HRnufKA] PHYSTOLCGTCAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 33 



has set in. Their fan iii<i; hinds are rather poor and work other than 

 agrieidture is heing rollowe(L Much hunting is still done every 

 winter. The idle men gamhle much, while some of the women, 

 neglecting their households, spend time begging, or selling the few 

 baskets which they make, along the railroad. The recent manner of 

 life of the tribe explains their gradual diminution in num})ers. 



The Navaho, as well as a portion of the Papago, owing to the 

 semidesert nature of the country they inhabit, hve a rather roaming 

 life, but they are by no means n;)mads. They spend mon* time on 

 horseback than the Indians of any other tribe, often riding long 

 distances without saddles. They herd flocks of sheep, own many 

 ponies, and are great horse fanciers and racers. Both men and 

 women gaml)le, but they are not so reckless of property as members of 

 other tribes. There is but little prostitution or drunkenness in the 

 tribe, and, with the exception of gambling, the general moral tone of 

 this spirited, able, and shrewd people is a good one. Individuals of 

 both sexes, as among the better preserved Indians in general, are 

 very modest. Both of the sexes show, as a rule, much care to seclude 

 themselves when attending to their necessities. The women, when 

 about to moimt their horses, usually place the animals so as to avoid 

 possible exposure of the limbs in the sight of anyone. In the 

 writer's visits to their homes, in measuring and examinations, and 

 in connection with inquiries, there was never manifested anything 

 indecent or forward. During his stay about the Cliaco canyon, only 

 one Navaho woman who could be termed a prostitute was heard of, and 

 very few individuals were seen in the tribe who could possibly have 

 been half-breeds. About some of the trading posts and south of the 

 reservations the conditions are worse than in the heart of the country, 

 but the degradation seen is nowhere great and is scarcely more than 

 individual; it nowhere involves large groups of the people. 



The Pueblos are, on the whole, less active, although not less 

 industrious, than the Navaho. An interesting fact, apparent during 

 the writer's stay with the Hopi and later with other Pueblos, as well 

 as other Indians, was that the middle-aged and older men and women 

 worked more than the younger ones. The older Hopi women are 

 employed in the difficult work of carrying water from the springs to 

 the summits of the mesas, which are 600 to 700 feet high. All the 

 Pueblos, as is well known, are orderly and quite moral, though per- 

 haps not very progressive people. The Zuni and the Taos are rather 

 more spirited than the Hopi, Acoma, Laguna, and others. The men- 

 tal capacity of all these people for what applies to their religious 

 and ceremonial life is truly astonishing and greater than in other 

 directions. 



The Hopi bathe or wash very little — a condition that is largely 

 due to the great scarcity of water on their high mesas, as well as about 



3452— Bull. 34—08 3 



