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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



another, and the chimney-pots and openings 

 on the roof ; there bristled up in many di- 

 rections the tops of the ladders ; there were 

 the Zufiis themselves on the roofs with oth- 

 ers in the streets, bearing on their heads 

 the very jars, the like of which I had so 

 often seen my artist friends in the National 

 Museum illustrating; in short, here was 

 Zuni, for it has not its counterpart in all the 

 world. At our approach a dozen dogs raised 

 the alarm, and off scampered a group of 

 half-naked children of both sexes with their 

 black, negro-like heads of hair (the biggest 

 part of some of them) blowing in the wind. 

 Strange as it may seem, our first inquiry 

 was, how came the hill there upon which 

 this ancient pueblo was erected ? The plain 

 for miles about it is almost as level as the 

 surface of a lake. Imagine the impression 

 it made upon us when, after our examina- 

 tion, the undeniable fact stared us in the 

 face that although Zuni may have originally 

 been started on a slight rise in the plain, 

 yet its present elevation — between thirty 

 and forty feet above the datum plane — is 

 due largely in some places to the accumu- 

 lated excrement of the burros, and I sus- 

 pect, too, to some degree, the refuse from 

 the houses ! This condition can better be 

 seen at the pueblo of Las Nutrias, where 

 the entire lower stories of some of their 

 houses are covered above their roofs by a 

 like guano deposit, while additional stories 

 have been built on and above them. In 

 Zuni this condition is more particularly the 

 case on the side of the pueblo facing to- 

 ward the missionary-house. In this situa- 

 tion the side of the hill has been cut away 

 to make room for a garden, and its composi- 

 tion is easily studied. I am not aware that 

 this fact has been published before ; but it 

 seems hardly possible that a thing so evi- 

 dent has been overlooked. We were disap- 

 pointed at finding the pueblo so nearly de- 

 serted. Not more than one house in ten 

 was occupied, as every able-bodied man and 

 woman was at this time of the year away 

 planting wheat, as we saw them at Las Nu- 

 trias. Upon leaving home, a Zuni closes 

 the little low door to his house by piling a 

 (juantity of stones up in front of it. He 

 also takes the precaution to plaster up with 

 clay the opening upon the roof. Such fast- 

 ening is considered a sacred seal, and no 



honest one would think of breaking it any 

 more than we would a seal to a letter. We 

 saw all the empty houses closed up in this 

 way, and it lent the pueblo a terribly de- 

 serted appearance." All of the poetry of 

 the scene was taken out by the remark of 

 one of Dr. Shufeldt's companions, an emi- 

 nent professor, as they turned to go away, 

 that " he had seen enough of that mass of 

 hovels on a dung-hill, inhabited by people 

 whose habits and customs are too frightful 

 to think of." In fact, every law known to 

 sanitary science seemed to be violated at the 

 pueblo. 



The Fine Arts in Barmah. — Several of 

 the fine arts flourish to a certain degree in 

 Burmah, although none of them are as highly 

 developed as they are in India, Weaving is 

 very ancient and is widely diffused through- 

 out the country, yet the weavers of the 

 finest and most highly adorned fabrics are 

 foreigners, the descendants of slaves brought 

 from Manipur. In drawing, Burmans who 

 are trained to any art are masters of the 

 pencil, although they have little idea of per- 

 spective or of the balance of light and shade. 

 While the details are conventional, the gener- 

 al idea is the creation of the workman, and 

 the pictures are often full of life and humor. 

 Decoration of funeral-pyres with paintings, 

 sometimes extremely grotesque, is an im- 

 portant branch of this art. Brass-founders 

 make images of Gotama, bells of various 

 characters, and the flat, crescent - shaped 

 gongs which are used for religious purposes. 

 Wood-carving has a very extensive range of 

 variety in character. Some of the work in 

 foliage and figures in the Buddhist monas- 

 teries is remarkably beautiful, as well in the 

 delicacy of the curves as in the lightness 

 and grace of the open tracery. An Insti- 

 tute of Industrial Arts has been established 

 at Rangoon, to develop this industry. A cu- 

 rious and intricate effect is obtained in carv- 

 ing some articles in ivory, when " the outside 

 of the specimen is carved with foliage and 

 flowers, through the interstices of which the 

 inside is hollowed out nearly to the center, 

 where a figure is carved in situ. The figure 

 looks as if it had been carved separately 

 and inserted into a flowery bower, but closer 

 examination shows that this is not the case, 

 and the men may be at any time seen carv- 



