HARKlNGTO.Nl FOLKWAYS 



393 



life." As the dead person's people are told thus, they all 2:0 to their 



houses with good feelmg. 



This is the custom of the people of the Pueblo when one of their 



people dies. 



Tokens of Death 



Long ago when my grandfather was j^et young, once he and two 

 other men were going along the road near Nambe early in the morning 

 just before it got daylight. And there was a shooting star. It 

 passed over their heads, sparkling. Then one of the men said: 

 "Something wrong must be thought of me as the star has passed 

 right over our heads." Then in about one month this man died. 



Once my grandfather and I were coming from the northeast along 

 the road just before the sun set, and there was a straight strip of 

 cloud lying to the southwest. When my grandfather saw this he 

 said to me: "Perhaps somebody from the Pueblo is going to die; 

 and that is the reason that the strip of cloud is lying there." And 

 in one month a person from the Pueblo died. 



Also the people say at the Pueblo that when a bird flies into a 



house it is bad, that something is gomg to happen to one of the 



members of the house which the bird goes into. So the people say 



that whenever a bird enters their house it is a bad token. Once 



many years ago, when I was still small, a bird flew mto our house. 



This bird had a very big head, and also a very long beak, a small 



body, and a short tail. When it flew into our house we caught it 



and burned it up. And it was not very long after that that my 



grandfather died. 



A Misinterpreted Note 



I believe it was in the month of June, in the year 1904, but do 

 not remember well, that at the Pueblo when the children had not 

 yet returned from Santa Fe, the teacher at Picurls wanted the men 

 to work for her in her garden, and so she wrote a note to the gover- 

 nor. And the note was sent to him by one of the pupils. The note 

 was handed to the governor, and as he could neither read nor write, 

 he took the note to a man who thought he was able to read it, to 

 find out what the note said. The note was brought to the man by 

 whom it was to be read. Since he did not hardly know how to read, 

 after he got through glancing over the note he said to the governor: 

 "This is how the teacher's note says, that you are to inform all the 

 parents whose children are in school at Santa Fe to go down to the 

 station at Embudo to get them, for the children who are in Santa 

 Fe are to arrive at the station to-morrow noon." The governor, 

 being told thus by this man, went back to his house and went up 

 on top of the roof and shouted announcement, as it is the custom of 

 people at the Pueblo to do when anything is going to happen or any- 

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