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Show TOLTECCAN. 241 slow to change, though in the present lengthy peace some of them are beginning to build out on the farm. The cacique was a man of con. siclerable intelligence, spoke Spanish fluently, and gave me informa-tion with unusual courtesy. Most of the houses have a second story, not more than half or one-third as extensive as the lower one ; and some few have a sort of tower or third story on top of the second. To this I several times signified a desire to ascend, but the cacique either did not understand me, or did not see fit to comply probably the latter. Uneducated and semi-barbarous people are generally suspicious on all matters connected with their religion; and the accounts of missionaries, especially their first accounts, among such people, must be received with caution. It is nearly or quite impossible to make an Indian understand why any one should want him to give up his religion and adopt that of another ; he can not assign any probable motive for such solicitude, and invariably concludes there must be a swindle in it somewhere. He will readily acknowledge that the white man's religion is true and good for the white man ; and, of course, the Indian's religion is equally true and good for the Indian. When the Spanish Jesuits " converted" these people, some two cent-uries ago, they found it impossible to eradicate entirely the Montezu-mas faith, and so made a compromise. They gave them the Catholic religion, with its most impressive ceremonies, and permitted them to keep all their Montezumas customs which did not amount to actual idolatry. These consisted mostly of dances and feasts at stated times, which had more of a national than a religious significance. The houses here are solidly built of stone, cement, and adobes. The joists are large as ordinary house- sills in the States, which I judged to be for the better support of the upper stories, as I noticed the walls of these in some instances not continuous with or resting on the walls below, but built directly across and over the rooms. The interior of the lower rooms was whitewashed and pleasantly neat, but in and about many of the houses was an unpleasant odor of green hides, which were hanging near, this being a general butchering time with them. Their windows are made of a material they call acquarra a kind of mica found in the adjacent mountains, which is translucent but not transparent, and lights a room about as well as oiled paper. All the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona build in substantially the same manner; and all accounts, as well as the ruins so numerous in the country, indicate that the fashion has not changed for many centuries.. This pueblo has a population of seven hundred, who cultivate in com- 16 |
