100 INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. 
sent to other villages or to Thunder Mountain. Similar 
methods were resorted to at Tiguex, where a besieged 
pueblo held out for many months because occasional 
falls of snow furnished a fresh supply of water. © Pecos, 
which had a wall and a spring inside, was said by 
Castafeda to have resisted successfully the attacks 
of Plains Indians. 
The weapons used were bows and arrows, a stone- 
headed club, and a stick half a yard long, set with 
flints, which Espejo says would split a man asunder. 
For the protection of the warriors, shields of rawhide, 
leather jackets, and head pieces of leather are men- 
tioned. 
RELIGIOUS PRACTICES. 
The religious activities of the sedentary people of 
the Southwest are so many and so intricate that it is 
difficult to describe or discuss them, especially in so 
limited a space. There are some common elements, 
however, which are worthy of notice. The ceremonies 
often take the form of dramas in which the movements 
and activities of supernatural beings and animals are 
imitated. The actors wear masks, paint their bodies, 
and conduct themselves according to the supposed 
appearance and character of the divinity or animal 
represented. The divinities are also represented by 
large stone images rudely shaped and by smaller ones 
which are better executed in soft stone or wood. 
There are permanent shrines usually near the 
villages, often walled in on three sides and sometimes 
sheltering an image or a peculiarly shaped stone. Tem- 
porary altars are made during the ceremonies by set- 
ting up a line of wooden slabs carved or painted with 
religious symbols before which dry paintings are placed. 
These dry paintings are made by sprinkling sand of 
