Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/633

 Record of A merican Folk-L ore. 2 S 5

guage of the Cuicatecs of Oaxaca (p. 68). — Popoloco. The language of the Chochos (pp. 71-74), of Oaxaca, Puebla, etc., which is termed popoloco, is by some authorities considered to belong to the Mixtec- Zapotecan family. Houses, dress, cairns, etc., are briefly described, and a list of town-names is given. It is said that the Chochos dance for good luck as they pass the cairns on the road. Also when they gather sap to make mescal, they " spill some on the ground ; other- wise the plants will cease to yield sap." — Mazatec. The Mazatecs (pp. 74-79) of the mountain regions of Cuicatlan and Teotitlan be- long by language to the Mixtec-Zapotecan stock. Dress, houses, silk-culture, superstitions are briefly noted. Here the women are " gorgeous with their gay apparel," and the houses are in a way sui generis. Connected with the rearing of silk-worms, there are many curious beliefs, such as not handling tomatoes or chillis, etc. A green powder called pislete (made of the leaves of a plant) "is uni- versally carried," to take away fatigue and to protect against witch- craft. Many curious superstitions are connected with the dead.

Otomi. Pages 4-8 of Professor Starr's paper deal with the Otomis, one of the oldest peoples of Mexico, and second only to the Aztecs in the area they occupy. Houses, wool-spinning, dress, carrying- cloths, etc., are briefly noted. Here, too, "the women are far more conservative in the matter of dress than the men." Few of the men still retain the ancient fashion of wearing the hair in a braid down the back. The ayate, or carrying-cloth of ixtli fibre is characteristic and employed for all but the most awkward burdens. The women often spin ixtli as they walk, and ancient pottery spindle-whorls, found in the fields, are used, the Otomis not making them now.

Salishan. As part of the Report for 1899 of the Committee on the Ethnological Survey of Canada, Mr. C. PI ill-Tout publishes in "Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci.," vol. Ixix. (Dover, 1899), pp. 50x5-584, " Notes on the N'tlakapamaq of British Columbia, a Branch of the great Salish Stock of North America." The subjects treated of are ethnography, social organization, weapons, marriage customs, sha- manism, names, mortuary customs, birth customs, tattooing and paint- ing, games, clothing, sweat-houses, food, utensils, customs, canoes, archaeology, physical characteristics, linguistics (pp. 518-534), and folk-lore (pp. 534-584). According to the author Cpuzum or Spuz- zum, the name of one of the villages of these Indians, refers to a cus- tom formerly prevalent, — " the people of one place would go and sweep the houses of the people in another, and they would return the compliment next morning at daybreak ; this was a constant prac- tice." Of the chiefs of these Salish Indians we are told " they were, as a rule, peace-loving men, always more anxious to prevent wars than to bring them about " (p. 502), and " the grandfather of the

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