parsons! secular GOVERNMENT 253 



shovel. The governor had the crier call out to the men to bring in 

 the body. Meanwhile the suspected man had been asking the mur- 

 dered man's widow to marry him. She told the governor about it. 

 For the tliird time the man was arrested and jailed, this time for 

 three months. During this period his brother had to support the 

 widow and children. When the suspected murderer was released he 

 had to support the family. He still supports it. The agent wanted 

 to keep the suspected murderer in prison, but the governor said, 

 "No; better have him out and supporting the family." 



The above stories indicate that the idea of compensation for murder 

 is familiar at Isleta as it is at Zuni and probably in other towns where 

 murders are, however, so uncommon that little or nothing has been 

 recorded on the subject. There are two other murder stories at 

 Isleta which corroborate this conclusion about an existing theoiy of 

 compensation. On San Juan's Day two boys who were "playing 

 rooster" and slapping at each other got angry. That night when 

 they went out to sing at the ash pile one boy said to the other, "That 

 is not the way to be a man!" The other rejoined, "How should you 

 be a man?" And they feU to. After fighting, one boy went home 

 and to bed. Along came two boys and shot into the wall over his 

 head. He snatched the Winchester above the door and fired and 

 killed a third boy who was coming toward the house. The parents 

 of the killed boy would not agree to settle the case — i. e., receive 

 compensation — so the murderer was sent to prison at Santa Fe for 

 13 years. "And the father of the murdered boy got nothing. 

 They had thought that by appealing to the agent they would get 

 more than by settling it together. But they got nothing!" The 

 second case was that of the father of this murderer who had himself 

 killed a girl, unintentionally, fii-ing off a gun which he thought was not 

 loaded while dancmg on Kings' Day before the house of the town 

 chief. After the accident the killer ran away to the mountains to 

 the south, where he stayed by day, going to a Mexican house at 

 night. After 10 days his people came for him. They had settled the 

 matter with the victim's family, giving them a team of oxen, a horse, 

 and some money. 



Over houses and lands the governor has some final jurisdiction, in 

 cases of absenteeism or of dealings with nontownspeople. For 

 example: When Juan Rey Churina, of the Laguna colony, went to 

 live at Sandia his title to house and land at Oraibi was considered to 

 lapse; and when Juan Rey's daughter'' returned to Isleta after her 

 father's death to claim the property she foimd that the governor had 

 "handed" it to Bautista Hohola, an Isletan, and one of the Town 

 Fathers. (See p. 356.) This, of course, was a peculiar case, for Juan 



" Another daughter was married to an Isletan whom she left to marry into San Felipe. Subsequently 

 she returned to her Isletan husband. 



