THE PUEBLO OF ACOMA. 



By De. Oscak Loew. 



[From notes by G. L. McGee.] 



Acoma is about 45 miles south of Old Fort Wingate, N. Mex. It 

 is built on a barren sandstone mesa some 300 feet above the plain. As we 

 filed around the base of the rock, the Indians, on their high perch, shouting 

 in their peculiar wild notes, presented a scene more weird and savage than 

 anything that I have ever seen before. The town can be approached only 

 by two narrow and very steep paths. We ascended by the foot-path on 

 the west side over a drift of sand which the wind has piled against the 

 side to within 15 or 20 feet of the summit, and then by steps cut in the 

 solid rock we reached the town. This town is built in the usual style of 

 the pueblos of New Mexico. The houses are of adobe, and of two and 

 three stories. There are neither doors nor windows in the first story, except 

 in the roof, which is flat and reached by means of ladders. The town has 

 about 600 inhabitants, and is divided by three parallel streets. The surface 

 of the mesa on which the town is built comprises about ten acres. There 

 are from 60 to 70 houses, the doors of the upper stories of which open to the 

 south. The time was, unfortunately, too short to collect a vocabulary for 

 comparison with the other Pueblo languages. Some of the Indians were 

 able to converse a little in Spanish. Cooking is done in earthen pots of 

 their own manufacture. We noticed spoons made of horn and of wood. 

 Furniture is unknown, and the people sleep on sheep-skins spread on the 

 floor. 



The bread is unfermented, and resembles very thin wafers which are 



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