Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/369

Rh their food is prepared from corn that has been germinated, whereby, as is well known, a saccharine matter is developed and a species of malt produced; this food they call panoche. Still a third kind is derived by mixing flour and dried meat in a powdered state: this they call tomales.

The Moquis have one school, which is provided them by the "great father," and which is attended by children from three to five years old. On being examined, these little ones counted correctly to 100. They are quite proficient in spelling, while their ready recital, without the book, of numerous English verses, showed them possessed of very retentive memories.

As previously mentioned, the Tehuas occupy one of the Moquis villages. The languages of the two tribes, however, are quite different, that of the latter being unintelligible to the former. On collecting a vocabulary of the language of the Tehuas, it was found to be identical with that of the Indians of Ildefonso, who inhabit some twenty-five miles west of Santa Fé, and from three to four hundred miles distant from the Moquis towns. Inquiry as to the date of settlement of the Tehuas with the Moquis proved fruitless of the desired result; the Indians either did not know, or were unwilling to tell. One intelligent Moquis, named Mesayamtiba, who answered many questions readily and very intelligibly, estimated the period of intermingling of the two tribes at upward of one hundred years.

As a refutation of the rather prevalent notion that Indian languages are subject to rapid change, it may be said that, although the Tehuas and Ildefonsos have been separated at least a century, and that, too, at a distance from each other of several hundred miles, the language of the branch tribe is still identical with that of the parent stem. Furthermore, although the Tehuas and Moquis live but fifty yards apart, their dialects are entirely different, that of the former not embracing a single word used by the latter. By this, however", it is not to be understood that some of the Moquis do not understand the Tehuas language, and vice versa. Besides their own language, a few of both tribes speak broken Spanish.

With regard to the religion of the Moquis, diligent investigation failed to develop any thing definite. To the inquiry whether they worship Montezuma, the reply was, in broken Spanish, "No sabe" ("I don't know"). By Mesayamtiba, we were informed that he believed the "sun to be the true God," but that the so-called "happy hunting-ground" was, in his opinion, but a creation of the imagination—the "baseless fabric of a dream." They have neither church nor other place of worship to be found, which is evidence that the Spanish Jesuits have been unable to gain a foothold among them, although these priests have succeeded in establishing themselves with almost all the other Pueblo tribes, as is plainly shown by the ruins of Jesuit churches in Acoma, Gemez, and other towns. The Moquis sometimes