174 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



there were seen, especially among the Arizona and New Mexican 

 tribes, no such slaves to drink, such constant and craving topers, 

 as occur among the whites. The conditions are worse in this respect 

 among the Aztec, Otomi, and Tarasco, and it is there only that one 

 meets with the alcoholic tremor, the mental obtuseness of the 

 drunkard, and " inherited nervous affections, due to alcoholism, in 

 the progeny. 



Want of proper clothing, bed covering, and shoes in the women 

 results undoubtedly in some physical discomfort, but on the whole 

 does not seem to have the effect it might have on people accustomed 

 to other conditions. The women go barefooted in any kind of weather. 

 They were seen by the writer to wade thus in snow slush. They pay 

 very little attention to wet and cold weather, and the children expose 

 themselves to rain with much pleasure. Catarrhs sometimes follow, 

 and the exposure is probably not always without ill effect on the 

 female pelvic organs, yet really serious consequences seem to be rare. 

 In several instances in the schools it appeared that the reverse 

 condition, namely, a more abundant clothing than usual, had a bad 

 effect on the health of the children. 



As to occupation, there is none among the male or the female 

 Indians that leads to either disease or deformity. The carrying of« 

 water jars on the head by the girls tends to make their bodies straight 

 and symmetrical." It has no effect at all on the form of the skull. 



Contact with whites, besides leading to drunkenness, is responsi- 

 ble for the introduction of venereal diseases, and where this contact 

 is greatest, as in some parts of northern Mexico, it is chargeable with 

 the spread of contagions. The lack of hygienic precautions is largely 

 responsible for the spreading and sad effects of numerous diseases 

 among the tribes. Among the most striking examples of this is the 

 prevalence of ophthalmia and consequent blindness, and the spread of 

 pulmonary tuberculosis. An irritation of the eyes results from the 

 sand that is blown about during the dry season almost daily in some 

 localities, or from the smoke within the dwelling, or from an infec- 

 tion. In some individuals recourse is had to remedies, but more 

 usually the eyes are simply cleansed and rubbed with a piece of any 

 convenient old rag, and the people continue to follow their usual 

 vocations. The writer saw a middle-aged woman more than half 

 blind through ophthalmia trying to cook for the family and to work 

 at the same time in the smoky khuva on a basket, the price of 



a Little girls, naturally very playful, are early employed in helping in the household, particularly 

 with the younger children, which they often carry on their backs. Owens (Matal Ceremonies of the 

 Hopi Indians, Jour. Amer. Eihnol. and Archxol., 1892, ii, 164), speaking of the Hopi, thought this 

 too severe a stram, tending to produce the numerous bowlegs he saw among the women. But this 

 is an error. The writer measured and examined more than 50 adult women of the tribe (one of the 

 measurements taken being the maximum circumference of the leg, when generally the whole limb up 

 to the knee was exposed), and also numerous girls, and did not observe a single instance of bowleg- 

 gedness. He observed no case of stooping shoulders, or other acquired deformity, and did not see a 

 tilna or a femur with abnormal curvature among either the Hopi or other Pueblos. 



