152 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
would be expelled the pueblo, and his property would be confiscated, but 
the other would be allowed to remain with all his rights’ : 
“There are three old men in the pueblo whose duty it is to impart the 
traditions of the people to the rising generation.. These traditions are com- 
municated to the young men according to their ages and capacities to 
receive and appreciate them. The Taos Indians have a tradition that they 
came from the north; that they found other Indians at this place (Taos) 
living also in a pueblo; that these they ejected after much fighting, and 
took and have continued to occupy their place. How long ago this was 
they cannot say, but it must have been along time ago. The Indians 
driven away lived here in a pueblo, as the Taos Indians now do.” 
Mr. Miller also communicates a conversation had with Juan José, a 
native of Zia, and José Miguel, a native of Pecos, but then (December, 
1877) a resident of the pueblo of Jemez, which he wrote down at the time, 
as follows: ‘‘Before the Spaniards came, the religion of Jemez, Pecos and 
Zia, and the other pueblos, was the Montezuma religion. A principal 
feature of this religion was the celebration of Dances at the pueblo. In it, 
God wasthe sun. Seh-wn-yuh was the land the Pueblo Indians came from, 
and to it they went when dead. This country (Seh-un-yuh) was at Great 
Salt Lake. They cannot say whether this lake was the place where the 
Mormons now live, but it was to the north. Under this great lake there 
was a big Indian Pueblo, and it is there yet.’ The Indian dances were 
had only when prescribed by the cacique. The Pueblo Indians now have 
two religions, that of Montezuma, and the Roman Catholic. The Sun, 
Moon, and Stars were Gods, of which the greatest and most potent was 
the Sun; but greater than he was Montezuma. In time of drought, or 
actual or threatened calamity, the Pueblo Indians prayed to Montezuma, 
and also to the Sun, Moon, and Stars. The old religion (that of Montezu- 
ma) is believed in all the New Mexican pueblos. ‘They practice the Cath- 
olic religion ostensibly ; but in their consciences and in reality the old reli- 
gion is that of the pueblos. The tenets of the old religion are preserved 
by tradition, which the old men communicate to the young in the estufas. 
At church w grep the Pueblo Indians pray to God, and also to Montezuma 
1 The Iroquois ce a similar tradition of the ancient existence of an Indian village under Otsego 
Lake in New York. 
