Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/607

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE ZUNI INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO.
589

whites. Their dress is simple, that of the men being merely cotton drawers and shirt, with blue woolen stockings of their own manufacture; a turban of wool or cotton completes the male attire. The females wear a gown of wool, held at the waist by a sash of the same material; the arms and shoulders are left bare; their stockings same as those worn by the men; for shoes, both males and females wear moccasins of buckskin. When in the street, the women cover the head and shoulders with a white cloth.

Among the Zuni, as well as other Pueblo Indians, are many albinos, and, as interesting to those inclined to the Darwinian theory, it may be stated that the production of this "improved stock" is not due to any mixture of white blood. The skin, and sometimes the hair, of these singular specimens of humanity, is perfectly white, while their eyes are of a reddish hue. The mother of an albino being asked why, she being brown her child was white made no reply; her fierce look, however, expressed more, perhaps, than her language would have revealed.

Fig. 7.

Hieroglyphics at Mesa Pintada.

Several tribes of Pueblo Indians have been contaminated by contact with the Spaniards, but the Zuni are still pure, and free from taint through Spanish influence. They are simple, though ceremonious in manners—the latter trait undoubtedly acquired from occasional association with their Latin conquerors. They are extremely hospitable, and, after short acquaintance, are apt to prepossess the