AMONG THE RED INDIAN HANDICRAFTERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 64

AMONG THE RED INDIAN HANDICRAFTERS.

(Edwaed Pagk G^sto.v, in the Windsor Magazine. ) The Xavajo or Zuni silversmith of New Mexico Territory, U.S.A., has the most elaborate plant tor his work known in any of the liner arts practised by the Red Indian in America at the present day. A slab of di£s-ed stone is mounted upon rude legs as the basis for his primitive forge, and clumsy but effective bellows ore fashioned on a framing of hoops by means of buckskin or raw hide, which latter has been pounded pliable with stones after drying. These bellow » give the native artisans endless trouble, as they often ?prmg a le?k at the most inopportune mom^nr, and work has to cease until the puncture has been patched. The forge-pipe is mad'i by a large reed, hollowed cut lor the passage of the -ar. As one Indian labours at the bellows softening the metal for the working, another sits with a blow-pipe and dees the finer work as the article comes lo him from his fellow-woiker, while a thud is hammeiing out with punches the button and medallion forms in the die;. The silver they v^e comes entirely from the silver dollars and halves, quarters, and dimes which the Indians receive in barter for their goeds. You v, ill have difficulty in getting a native to take anything but silver, as he knows nothing of gold, copper, or paper money. Also he would sooner take a Mexican silver dollar, worth less than 50 cents in United States money, for the silver in it is purer than in the United States coins and the lessened alloy makes it much easier for him to work. The Indian has no wif-h to hoaid up money in the coin ; his way of reckoning metallic wealth is by the number of belts and buttons he possesses. Tlrs peculiarity is shown curiously enough by the fact that he will often offer you some finished article for the same number of dollars that he has used in its making, thus counting his labour as ncthing. If, however, you wish a piece of work made especially for yen, the business proposition immediately changes ; for then he will charge you two or three times what you otherwise would pay. and will impress you with the fact that he is doing you a great favour in taking the work at all. Six to ten large medallions, each made of five melted silver dollars, make up the average belt, which is the glory of every well-to-do adult male member of these tribes. The value of these belts accordingly ranges from 30 to 60 dollars apiece at the average quotation, or from £6 to £12 in our English currency ; yet the felling price depends entirely upon the financial necessities of the owner. These [ people seem to have no idea of the value of things except as gauged by the necessity of the moment, and one who lives i among them soon learns that he must never be anxious to make a purchase, but wait until the seller comes to him. Aboriginal art is always conventional, ard the silver designs have changed but little in the passage of centuries, although one can see that civilising influences are finally beginning to show in some of the pattern 0 . Bracelets, band finger-rings, cu-iings and buttons are about all the smaller ai tides made, these being skilfully engraved by mii dentition. Blanketry and varied forms of weaving have come in consequence of the [ introduction of sheep by the Spaniards j many decades ago, so that now both the j Navajos and Zunis have their greatest tribal wealth in the flocks of many thousands which crop the scant gramma grass on the ranges about their reservations. . . I More numerous and interesting than all else that my excavations disclosed in the I ruins of the ancient cities of the American desert.', while a member of the Hemenway Expedition of 1388 were the prehistoric pot- ! teries. In texture and in decoration these long-buried ceramics were almost identiI cal with the pottery one can see the women of Zuniland making to-day. I gained many a view of half-sa-vage ways and the workings of the simple minds of the?e descendants of a once powerful peonle by watching the modern potters at their work. . The Zunis invest every function of life with a sacred purpose, and their pnests teach that all things are ter anted with a 1 soul. If a piece of crockery bieaks jn burni ing, the superstitious potter will pay that, i as it is broken, its body is therefore dead, and she will a«k you if you did not hear its soul depart by the ping ! with which it cried out when its voice escaped. The Zuni women are accoidmglv very careful, in decorating a domestic utensil, to leave unjoined one of the decorative lines, which is called the "life-line," so that the spint 1 of the vessel may pass to and fro w ithout the necessity ior breaking out. as it is held would be necessary if this "exit trial of life' were not left open. Pigments for the pottery decoration are secured by grinding minerals obtained from the mountains ond by vegetable stains. The ornamentation is applied in frets and scrolls and animal figin lings, a favoinite design of the latter kind being the deer, which is common in that region, and is held in some reverence by the Indians, as are also bears and other animal.". ' The throat and lungs of the painted deer are always shown by an opening, that its breath of life may not be impeded. The pottery secuied from the ancient ruins, already referred to as having been once occupied by the early forebears of these nations, bore decorations almost identical with those of Zuni to-day, it being specially remarkable in both the ancient and modern pottery that the ' lifeline"' is clearly shown. — " I suppose you will marry, though, when the golden opportunity offc s, won't you 7 "—" — " It will depend upon how much gold there is in the opportunity." Ar« you troubled with Rheumatism, Lumbago, Gout, Sciatica, Neuralgia? Jf so, ase WiTUHKri' OIL. Sold nil oh'pmi«U. Wk^*fcale ageula, Keinptuoiue, Proper*