ation and attained a high
degree of Indian culture. Yet more remarkable in this respect were the
Navajos, whose name is said to signify "large cornfields" and to have
arisen from the extensive agriculture practised by the tribe. When they
were first discovered by the Spaniards in 1541 they lived in large
dwellings, partly subterranean, tilled the soil, irrigated their fields
by means of artificial watercourses, or _acequias_, and generally
displayed all the signs of the highest type of primitive civilization.
Again, there were the Pueblo Indians, as they are generally known--the
term is really ambiguous and probably includes many different tribes and
even stocks, being given indiscriminately to the inhabitants of the
ruined towns which have been found throughout Arizona and the adjacent
territory. While the civilization of these town dwellers was most
probably local rather than racial, an accident of situation and
propinquity, it was none the less decided.

Now, among such tribes, in the most advanced state of red civilization,
the status of woman was of necessity somewhat different even from that
which she enjoyed among the Sioux, Comanches, or other of the great
tent-dwelling peoples. Among the Navajos, who are chosen for example as
being in many respects typical, the son followed the gens of his mother,
the matriarchal system being in full force; while among the Sarcees, a
kindred tribe, the mother-in-law was held in such respect that the
husband of her daughter could not sit at meat with her, or even touch
her, without rendering himself amenable to a fine. Yet polygamy existed
among the Navajos, and marriage by purchase was the rule. Moreover, if
we are to believe the accounts of the early explorers of the West, among
all the southern tribes marital affection was practically unknown; the
wife was a mere slave, and in some of the tribes so lax was the marital
tie that it was not uncommon for friends to exchange wives in token of
amity. So it would seem that the status of woman, contrary to the
general rule, was higher where the outer signs of civilization were less
marked. Except in the case of the Nehaunies, a tribe of eastern Alaska,
there is no known instance of a Western gens being ruled by a woman,
though, on the other hand, there seems to be little doubt that among the
Navajos--whose religion was somewhat of the nature of that practised by
the Aztecs, with which race they were indeed associated in stock--women