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

14. The Festivities Begin

277 Chapter 14 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The Festivities Begin A ugust 12th 1881. Roused out of bed at 4 a.m., before daylight, at which early hour, the Moquis were already astir, most of them dressed for the festivities of the day. Squaws were actively at work getting out from underground [illegible] earthen pots of fragrant mush, covered with corn-husks [illegible], dust.1 The Moqui children were already assembled at the foot of the precipice, where they could been seen running a foot-race. They first sang a song, whose notes reached only [illegible] perfect distinctness and then started, like a covey of rabbits. They could scarcely be made out as children, they looked so small in the dim twilight of early dawn. Umpires and station-keepers had been appointed from among the elders, but who won or what the object of the contest was, no one could advise us. For all that we could see, there might as well have been no race at all; the figures of the contestants were hard to distinguish, they were so far below us and, speaking at least for myself, their positions could be traced more certainly by the jingling of the little bells they wore than by actual vision. The men also had a race—something which taxed their energies to the utmost . They began at a point 5 or 6 or 7 miles—our estimate varied greatly,—from the foot of the mesa, and ran as hard as they could 1. There is a large blot on this page, labeled “Oven,” obviously a sketch that has turned dark with age. Unfortunately some of the text appears to have overlapped into the background , and is either completely illegible, or unintelligible. 278 the hopI Snake dance towards the Pueblos—about the time that the little boys had finished their struggle, the advance-guard of the adult runners appeared in sight, coming with bewildering speed towards the spot where the youngsters had drawn up to await them. when both parties came together, a regular Northern war-whoop rent the air and every bell[’] s jangling was redoubled; the combined mob, boys and men, still running as hard as possible to the foot of the precipice: Here, a delegation of young women was expecting them and ran with them at full speed up the steep trail, crossing sand dunes and climbing the rocky precipices which it may be remembered, from what was said yesterday, is not less than 500• or 600• above the plain beneath. The trail ascended by the racers was, if anything, more steep and arduous than the usually travelled one, which we had climbed; yet none of them paused a moment in an upward and onward [illegible] which would have caused an American, unused to ascending and descending these rugged paths, to die of palpitation of the heart. The runners were in less than no time abreast of our position, one of them leading the others by 200 yards. It didn’t take more than a glance to show this was no joke; every one of the men was streaming with perspiration and the thumping of heart and wheezing of breath could be plainly heard. Excepting the breech-cloth, the men were entirely naked; the squaws all wore white cotton blankets. The race gave great satisfaction to everybody, especially the naked children. Boys and girls, I may remark, are not fettered much by clothing until they are 6 or 7 years old. The Moquis this morning are carrying all their ornament on their persons; this has been a great help to me in my investigations. I have seen the olivette, abalone and other sea-shells, chalchihuitl and coral, worn either as bead necklaces, or as earrings, or as pendants upon the breast. In the course of our perambulations noticed this morning some half a dozen small reservoirs upon the surface of the mesa; they are all very small and altho’ they supply goats, chickens, dogs and donkeys with a small amount of refreshment, they are not sufficient for the needs of the Pueblo and should be superceded as soon as possible by cisterns as capacious as those elsewhere recorded. The young maidens wear their hair à la Mongolienne . Our mules were brought up from the plain early in the morning. Nobody in the pueblo could be hired for the FeStIVItIeS BegIn 279 love or money to take care of them during the Dance...