322 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO 



not accept because only nae'ra (some animal smaller than a mouse) 

 lived on it; i. e., it was not arable. The song about this was considered 

 very amusing, "people laughed and laughed." Again there was a 

 song about a boy who was in a girl's house when he saw her parents 

 coming and he ran out through the window. Unable to get an Indian 

 girl for a wife, he began to court a Mexican girl. He asked a certain 

 old man with a beard to help him. Late at night the old go-between 

 earned some*' beans and two cans of sardines to the house of the 

 Mexican girl. Her father came to the door provoked by so late a 

 call. He grabbed the old man by the beard, and the Isleta boy had 

 to nm awaJ^ He threw himself on his bed, saying it was no use trying 

 to get married. The next morning he cut off his queue and went out 

 to look for work, because the girls did not want to marrj^ him. Boys 

 are not only wilUng to go for spruce in order to be able to sing these 

 teasing songs, they even volunteer. And other boys will tell the 

 spruce gatherers what to tease about, giving them a cigarette, "pay- 

 ing " them with a cigarette. WTiether or not the teasing songs already 

 cited were of actual persons seems somewhat uncertain; but the song 

 about one Francisco Seyo was cited as based upon an actual occur- 

 rence, his visit to a woman neighbor who gave liim supper. "Where 

 is Francisco Seyo?" ran the song. "And where is Maria Pinta (a 

 term of abuse)? Let us go again to-night and eat beans." At this 

 song the wife of the "old man" got mad and began to shake him. 

 The old man went to the boys and gave them a cigarette to stop their 

 teasing song. 



Habitually, people give the teasing singers a cigarette to close their 

 mouths. . . We left the spruce gatherers teasing people at the 

 river. Thence by the road the women have swept from river to plaza 

 the spruce gatherers come into the plaza to dance and continue their 

 teasing songs on all four sides on the roofs to which the Grandfathers 

 had restored the ladders. (They had removed the ladders so there 

 would be nobody on the roofs at this time.) They may be dressed 

 up as an old Mexican or Indian, cariyiug a bag or "something funny." 

 Should the padre come out to watch, the burlesquers would make 

 fim of him, stroke his beard or kneel in front of him asking for his 

 blessing. They might surround a white or Mexican and not release 

 him until he danced for them. At this time the boys are called 

 pachu'un, funny men. . . . Were a man absent — all should be at 

 hand — the pachu'un would beat a little drum or can at his house, and, 

 unless he has put a cigarette inside his door, they would take him and 

 throw him into the pond near the town. If the man has made himself 

 safe by putting down the cigarette, the spruce gatherers have to take 



•' A measure for beans called nashau 



