THE ZUNI INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO. 



585 



is the period of their greatest festivity and rejoicing. During this 

 month their God sends his two sons, one to visit the living, the other 

 the dead, of this " his chosen people." Their estufas are also used 

 as halls for public meetings. 



Fig. 4. 



Cachina Dancers. 



The executive authority of the Zuni is vested in an officer styled 

 governor — one Pedro Pino — who, however, is but the mouth-piece of 

 the spiritual ruler, the cacique; the orders of the latter are tbe laws 

 governing the tribe, their execution simply resting with the governor. 

 In conversation, Pedro Pino informed us that he Avas the ruler of the 

 country between the Neutrias and Colorado Chiquito, some sixty 

 miles, and Agua Fria and the Moquis settlements, about one hundred 

 miles apart. In appearance, he is perhaps sixty years old, of command- 

 ing presence and affable manners ; his hair is snow-w^hite. He told us 

 he had been governor of the Zuni people for many years, and that the 

 tribe had always been friendly to the whites (Americans), from many 

 of whom he had testimonials to the latter effect. Ordering his son, 

 Patrizio, to bring him certain papers, he produced letters from offi- 

 cers of our army and private citizens, which referred to the governor 

 in the highest terms, and also spoke of the uniform kindness in their 

 treatment of his people. 



" The Americans," continued the governor, " treat us well, but the 

 Mexicans very badly ; the latter have always maltreated us, and we 

 want them neither to go through our country nor to reside among us. 

 The heavens punish us by long drought for allowing them to remain 

 on the Colorado Chiquito. My cacique, w^ho prays for rain, and who 

 is the spiritual and temporal ruler of this people, watches the sun 

 daily, and is much distressed because no rain falls. He (the cacique) 

 attributes the drought to the presence of the Mexican on our soil." 



