STEVENSON] ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 379 



the announcement that the auctioneer is to j^ive his services to those 

 in need of them. The time being arranged for the sale, the auction 

 occurs in the great plaza (see plate xcviii). The following is a 

 description of an auction which lasted three days, observed by the 

 writer in 1896: Early in the morning the auctioneer placed a bunch of 

 yellow blossoms in the center of the plaza and covered it with a conical 

 cooking vessel, no one being present l)ut the auctioneer and the writer. 

 What was under the vessel was a secret, and the flowers were not 

 removed until everyone had left the plaza in the evening. At 10 

 o'clock in the morning the women began bringing in their wares. 

 Bowls and baskets were deposited about the inverted cooking vessel. 

 These contained wheat flour, dried peaches, beans, squash which had 

 been cut into strips and dried, and other articles of food. Burros 

 sometimes found their way to the sale and got their noses into the 

 baskets before they could be driven away. Though only the women 

 were supposed to be interested in the auction, a number of men sat 

 about with their knitting. The auctioneer set forth the good (jualities 

 of the article for sale, stated what the owner wished in exchange for 

 it, and with his ready tongue soon enticed a purchaser. He frequently 

 sold an article within thirty seconds after it was brought to the plaza. 

 Payment w^as made at once, and the traders left the plaza to return m 

 a short time with the vessels, which go back to their owners. 



The auctioneer, an aged man with white hair, had served long at the 

 business and w^ould have been considered a model one in any com- 

 munity. He was kept busy on this occasion from morning until night. 

 He received no compensation for his services except innumerable 

 invitations to eat." 



RECENT CHANGES IN ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 



Mr Stevenson, during his first visit to the Zunis in 1879, inaugurated 

 many changes for the better. Window panes, candles, lamps, and silver- 

 smiths' implements were introduced, and larger doors were made. 

 Each Indian who aided in making boxes for packing the Government 

 collection received enough lumber to make a door, the Indians being 

 taught to make the doors and hang them. Improvements progressed 

 slowlv from that time to 1902, since which date great strides have been 

 made'in certain directions; but in 1904 the people were found to be m 

 a deplorable condition morally. 



While the ceilings of the older houses are low, those of the newer 

 ones, or of such as have undergone renovation, are high. The finer 

 houses are now built entirely of stone, quarried a few miles from 

 Zuni. An ax and chisel are the on ly means adopted for quarrymg, 



aThi. system of Lading is said by the Z.mis to have existed long before the invasion of the 

 Spaniards, and it is practiced in all the pueblos. 



