To earth, to rule with love and bring
The blessedness of peace.[V-35]
The Pueblo chiefs seem to be at the same time priests; they perform the various simple rites by which the power of the sun and of Montezuma is recognized as well as the power—according to some accounts—of "the Great Snake, to whom by order of Montezuma they are to look for life;" they also officiate in certain ceremonies with which they pray for rain. There are painted representations of the Great Snake, together with that of a misshapen red-haired man declared to stand for Montezuma. Of this last there was also in 1845, in the pueblo of Laguna, a rude effigy or idol, intended, apparently, to represent only the head of the deity; it was made of tanned skin in the form of a brimless hat or cylinder open at the bottom. Half-way round, it was painted red; the other half was green. The green side was rudely marked to suggest a face: two triangles were cut for eyes; there was no nose; a circular leather patch served for a mouth, and two other patches in an appropriate situation suggested ears. Crowning the head was a small tuft of leather, said to be supplemented by feathers on festal occasions. A sorry image one would say, yet one looked upon by its exhibitors with apparently the greatest veneration; they kneeling in a most devoted manner, going through a form of prayer, and sprinkling it with a white powder. One of the worshipers said it was God and the brother of God; and the people bring it out in dry seasons, and, with dancing and other rites, invoke it for rain.
Christianity has now effaced the memory of most of the rites of the Pueblo religion, but Dr Ten Broeck noticed that many of the worshipers at the Christian church in Laguna carried little baskets in their hands containing images of domestic animals, or of beasts of the chase, molded in mud or dough; it being the custom, as it had been there from time immemorial, for those that had been successful in the chase, or in accumulating cattle, to bring such simulachres of their prosperity before the altar of God—probably, a modification produced by the poverty of the people of a rite as old as the altar of Abel, to wit, the offering of the firstlings and first-fruits to that Deity whose blessing had given the increase.
It has been affirmed, without much foundation or probability of truth, that the Pueblos worshiped fire and water.[V-36]
The Moquis know nothing of Montezuma; they believe in a Great Father, living where the sun rises, and in a great Mother, whose home is where the sun goes down. This Father is the father of evil, war, pestilence, and famine; but from the mother are all their joy, peace, plenty, and health.[V-37]
MOJAVE DEITIES.
The Mojaves tell of a certain Matevil, creator of heaven and earth, who was wont in time past to remain among them in a certain grand casa. This habitation was, however, by some untoward event broken down; the nations were destroyed; and Matevil departed eastward. Whence, in the latter days, he will again return to consolidate, prosper, and live with his people forever. This Matevil, or Mathowelia, has a son called Mastamho, who made the water and planted trees. There is also an Evil Spirit Newathie.[V-38]
From a letter just received from Judge Roseborough, I am enabled to close this chapter with some new and valuable facts regarding the religious ideas of certain tribes—not accurately specified—of the north-west portion of Upper California. The learned judge has given unusual attention to the subject of which he writes, and his opportunities for procuring information must have been frequent during ten years of travel and residence in the districts of the northern counties of California:—