I never, during my residence in tlieir valley, saw a 

 Pueblo Indian laugli; I do not remember even a smile. 

 Tliey carried no arms tliat we could discover, but each 

 pushed before bim a little band-cart composed of a body of 

 wicker-work on wooden wheels, filled with grapes, the 

 produce oi theii- vineyards. They were on their way to Los 

 Yegas, and seemed so sure of a good market, that we had to 

 pay ten dollars for a large basket of grapes weighing from 

 fifty to eighty pounds. 



At Santa Fe I watched these people coming and going, 

 bringing their produce in the morning — ^peaches, grapes, 

 onions, beans, melons, and hay — for sale, then buying what 

 necessaries they wanted, and trudging off in the afternoon 

 quietly and modestly to tlieir country villages. I looked on 



•,i 





158 NEW TEACKS IN NOETH AMEEICA. 



in fact, the only native race whose presence on the soil is not 

 a curse to the country. 



Whilst on the plains, whatever belief we had in the 

 nobility of the red-skin, or the cruelty of the frontier man, 

 quickly vanished, and we learnt to regard the Indian of the 

 plain as the embodiment of all that was cruel, dastardly, and 

 degrading. We were not long, however, in the Eio Grande ir 

 valley before we encountered a new race, as different fi'om j^ 

 our old enemies as light from darkness. 



I fii-st met a small party of these people on the plain a few j^ 

 jniles west of the Pecos; they were neatly di-essed in 

 buckskin shirt and breeches, which latter fitted tightly to 

 their legs ; they wore moccasins on their feet and a gndlc , 

 around their waist. Their beads were bare, their black hau* 

 was cut square in front almost to the eyebrows, and gathered 

 up behind into a queue boUnd round with red cord ; a 

 narrow band also passed over the hair in front and was 

 fastened underneath. They were short in statiu-e, thickly 

 built, with quiet, intelligent faces and large sorroTV^ul eyes. 



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