s painted with red figures. Such ceremonies were a
clever device of the Jesuits and Franciscan missionaries to wean the
Indians from their native feasts by offering them something equally
attractive in the new religion they were teaching. The feasts are
still observed, while the teachings are forgotten.

I found the people assembled before the old adobe church, where they
had just finished their service. The gobernador at once attracted my
attention as he stood with his large white blanket wrapped around him,
Indian fashion, up to his chin--a fine, almost noble personality,
with a benign expression on his eagle face.

The Indian never allows anything to interfere with whatever business
he may have on hand, be it public or private. Presently all rose,
and eight men, the authorities of the pueblo, marched in two rows to
the court house, followed by the rest of the people. There is always
found near the church a commodious building, called La Comunidad,
originally intended as city hall, court house, and hotel. In this
case it was so dilapidated that the judges and officers of the court
about to be held took seats outside on the lawn in front of one of
the walls. They were preparing to administer justice to a couple of
offenders, and as this is the only occasion on which I have seen the
details of Indian judicial procedure carried out so minutely as to
suggest early missionary times, I am happy to record the affair here
in full.

The gobernador and four of the judges seated themselves, white man's
fashion, on a bench erected for the purpose, where they looked more
grand than comfortable. Two of them held in their right hands canes of
red Brazil wood, the symbol of their dignity. The idea of the staff
of command, sceptre, or wand, is wide spread among the Indians of
Mexico; therefore, when the Spaniards conquered the various tribes,
they had little difficulty in introducing their batons (_la vara_),
as emblems of authority, which to this day are used by the gobernadors
and other officials. They are made much in the same way as the ancient
staffs, and of the same material, the heavy, red Brazil wood. Below
the head of these canes there is always a hole bored, and through this
a leather thong is passed, by which the staff is hung up on the wall
when not in use. Those of the highest authorities are ornamented with
silver caps; the lesser officers have smaller canes, in proportion to
the degrees of their dignity, while the lo