Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/95

84 84 '. THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. , they had known man. The men here wear little skirts of tanned deer sidn and their long robes over this. In aJl these provinces they have earthenware glazed with antimony, and jars of extraordinary labor and workmanship, which are worth seeing." "When any man wishes to marry, it has to be arranged by those who govern. The man has to spin and weave a blanket and place it before the woman, who covers herself with it and becomes his wife. The houses belong to the women, the 'estufas' to the men. If a man repudiates his woman he hr.s to go to the estufa. It is forbidden for. womc-ii to sleep in the estufas, or to enter these for any purpose except to give their husbands or their sons soma- thing to eat. The men spin and weave. The vrori-ioii bring up the children and prepare the food. T!: j countryis so fertile that they do not have to break ir) the ground the year round, but only have to sow the seed, which is presently covered by the fall of sno',7, and the ears come up under the snow. In one year they gather enough for seven. A very large number of cranes and wild geese and crows and startlings live on what is sown, and for all this, when they come to sow for another year, the fields are covered with corn which they have not been able to finish gathering. "There are a great many fowls in these provinces and cocks with great hanging chins. "When dead, these keep for sixty days, and longer in winter, with- out losing their feathers or opening, and without any bad smell; and the same is true of dead men. Their virgins also go nude until they tal?e husbands, be-