summer the temperature of the
shallow cavern must be warm indeed.

[Illustration: ESTUFA AND SURROUNDINGS.]

[Illustration: MEXICAN OVENS.]

[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH AT ACOMA.]

The only other notable structure in Acoma is the Roman Catholic
church, the walls of which are sixty feet in height and ten feet
thick. One can realize the enormous amount of labor involved in its
construction, when he reflects that every stone and every piece of
timber used in building it had to be brought hither on the backs of
Indians, over the plains, from a considerable distance, and up the
desperately difficult and narrow trail. Even the graveyard, which
occupies a space in front of the church, about two hundred feet
square, is said to have required a labor of forty years, since the
cemetery had to be enclosed with stone walls, forty feet deep at one
edge and filled with earth brought in small basket-loads up the steep
ascent from the plain below. The church itself is regarded by the
Indians with the utmost reverence, although it must be said that
their religion is still almost as much Pagan as Christian. Thus,
while they respect the priests who come to minister to them, they
also have a lurking reverence for the medicine man, who is known as
the _cacique_. He is really the religious head of the community, a
kind of augur and prophet, who consults the gods and communicates to
the people the answers he claims to have received. This dignitary is
exempt from all work of a manual kind, such as farming, digging
irrigation-ditches, and even hunting, and receives compensation for
his services in the form of a tract of land which the community
cultivates for him with more care than is bestowed on any other
portion of their territory, while his crops are the first harvested
in the autumn. He also derives an income in the form of grain,
buckskin, shells, or turquoises, from those who beg him to fast for
them, and to intercede with the gods in case of sickness. On the
other hand, the _cacique_ must lodge and feed all the strangers who
come to the village, as long as they stay, and he is, also, the
surgeon and the nurse of the community.

[Illustration: THE ALTAR.]

[Illustration: DANCE IN THE PUEBLO.]

While, therefore, the Pueblos go to church and repeat prayers in
accordance with Christian teaching, they also use the prayer-sticks
of their ancestors, and still place great reliance on their dances,
most of which are of a strictly rel