face of clay that is wet slightly and beaten and walked over till it is perfectly hard and smooth. After inclosing it with a fence of cedar poles, all the grain belonging to one farmer is arranged in the center in a big loose pile, perhaps a score of feet in diameter, leaving about eight feet between it and the fence. The threshing is accomplished by driving a dozen or so horses around the circuit, beginning about nine in the morning. A squad of men and boys is on hand, armed with whips to chase the horses, and the central pile gradually works down and all the ears are trodden out. By twelve o'clock the threshing is done, and in the afternoon the straw is thrown into a pile outside of the fence, and the wheat cleaned up and everything made ready for threshing the next man's crop on the morrow. The grain is separated from the chaff some windy day by throwing it up in the air with wooden shovels. The Indians have great herds of sheep that wander among the mesas the year through, and they have many horses and cattle. Certain kinds of grass in the Southwest cure on the stalk, and these and nibblings of sagebrush and cactus keep the creatures from perishing in the lean months. The rainy season comes in July and August, after which the grass flourishes and there is abundance of feed through the fall. The only creatures furnished winter shelter are the horses and such cows and goats as are milked. For the horses rude stables are constructed, but the cows and goats get along with corrals. The sale of wool and of the sheep and other creatures is the chief source of the Indians' income. Something is added to this by the women, who make pottery and dispose of it at the railway stations to travelers on the trains or to traders; and a portion of the men work for wages. A good deal of the money that comes into their hands is not spent wisely; but the same might be said of the expenditure of any class the world over. They gamble in a small way, buy candy and jewelry, cook-stoves, sewing-machines, and brass bedsteads, and make curious misfits in introducing modern articles into their ancient homes and half-savage habits of life. Their amusements are more varied than an outsider would suspect, and, in particular, they enjoy races, both on foot and on horseback. One peculiar contest of speed and expertness consists in two rival parties going in opposite directions and each kicking a stick about a foot long and an inch in diameter over a course agreed on. This course may be anywhere from five to twenty miles long. In the fall some day is fixed on for a rabbit hunt. The young men to the number of about a score ride off on horseback armed with clubs, which they hurl at every rabbit they sight. Each rider is eager to outdo his comrades and get the largest number, and they have a wild time chasing and heading off the rabIf fortune favors, they may secure an average of two or three apiece, but, on the other hand, the whole crowd may kill only a half-dozen. A hunt of a more serious sort, yet scarcely less enjoyed, occurs in November, when three or four parties of about ten in each go off some fifty miles in different directions and camp and hunt deer. For real fun, however, from the Indian view-point, nothing quite equals a special race it is customary to have on St. John's Day. The start is made on a level piece of ground near the village, where a live rooster has been buried in the sand all but its head. The racers, from fifteen to thirty in number, mounted on their horses, go back from the rooster about two hundred yards and at a signal put their horses into a run. As they dash past the rooster each makes a grab at the bird until some one gets him. Then on they go in a mad rush engaged in a lively contest to gain possession of the captive chanticleer. He may change hands a number of times, and the fellow who brings him back to the starting-point is the victor. After the harvest is finished dances are frequent until spring. Many of these are religious and commemorate some old tradition, and the participants dress up in all their barbaric glory. Other dances are merely social. There is not much movement in them. room and stand facing each other, one or two rows of men on this side, and similar rows of women on the other. Then they jump up and down with certain changes of The dancers gather in a step, keeping time to the energetic music public business. This is a daytime meetof drums and their own chanting. The climate is favorable to health, and the Indians are no longer swept off wholesale by smallpox. Rheumatism, pneumonia, and diphtheria are perhaps the most prevalent diseases. They have a good deal of faith in the curative properties of roots and herbs, and when those fail, they call in a medicine man. The physician tries to effect a cure by incantations; and he may resort to breathing on the patient, or will use his eagle feathers to brush away the pain, or will stroke the sick person with a bear's claw, which is another implement of his trade. Often his labors continue for hours at a time. His reward is generally a present of provisions or some article of clothing. ing, and every official present receives a fee of fifty cents. Money for needful expenses comes largely from fines for drunkenness or assaults; but once in a while a small assessment is levied. Roads, bridges, fences, and irrigating ditches are taken care of by each man contributing a certain amount of labor on them yearly. All the land is owned in common, but any family can have set off to it as much as it will cultivate. If this land is allowed to lie idle for three years, it reverts to the pueblo. Except for a troubled period when the Spaniards overran the region, the Pueblo Indians have lived at peace with the whites. They gave our Government valuable help in its operations against the nomadic Navajos, both in fighting and as scouts. Their natural capacity, energy, and thrift place them decidedly above the average of red men, and their ways of life are strikingly original and interest Every tribe has its governor and other officers, elected annually. The voting is done at a public meeting, where the supporters of each candidate stand up to be counted. Once a month the council holds a session and settles quarrels and all other ing. THE BROOK BY MARY BALDWIN Like the brown brook that slips beneath the frost, All seemingly unheard. And yet, forsooth, I fain would keep the brown brook's note of youth; Which God first struck, to guide my melody Of life. Ah, I would keep my theme Clear-hearted and pellucid as the stream Of frozen sources. I would later slip gaze at, for Christmas comes shyly to Morocco, comes in crates on the backs of donkeys a sort of tinned Christmassince Christmas in Morocco must make way for Aïd-el-Kebir, which, being translated, means "the feast of the Passover." In the great market were herds of sheep and goats instead of Christmas trees, while all over the Sôk squatted venders of spices, with baskets of red cayenne pepper, cloves, and peppercorns, and yellow lumps of curry ready for the feast of the sheep; instead of buying Christmas presents, little boys ran through the streets followed by sacrificial kids, crowned about the horns with bright-colored ornaments, while bare-legged Arabs staggered through the crowd under burdens of rams carried on the shoulders, the legs of the rams caught against the men's breasts, the creatures staring with frightened eyes. It was good to think that in the little white town in Spain just across the way the great feast of the Nativity would be kept, and that in the imagination of the people the shepherds would still go to worship and the angels would sing "Peace on earth," and that presently a day would be kept in memory of Caspar and Balthazar and Melchior instead of the bloody sacrifices commemorating the day when the Lord God of Hosts passed over the first-born of the children of Israel in bondage. The feast of the Passover is a great feast and venerable; but some way it makes the European feel uncomfortable, as though he had turned back the hands of time some thousands of years, to know that the head of each household slaughters upon his own door-sill a sheep or goat or kid, of which he will eat for three days. He turns with a rather homesick longing toward the land of Christmas gifts and church bells, for the newcomer in the East lives at first in the state of mind which varies between the feeling that he has walked back through the ages, and the feeling that the whole complex, colored web of native life is a vast pageant which will one day pack itself into vans and wagons and make off like any great show.. And there was the West, but fifteen miles away as the crow flies! It was natural that we should wish to see this little town which had flung its red light to us from the lighthouse by night and sat white and friendly by day, a sort of anchorage for our bewildered minds. It was not as easy to leave all of Morocco behind us as we had supposed. Our Moorish boy, Mohamede, true descendant of the Prophet and son of Shaiten, accompanied us to the boat. He disposed of our bags and leaned across the rail, lit a cigarette and spat contemplatively at a boatman who had been rude to him earlier in the day. Him the boatman reviled loudly and with much gesticulation, but the true descendant of the Prophet paid no attention besides spitting negligently now and again. "It is time you went ashore," I warned him. He looked at us with tranquil brown eyes. "I do not go ashore," he said. "I go to Gibraltar." THE FOUNTAIN |