The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 5: May 23, 1881--August 26, 1881

10. Ceremony in Santo Domingo

208 Chapter 10 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Ceremony in Santo Domingo J uly 25th 1881–July 27th 1881. (inclusive.) Weather-bound at Santa Fé. For more than a week, as may be gathered from my notes above, the storms have been extremely severe and almost continuous, flooding the cañons and carrying away rails and even bridges upon the Denver and Rio Grande, [Atchison] Topeka & Santa Fé, and Atlantic and Pacific Rail Roads. These wash-outs have caused serious interruption to mail and travel and have been the reason why I have remained so long in this place, much to my annoyance and disgust, as I am anxious to get off to the Moqui Villages in Arizona to be on hand for the Rattlesnake Dance. President Garfield’s condition has become worse and no doubt he will soon die; notwithstanding the bold front maintained by the physicians in attendance who assert that the relapse is not serious and that there are no indications of blood-poisoning, as many fear. By July 27th, his health had again improved in consequence of a surgical operation, performed by Drs. Hamilton and Agnew, which enlarged the aperture of the wound, permitting the escape of imprisoned pus which carried out a few irritating particles of bone and shreds of clothing, whose presence within the body, many believe, would have induced pyaemia. August 1 1881. Monday. Still a prisoner in Santa Fé, unable to get away in account of the broken roads and unwilling to commence any ceremony In Santo domIngo 209 course of work which might be suddenly interrupted by telegraphic notification of the resumption of travel. Had to-day the pleasure of meeting Mr. Peter Moran, the artist, who wishes to go to Moqui with me. Colonel H. C. Hodge[s], Q.M.D., and Lt. M. F. Jamar, 13th Infantry, arrived in Santa Fé July 28th and left July 31st 1881. Colonel Frank L. Bennett [sic],1 9th Cavalry , arrived from Navajo Agency, where the Indians are sullen in consequence of the reinstatement of their Agent, of the Rev. Galen Eastman, a sanctimonious hypocrite whom they made flee for his life last year. Obtained by wire to-day, authority for the employment as interpreter of Santiago, who has been with me since July 21st at a salary of one dollar per diem and a ration. The streets of Santa Fé were all lit up by gas this evening. August 2nd 1881. Tuesday. The rain-storm last night, altho’ spasmodic in its nature, was phenomenal in the amount of water falling during the time it lasted. It seems as if the bottom had fallen out of an immense tank and the noise of falling water was so great as almost to drown the sullen growls of the thunder which added a terrible majesty to the grandeur of the tempest. August 3rd 1881. Wednesday. The tour just completed to the Pueblos lying North of Santa Fé was not intended to supply exact data regarding the inhabitants. It was supposed from what the Indians themselves said, and investigation proved the correctness of their statement, that the Sedentary Indians of the Rio Grande Valley would be found to possess many attributes in common or, to express the idea with even greater force, that their lives were moulded in a common pattern, the few divergences from which would be clearly ascribable to Spanish intervention. Taking the present condition of Zuni and its people as a datumline , the advancement beyond or deterioration below this is very small, the different Pueblos adhering tenaciously to old time customs , except in the cases of such almost extinct communities as Nambé and Pojuaque where foreign influence has made an appreciable impression upon the aborigines. In religion, the Pueblos on the Rio Grande are suspected, with very good reason, of practicing in secret that which the Zunis and 1. Should be Frank T. Bennett. His middle name was Tracy. 210 the new mexIco pueBloS Moquis openly avow.2 In government, they retain the same usages and in such matters as food, dress, manners and customs differ less from the Zuni standard than the same number of little villages, separated by the same distances, would, among ourselves, diverge from any one we might assume as a standard. In the matter of garments , the women make a more general use of underclothing than do those of Zuni, who go about with the left arm and left breast entirely exposed...