Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/627

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PUERTO


557


PUGET


narrow passage ways, of varying sizes and directions, with flat roofs whiich served as working or resting places, or as observation points for ceremonial occa- sions. The houses of the piieblo were usually buUt around a central open space or plaza in the middle of which was the "kiva" (Spanish "estufa") or sunken rock-hewn chamber dedicated to the sacred secret rites of the various priesthoods. For better defence against the wild tribes the outer walls were frequently solid, without door or window opening, entrance being effected by means of ladders — one on the outside for ascending to the fiat roof, and another descending into the interior through a doorway in the roof itself. The material was either cut sandstone or volcanic tufa, faced with adobe, or adobe blocks of sun-baked clay. The roofs were of timbers reinforced with cornstalks laid in clay. The fire-place was in the centre or in the corner, and the smoke escaped through the door- way in the roof. At one end of the principal living- room was a low stone enclosure fitted with stone slabs of various smoothness and set slanting, on which the corn was ground into meal by means of stone melates. The "cliff dwelling" and the "cave dwelling" of the same region were simply variant forms of the same structure, from which the modern Pueblo house dif- fers but very httle. The prehistoric "chff-dwellers" were in many cases the ancestors of the Pueblos of to-day. The Hopi, in fact, are still true cliff-dwellers, their villages being set, for defensive purposes, upon the summits of mesas several hundred feet above the surrounding desert.

Their main dependence was agriculture assisted by irrigation, com and beans being the principal crops, with "chile", pumpkins, native cotton and tobacco, and, later, peaches introduced by the old missionaries. In spite of their arid siuroundings they were indus- trious and successful farmers. They also hunted to some extent, particularly jackrabbits, which were taken by circle "drives" in which whole communities participated. Fish was never eaten. The dog was the only domestic animal, with the exception of the turkey and eagle occasionally kept for feathers. As weavers and potters they excelled all other tribes north of Mexico, their pottery being particularly beautiful in ornamentation, finish, and general work- manship. Their native cotton is now superseded by wool. They also made a great variety of baskets, the basket plaques of the Hopi being especially artistic. The men were expert carvers in wood. Their ordinary dress was of deerskin, with elaborate fabrics of woven cott(5n for ceremonial occasions; fabrics of woven jTicca fibre were also used in ancient times. Blankets of woven strips of rabbit skin were worn in winter. In summer the men went practically naked except for the breechcloth and children under ten years were seldom clothed. Necklaces, earrings, and other orna- ments of shell, turquoise, and more recently of worked coin silver, were worn by both sexes. The hair was cut off above the eyes in front, and either bunched up behind by the men, or at the side by the women, the unmarried girls being distinguished by a special hair arrangement. The women alone were the potters and breadmakers, but both sexes shared in farming, house-building, weaving and basket making. Weapons were the bow and arrow, lance, club, and knife, with a boomerang club for killing jackrabbits and shields for ceremonial occasions.

Org-^niz.\tion and Religion. — All the Pueblo tribes had the clan system, some having as many as twenty or more clans, with descent generally, but not always, in the mother. Monogamy was the rule, un- like the condition in most tribes in the United States and northward, and the woman was the virtual owner of both the house and the garden, with correspond- ingly higher status than in other tribes. Each pueblo was an independent and separate communitv, the only larger bond being similarity of language or cus-


tom, the chief being simply the executive of the priest- hoods. In some pueblos there is said to have been a summer and a winter chief. Since Spanish times the town government is vested in an elective chief or governor, a vice-chief and a council. Practically all affairs of importance — war, medicine, hunting, agri- culture, etc. — were controlled by the numerous priesthoods or secret societies, whose public cere- monies made up a large and picturesque part of Pueblo life. Among these ceremonies the Snake Dance of the Hopi is probably most widely known. Their religion was an animism, with special appeal to the powers supposed to control the rain, the growing crops, hunting, and war. Some of their ritual mj-ths were of great lengtli and full of poetic imagery, while some of their ceremonials were of high dramatic char- acter, often interwoven with features of the grossest obscenity. Special regard was paid also to the cardi- nal points, to which were ascribed both sex and colour. Belief in witchcraft was universal and witch execu- tions were of frequent occurrence. The dead were buried in the ground. In temperament the Pueblos were, and still are, peaceable, kindly, industrious, and of rather jovial disposition. Their outward life has been but little changed by the white man's civilization beyond the addition of a few conveniences in house- keeping and working methods, and the majority still hold tenaciously to their old beliefs and ceremonials (see also Hopi Indhns).

The literature upon the Pueblo Indians and region is so voluminous that it is only possible to note a few of the works most readilv available.

Ban-croft, AWtre Races (of the Pacific Slates) — Wild Tribal (San Francisco, 1886); Ideh, Arizona and New Mexico (San Fran- cisco, 1SS9) ; Bandelieb, numerous papers in publications of Archjeological Institute of America (Cambridge and Boston. 1881-92) ; BoiTRKE, Snake Dance of the Moquis (New York. 1889) : Bureau of Cath. Ind. Missions, annual Repts. of Director. Wash- ington; CoM-MissiONER OF Intj. Affxius, annual Repts. (Wash- ington) ; Gushing, Zuni Fetiches in second Rept. Bureau Am. Ethnologj' (Washington, 1883); Idem, Zufii Creation Myths, 13th do. (Washington, 1896); Fewkes. Tusayan Snake Cere- monies in 16th Rept. Bur. Am. Ethn. (Washington. 1897); Idem. Tusayan FltUe and Snake Ceremonies, 19th do.. II (Washing- ton. 1900); Idem, Hopi Kalcinas, 21st do. (Washington. 1903); Idem. Ttro Summers' Work in Pueblo Ruins. 22d do. (Washington, 1904), I; Idem, in Journal Am. Ethn. and Arch., I-IV (Boston and New Vorlt, 1891-4); Hodge, in Handbook of .Am. Inds. etc., I-II, Bur. Am. Ethn. (Washington, 1908-10); Holmes, Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos in 4th Rept. Bur. Am. Ethn. (Washington, 1886) ; LfMMis, The Man Who Married the Moon, Pueblo folic stories (New York, 1894) ; Mindeleff, A Study of Pueblo Architecture in 8th Rept. Bur. -•Vm. Ethn. (Washington, 1891); Stevenson, The,Sia in 11th do. (Washington, 1893); Idem. The Z uai Indians in 23d do. (Wasiiington. 1904); Voth. various Hopi papers in pubhcations Field Columbian Museum (Chicago. 1901-5); WiNSHip. The Coronado Expedition in 14th Rept. Bur. .4.m. Ethn., I (Washington. 1896).

James Mooney. Puerto Viejo, Diocese of. See Portoviego.

Puget, Pierre, painter, sculptor, architect, and naval constructor, b. at Marseilles, .31 Oct., 1622; d. there 2 Dec, 1694. .\t fourteen he was apprenticed to a shipbuilder and showed much talent. In 1637 he set out on foot for Italy, and found work with the duke's cabinet-maker in Florence. Later at Rome he studied painting un<ler Pietro da Cortona. In 1643 he returned to France, and was summoned to Toulon to build a man-of-war. In 1646 he was again in Italy as assistant to a religious of the Feuillants, whom Anne of Austria had commissioned to make drawings of all the principal monuments of antiquity. Puget's attention was thus directed to architecture. In 1653 he was back in France, painting altar-pieces for differ- ent churches, the "Annunciation and Visitation" (.\ix); the "Salvator Mundi", the "Baptism of Con- stantine and of Clovis" (Marseilles). Some pictures believed to be his are probably the work of his son Francois. In 1660 Fouquet sent him to Carrara to buy marble for his palace. After the fall of Fouquet, Puget lingered in Genoa long enough to execute many works; "St. Sebastian"; "B. Alexander Sauli"; a