202 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



at the first opportunity checked up.' But in all his descriptions he 

 does not depart, I think, from the pattern, i. e., he may improvise the 

 combination of patterns, but not the patterns themselves. His very 

 creduhty is quite according to pattern. In Pueblo folk tales, and I 

 have in mind more particularly Tewa tales, the horned serpent is seen 

 by all, when he comes into the kiva; in the witch kiva men transform 

 into deer and other animals to go abroad with evil intent; through evil 

 or good magic men are able to levitate or Hy.' Even the hysterical 

 character Abeita gives to some of his accounts, notably his account 

 of exorcism after a bear kill, is not, I incline to think, fictional. 

 Keresan exorcism is known to have a similar exciting effect.^ How- 

 ever, it is ob^dous enough that the outcome of work with such an 

 informant by two students must vary. This fact, the emotional 

 irresponsibility of our informant, as well as differences in our own 

 methods of study, have led Mrs. Goldfrank and me to keep our 

 observations in separate forms. 



Among contradictions recorded by earlier observers, includmg 

 myself at a past period, were statements in regard to clan organiza- 

 tion. The Corn divisions of Isleta are not true clans, and we M'ere 

 misled in trying to assimilate the Isletan social organization with that 

 familiar in other pueblos, particularly Keresan.* The following study 

 I had the advantage of making after I had acquired some familiarity 

 with the Tanoan-speaking peoples of the north, with the people of 

 Jemez and the Tewa among whom clanship is of slight miportance, 

 with clanless Picuris and clanless Taos. 



'\\Tiether the Isletan Com groups are or are not clans is more than 

 a question of description or classification; for it is concerned with the 

 experience of a migratory clanless group with bilateral descent, but 



' That opportunity I have since sought but failed to find at all fully in a woman informant whom I shall 

 be referring to as Lucinda. Although she was corroboratory of Juan Abeita in many particulars, on cere- 

 monial she was absolutely close-mouthed, and so consistent was she that she would never give me an 

 Isletan personal name. Isletan names are peculiarly associated with ceremonial. Keresan names she did 

 not hesitate to impart. Lucinda was more trtily a person of "one heart," as she said of herself, and more 

 scrupulous than almost any other Pueblo I have met. It undoubtedly pained her to hear me allude in any 

 way to the secrets of religion. When I referred to the war spirits as living in the mountain under whose 

 feet we were one day passing — Sandia Moimtain — Lucinda began to weep. And yet the next moment, 

 like a child, she was correcting my prommciation of the name of Masewi and remarking that Masewi and 

 Uyuye were "the greatest men in the world." Lucinda was, of cotnse, apprehensive, as well as conscien- 

 tious. "I hope I won't die soon," she remarked after telling me the kind of folk tale that is told to little 

 children. Another time she repeated what was no doubt told her when she herself was a child; "If I tell 

 about our religion, some time when I am out in the hills a bear or some other wild animal might get me 

 and hurt me." Another time she told of what had happened to the Ropi Indian who lay the altars 

 in the Harvey House at Albuquerque. " In two days he began to swell up. His tongue was swollen and 

 hanging from his mouth." And then there was Lucinda's enemy and antithesis, a woman bold to reckless- 

 ness. um"eliable, and unscrupulous. I'ortunately, I knew enough about Isleta when I came to work with 

 her to be able to check her up. We were friends and enemies, for we respected, even admired, each other, 

 and our duel of wits is a high spot in my Pueblo experience. Out of it came some valuable information. 



' Parsons, 17: 20-1, 26, 37, 90. A Jemez acquaintance also told me he had seen the homed serpent in his 

 spring. (Parsons, 16: 125.) 



3 Compare Parsons, 8: 121, n. 7. 



* Compare Parsons, 9: 154. Analysis of these clan lists reveals quite plainly the specific fallacy of 

 informants who use the term for people, t'ainin, indiscriminately for clan, society, animal spirit. 



