has told me the following: Whenever an Indian breaks up his camp, and wishes to leave behind him information in what direction and how far he is going, he plants into the ground near the fire a twig or stick, and breaks it so that it forms an acute angle, planting the other end in the ground also in the direction in which he intends to camp the following evening. The following would very well give the appearance of this little mark, a.s.suming the Indian to travel from N. to S.:--

[Ill.u.s.tration]

If he intends to go S. for three days it will look thus:--

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Fractional days are indicated by corresponding shorter limbs. If his direction is first S. and then E., this would be a top view of the bent twig, a.s.suming that he travels two days S. and three days W.:--

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The connection between this expedient and sign-language, knowing that, as Dr. W. J. Hoffmann, of Was.h.i.+ngton City, has informed me, the sign for ”lodge” is an imitation of the tent,--that is, holding both hands up and the tips of the fingers together at a steep angle,--becomes very apparent. Through it pictography is easily reached.

[127] Sr. E. Vigil has just informed me that the notion is current that all the Indians of the New Mexican pueblos buried their dead in this manner. Among the Mexicans and the Christianized Indians it is the rule to bury the dead around the church or in sight of it.

[128] There is still another ruin much farther down the railroad, near to a place called ”El Pueblo.” I was informed of its existence, but have not as yet been able to visit it.

[129] Or rather towards the pueblo of San Cristoval. The latter was the chief place of the Tanos Indians, of which stock there are still a few left at the town of Galisteo.

[130] The following is an approximate sketch of these structures. This sketch is made without reference to size or plan, merely in order to show the relative position of the graves (_a_, _a_, _a_, _a_). It will be seen that the a.n.a.logy with the grave of mound _V_, building _A_, is very striking; also with the grave discovered by Mr. Walters, and the wall above the corrugated pottery west of the Arroyo de Pecos.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Graves]

[131] To judge from the report of General Simpson (p. 68), these early traditions must be very meagre. His informant, the celebrated ”Hoosta-Nazle,” is now dead. Of the Pecos adults then living at Santo Domingo, a daughter is still alive, and married to an Indian of the latter pueblo. General (then lieutenant) Simpson was at Jemez in 1849.

[132] _Memoria del Descubrimiento_, etc., p. 238. ”Tienen mucha loza de los colorados y pintadas y negras, platos, caxetes, saleros, almoficos, xicaras muy galanas, alguna de la loza esta vidriada.”

[133] W. H. Holmes, _Geographical Survey_, part iii., p. 404, plate xliv. ”This plate is intended to ill.u.s.trate the corrugated and indented ware. Heretofore specimens of this cla.s.s have been quite rare, as it is not made by any of the modern tribes.”

[134] Holmes, pp. 404, 405.

[135] Even the _estufa_ and the _almacena_ are found. The round depression near the road to the Rio Pecos (marked _L_ on the general plan) is evidently an Estufa, while the circular ruin which I met upon the ap.r.o.n of the mesa during my ascent appears very much like a storehouse.

[136] House _A_ alone appears in these reports; but from the statement that the tribe mustered 500 warriors, it seems probable that _B_ was also inhabited. 2,500 souls could hardly have found room in the 585 cells of _A_, The number of warriors given is doubtless a loose estimate.

[137] San Diego, now in ruins, about 13 miles N. of the pueblo Jemez, was the old pueblo of that tribe. It was the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y struggle in 1692, according to the story of Hoosta-Nazle, given to General Simpson in 1849. _Reconnoissance_, etc., p. 68. Diego de Vargas (_Carta_, Oct. 16, 1692), _Doc.u.mentos para la Historia de Mexico_, 3a series, i. p. 131. ”Los Gemex y los de Santo-Domingo se hallaban en otro tambien nuevo, dentro de la Sierra, a tres leguas del pueblo antiguo de Gemex.” Nearly all the pueblos, upon the approach of the Spaniards, fled to steep and high mesas.

[138] This is the same canon whose source on the ”Mesa de Pecos” I have visited, and where the great bell was found. It is the natural pathway, from the W. and S. W., up to the heights overlooking the valley of Pecos.

[139] A. S. Gatchet, _Zwolf Sprachen aus dem Sudwesten Nord-Amerika's_, Weimar, 1876, p. 41.

<script>