“How many years old is the Pueblo?”
“Muchos años.—Many years.”
“About how many?”
“Who knows, señor?” with a shrug. “A great many.”
“Who is the oldest man in the Pueblo?”
“The cacique.”
The cacique, we were informed, is the official historian of the Pueblo. His records consist only in oral traditions, which he teaches to a youth selected for the purpose, who is to succeed him in his office when he dies.
“Is the cacique very old?”
“Si, señor! Very old.”
It is useless to ask an Indian how old he or any other Indian is, as he never knows. So we did not ask how old the cacique was.