A MAID OF WOLPAI, 
BY 
R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D. 
(With Plate 1.) 
With the present paper is presented an excellent picture of a girl 
about 15 years of age, belonging to the pueblo of Wolpai in north- 
western Arizona. She is in her everyday costume, and was photo- 
graphed on one of the streets of her native city. At her hand are sev- 
eral pieces of their curious pottery. Nowadays the life led by one of 
these girls is full of all that is most engaging to the ethnologist. Prayed 
over at birth, she must have her delicate baby skin well rubbed with 
fine wood ashes, or else her bones might become loose as she grows 
older. Very soon she is strapped in her portable cradle, and toted 
about upon her mother’s back, but while in the house must, in the same 
apparatus, be either stood up against the wall, or even hung up, where 
for an hour or more together, in either situation, her sole amusement 
consists in peering about the “living room.” As soon as able to walk, 
this little child is permitted to toddle about everywhere or ascend and 
descend the house ladder before the second summer has passed over 
her head. She has no end of toys and other playthings to amuse her. 
From 3 on to 7, or perhaps a year or two more, her days are spent 
mostly in romping and playing with the numerous other children in the 
pueblo. Innocent of all clothing and possessing a wholesome dread 
lof water for any other purpose than to drink, she is at this age as wild 
‘aS a mountain sheep, and can with almost equal celerity run up and 
idown the steep, rocky crags that so abruptly slope down from the 
ipueblo on all sides save one. 
Becoming more sedate after her tenth year, she nowassumes the garb 
‘of her elder sisters, or the companions of her own sex, and with a keen 
interest commences her early education in those accomplishments 
which soon render her a useful member of the tribe. Very soon she is 
quite familiar with all the duties that pertain to the kitchen, and as 
Capt. Bourke pointed out, ‘is duly instructed at this tender age in 
the fabrication of pottery and basket work.” As she grows stronger, 
the operation of carding and dyeing wool and the weaving of blankets, 
mantles, petticoats, garters, and sashes of cotton or wool. By the time 
She is 15, or even at an earlier age, she is considered nubile, and 
Proceedings National Museum, Vol. XV—No. 889. 99 
