1898] The Penitent Brothers 



visit to Cubero, a Mexican village up the road near 

 the foot of Mount San Mateo. The neighboring 

 hamlet of San Mateo on the mountain slope is said 

 to be the most un-American community in our 

 nation, it being the abode of "the Penitent Brothers" 

 (Los Hermanos Penitentes) so graphically described 

 by Lummis. 1 These are the degenerate remnants of 

 an old Spanish order, the members of which chastise 

 themselves in Passion Week to expiate the sins of 

 a year. Ordinarily, they use cactus thorns and Strange 

 other minor instruments of torture - - though a customs 

 more or less real crucifixion has occasionally been 

 staged as part of their annual repentance. Peni- 

 tentes overflow into the dull village of Cubero; we 

 saw none, however, - - they were not in season, 

 but an Impenitent Brother (Lummis) drove us back 

 at a scandalously rattling speed, shortening the 

 thirteen miles by taking each arroyo seco at a jump. 



Looking back on our experiences in and about Home- 

 Acoma, I found myself most of all impressed by lovin z . 



' ,. . J . , ,. r - r . . . J aborigines 



the dim glimpse it gave into the lire ol a primitive 

 people, gentle, ingenious, home-loving farmers settled 

 in a land where farming was most difficult, both 

 because of the barrenness of the land and the bad- 

 ness of their neighbors. Surrounded by nomad 

 hordes with no calling but war, no industry but the 

 chase, their decent, substantial dwellings set on in- 

 hospitable cliffs ascended only by toe-holes and stone 

 ladders, testify to the virility of their native civiliza- 

 tion. 



1 See "The Land of Poco Tiempo." 



C 637 1 



