of the Ancient Mexicans. 127 



of the god Quetzalcoatr is also observed by the Pueblos. 

 This rite was originally confined to one tribe and one lo- 

 cality, to which the devout of the different nations, even 

 from the distant regions of the Moquis, are reported to have 

 bent their steps in pilgrimage. This favoured tribe and 

 " holy city" was that of ** Pecos," situated on the stream 

 of that name, about thirty or forty miles from the present 

 Santa Fe. 



Here, in a deep and obscure vault, the sacred fire was 

 watched, and carefully tended by a class of Indians who were 

 consecrated to the task, and here for ages it smouldered in a 

 brazier of stone ; the same fire which the Mexicans affirmed 

 had been kindled from a spark struck by the hand of Quetzal- 

 coatr himself, during his memorable sojourn on the earth, 

 and which, with patient care and devout vigils, the Indian 

 hopes to keep alive until his return. 



A few years since, the tribe became extinct, and the 

 *' Pueblos" of Pecos being abandoned, the sacred fire was 

 carefully removed by the neighbouring Indians, and conceal- 

 ed in a secret cave in the mountains, where it is now pre- 

 served. 



A curious feature in the internal government of the Pueblo 

 communities is a system of police, for the purpose of pre- 

 serving domestic tranquillity, and especially charged to guard 

 against and punish acts of immorality on the part of the 

 younger of both sexes. When the act of intercourse ia 

 proved before the head chief, the delinquents are immedi- 

 ately compelled to marry, and if adultery be added, the 

 penalty is corporeal punishment, and, if an aggravated case, 

 expulsion from the tribe. Unlike all other Indian tribes, 

 professed prostitutes are unknown amongst the Pueblos, 

 which fact is the more to their credit, with the demoralising 

 example of their civilised neighbours ever before their eyes ; 

 indeed so proverbial is the chastity of the Pueblo women, 

 that the New Mexicans, when they wish to describe one of 

 their own countrywomen as being correct in her morals, 

 say, " Es Puebla," she is a Pueblo girl, or she is an Indian 

 in virtue. 



