50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



Koti'-kok-shi of tbe Zufii, which is assei'ted to have been introduced by way of 

 Santo Domingo generations ago by a Laguna Indian who had visited Zuni. 



Mrs. Stevenson devoted much attention to a study of Tewa games, finding 

 that those regarded as of the greatest importance to the Zuni in bringing rain 

 have been abandoned by the San Ildefonso people. The foot race of the latter 

 is identical with that of Taos, and is performed annually after the planting 

 season. As complete a collection and study of the Tewa medicinal plants were 

 made as time permitted. 



The material culture of the Tewa also received special attention. Weav- 

 ing is not an industry at San Ildefonso, the only weaver in the tribe being a 

 man who learned at Laguna to make women's belts. Basketry of various forms 

 is made of willow. The San Ildefonso people, like other Pueblos, have deterio- 

 rated in the ceramic art, and they have now little or no understanding of the 

 symbols employed in pottery, except the common form of cloud and rain. Their 

 method of irrigation is the same as that observed by the neighboring Mexicans, 

 who, having acquired extensive tracts of land from the San Ildefonso land 

 grant, work with the Indians on the irrigating ditches for mutual benefit. The 

 San Ildefonso people raise a few cattle and horses, but no sheep. Much of their 

 land is owned in severalty, and their chief products are corn, wheat, and alfalfa. 

 The women raise melons, squashes, and chile. 



While marriages, baptisms, and burials are attended with the rites of the 

 Catholic Church, a native ceremony is always performed before the arrival of 

 the priest. While their popular dances of foreign admixture are sometimes 

 almost depleted by reason of intoxication, no such thing happens when a purely 

 Indian ceremony is performed, for the dread of offending their gods prevents 

 them from placing themselves in such condition as not to be able to fulfill their 

 duty to the higher powers. 



Mrs. Stevenson not only prepared the way for a close study of the Tewa of 

 Nambe by making a warm friend of the rain priest of that pueblo, but found 

 much of interest at the Tigua pueblos of Taos and Picuris, especially in the 

 kivas of the latter village. It was in an inner chamber of one of the Picuris 

 kivas that the priests are said to have observed their rites during the presence 

 of the Spaniards. Another interesting feature observed at Picuris was the 

 hanging of scalps to a rafter in an upper chamber of a house, the eastern side 

 of which was open in order to expose the scalps to view. At Picuris the rain 

 priests, like those of Zuiii and San Ildefonso, employ paddle-shaped bone imple- 

 ments (identical with specimens, hitherto undetermined, found in ruins in the 

 Jemez Mountains and now in the National Museum) for lifting the sacred meal 

 during their rain ceremonies. 



During a visit to Taos Mrs. Stevenson obtained a full description of an elab- 

 orate ceremony performed immediately after an eclipse of the sun. 



After her return to Washington, in February, Mrs. Stevenson devoted atten- 

 tion to the preparation of a paper on the textile fabrics and dress of the Pueblo 

 Indians. For comparative studies it was necessary to review a large number of 

 works on the general subject and to examine collections pertaining thereto. 

 Mrs. Stevenson also prosecuted her studies of medicinal and edible plants. 



During the entire fiscal year Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnologist, was engaged in 

 office work devoted chiefly to studies connected with the Handbook of American 

 Indians, especially part 2. A number of articles designe(^l for this work had 

 been prepared by other collaborators, but were recast by Mr. Hewitt in order 

 to embody in them the latest views regarding their subject-matter. Mr. Hewitt 

 also conducted extensive researches into the history of the Indians of the 

 Susquehanna River during the seventeenth century, and their relations with 



