-/I 



1G2 NEW TRACKS IN NOBTH AMEEICA. 



same tongue, and they resort to tlie Spanisli language, wliieli. 

 tliey acquire with tolerable facility, as a common medimn o 

 communication. The Puehlos form five groups, if classed 

 according to dialects. 



1. Pueblo de Teas, de Pecuries, Sandia, and Isleta. 



2. San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, ]S"aml)e, Pojuaquc, 

 and Tcsuque. 



3. Cochiti, San Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Silla 

 (Zia), Laguna, and Acoma. 



4. Jemes. 



5. The pueblo of Zuni. Those of the MoquI pueblos 

 speak the same dialect as that of Jemes. The Spanish 

 missionaries found little difficulty in teaching these natives 

 to read and write, but since the decay of religious esta- 

 blishments throughout Northern Mexico education has been 

 arrested, and now not a single school exists In any of the 

 pueblos. 



In religion they are, to outward appearance, devoted Eoman 

 Catholics ; the few priests who still work amongst them are 

 Frenchmen, and are much respected and beloved. The rites 

 of baptism, marriage, and burial take place in the rilhge 

 church, and they keep the feast-day of their patron saint with 

 great festivities. 



The isolated pueblos, which lie at considerable distances 

 from the main valley, are very different in appearance fi'OHi 

 those simpler one-storied tillages which once dotted the banks 

 of the Eio Grande del I^orte in very considerable numbers. 

 In these, the distinctive peculiarities of the native fortiiica- 

 tions are very striking. Laguna, on the Eio de San Jose, is 

 built on the summit of a limestone cliff, some forty feet high, 

 possessing considerable natural advantages for defence. The 

 houses are mostly of stone plastered over with mud, and two 



