234 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO 



boy himself brings presents — a buckskin, one or two blankets, a 

 shawl, two mantas and silver manta pins, a mattress and pillow.'* 

 During the betrothal period girl and boy receive no visitors lest visi- 

 tors speak ill of them. Three nights before the wedding all the rela- 

 tives of the boy take presents to the girl — coffee, sugar, soap, dishes, 

 perhaps over $50 worth. . . . The boy's father has arranged the 

 wedding day with the padre. It is generally on a Monday. The 

 wedding feast is in the girl's house, where the couple will remain five 

 or six days before going to their owTi house. 



As a nde, the man provides the house. It is usually given to him, 

 built or bought, by his father, or with the cooperation of his kindred 

 he may himself build or buy it. At his death he will leave the house 

 to one or more of liis children '* or to his widow. The only ride or 

 practice is that the house goes to the one not yet provided with a 

 home. Through this coui-se women in many cases own houses, 

 either as widows or as daughters who inherit. Women married to 

 nontownsmen (including men of Laguna descent) also appear as house 

 owners. The following cases will illustrate the various practices of 

 house ownership or inlieritance by women: House 1°^" belongs to the 

 Isletan woman who has married into Zuiii, but whose tiret husband 

 was an Isletan. He owned the house and at his death left it to her. 

 They had no chUdren. She married a nian of Laguna descent, retain- 

 ing ownership of the house. She separated from her second husband 

 and went to Zuiii ;°^ but of the Isletan house she is still accounted 

 owner. House 11 belongs to a girl who has just been married. She 

 inherited the house from her father, her mother having remarried. 

 The husband of the girl owns a house wliich is for the time being 

 empty. . . . House 13 belongs to the younger sister of the owner 

 of house 11. Houses 11, 12, 13 had been one house. Wlien the 

 father of the family died, and his widow remarried, the house was 

 split up, one part (now house 11) going to the older sister, another 

 part (now house 13) to the younger sister, and the middle part (now 

 house 12) beiiag sold out of the family. House 13 is empty, the 

 younger sister being still in school. . . . House 23 belongs to a 

 woman who is married to a Navaho she met at boarding school. Her 

 parents bought the house for her. . . . House 27 belongs to a woman 

 married to a Hopi. She got the house from her firet husband. House 

 44 belongs to a woman who was married to a man of Laguna descent, 

 then after his death to a San Domingo man. House 65 belongs to a 

 woman who was married to a man of Laguna descent. He is now 



S" Compare Mexican practice. (Parsons: 20.) 



^ 1 have no specific information on land inheritance. It was said, in general, that more land would 

 be left to a son than to a daughter. 



**'»The map of the houses to which this and other numerals refer has been lost. 



^' This is the woman of whose Isletan clanship affiliation I tried to learn repeatedly, in Zuni. -\t Zuiii 

 she affiliated herself with the Pikchikwe clan. At Isleta she belongs to the Yellow Com group (the Earth 

 or Lizard people). Now there are no Lizard people at Zufii. 



