| Show A MIDSUMMER FETE IN THE PUEBLO OF SAN JUAN BY H H y We bad just crossed the Eo Grande at a point where ih meadows wtre brilliantly green Rising abruptly ab-ruptly out oJ tan vivid green meadow and barring our way like a collossa ant bIll stood a great drab mound with broken lines suggesting walls and roots ut top Our road Jed right up and into tbid mound Not a green leaf not a green blade blank sbadelesa ehaaowlea drab dust or sand under foot on all sides shifting solid piles and banks of it shifting at each step or each breez walls and bank of it solid and perforated here and there by aural 1 openings These solid walls and bankowe presently perceived were in tierstlers oi terraces ter-races and perforations were of various vari-ous sizes Each terrace was pread out flat at too and a few feet wide at the back of this another straight terrace spread out flat at tup and this again surmounted by a third and so on till in some places they were five stories high Queer strips of latticework stood on these terra OS slanted tilted propped irregularly here and there they also were of a drab color as it walls roofs ladders all had been run wet mud into a mould baked and turned out like some freaky confectioners device made of opaque lightbrown cough candy At intervals on these terraces ter-races or on the ground near the base of the walla stood low oval mounds of the eame baked drab mud shaped I like the half of an eggshell with an aperture left in the small end To have seen a bg swallows head sticking stick-ing out of any one ot these would have seemed only natural There were also here and there on the roof lifted a few feet above them queer little thatches ot brush ragged and unfinished like the first rough platform plat-form of twigs and mud the robin lays for her nest This is what one sees at the first glance on looking at an adobe pueblo After discovering their plan and the Arrangement and uses of the odd structures tbey can never again wear precisely the same expression The tiers and terraces are the stories and roofs of the bouses the boles are doors and windows opening into rooms under the terrace roofs the strips of lattice work are ladders the only mean of going from one terrace ter-race to another above or below the little oval mounds are ovens and the queer brash thatches are the Pueblo Indians pleasurebowera summerhouses arbors sheltering him from the sun when he would lie down on his terrace root Also neing thrifty and driven to expedients in his narrow quarters he sometime uses these thatches aa a drying I ground for red peppers wbioh makes a fine show topping off a pile ot the drab terraces There were four or five of these terraced piles some larger some smaller yet without any regularity and a email open plaza On one side of this waa an old church also of adobe long low with two square whitewashed towers and an archway on the front When we drove into this plaz it wa n swarming with Indiana and Hex icaDsa kaleidoscope of all the hues of the rainbow On the terraces were standing hundreds of theIudiana all decked in the gayest colors bareheaded bare-headed wrapped in blankets moti unless un-less most of them as statues The gorgeousness of the pictures they made relieved against these walls and banks of drab and Kindled by the brilliant blue ot the sky overhead could never be told either by pen or by brush It gas a dazzling blaze of cola Adding to the bewilderment c f the scene came the sharp plaintive plaint-ive LID tea of the old bell hanging in i toe wm < u archway of the church It was rirtiiii Jonud Day and the bell I wa ringing tor morning mass fur mud floor of the church was cro voto with kneeling and equating Mez CAfH and Indian silent devout sada dtbeir laces were studiet The blackness of their hair aud their eyes might almost be said to darken the place The women wore shawls ou their heads sometimes close drawn around their laces sometimes held gracefully with one hand sometimes allowed to fall free There is a mystic mys-tic spell about a shawl on a Mexican we m tns head it never comes oft it may trail on the ground tat one R d bat the other end will cling on it it is only by a fringe Some of the wtlto do ones who evidently considered themselves in full dress wore whits cambric sunbonnets the full crowns and the long capes astenei oa by shining steel butpns at each plait It seemed inexplicable tnat they could not perceive how mach better the raggedeet beggar wcman there looked who hd a shawl over her head Dan they did in their atifl white bonnets The etrinea were gay with tawdry lowers and high candles burnEd on all sides In front of the rail were half a dozen shabby little flaring smoking tallow tapers tokens ol expiation ex-piation or entreaty from some of the poor Eoula who squatted close behind be-hind watching their struggling flames with piteous earnestness Ten priests I gorgeous in white robes and brilliant vestments were there to assist in the i mass On occason of these fetes f the priests from all the mission stations sta-tions within reach gather together to add dignity and splendor to the observance ob-servance As soon as the services ended the throng poured out of the church in an irregular procession the middle of which under a canopy were carried car-ried immages of Christ and the Virgin Vir-gin Mary and St John the patron saint of the day The Indians with J o Jo r gaDs ran alongisde firing at intervals green branche were waved wild Indians In-dians on horseback splendid in paint and feathers dashed back and forth the little bell tinkled the closethorn heads and black robes of the priests flitted in and out among the streaming stream-ing longhaired visages and red and yellow and blue wrappings and trappings trap-pings of the Indians The whole plaza seemed to surge and glitter under un-der the hot sun as the crowds ran to and fro The sacred images were set in a small booth built of green houghs there to remain all day to receive any offerings which the de voutminded might wish to make to them This was the end of the churchs fete The Indians were free now to keep the rest of the day in their own fashion In a few minutes hundreds of them had clambered up and out on the ledge like roofs of their sirs uge terraced houses standing Eauattincr lying down they grouped themselves from end to end of the town as if with no other thought than of pictor al inflect It was a scene to make an artist beside himself with delight no two groups on a level no two groups alike men women children babies every living creature of them all wrapped and decked in brilliant colors which were thrown into a positive splendor of relief by the soft pale halfbrown halfyellow color of the walls behind above and below hem Over it all a sky of blazing blue such as only a Southern latitude Southern summer and Southern sun together could makeJanuary Atlantic antic |
