When we had spoken our good-nights, the mystery of everything about us grew more profound, enfolding all the world in the eloquent silences of moonlit heaven above and dim floating space below. In such a scene, as we lay upon an adobe terrace, which was of course the roof of a house below, sleep seemed not worth the courting. That may be had in the boisterous town. This was for once only. Below lay stretched the boundless universe, There far as the remotest line That limits swift imagination’s flight, Unending orbs mingled in mazy motion Immutably fulfilling Eternal Nature’s law.[16] At midnight, at three in the morning, and again at six, the _Kahera_ or town-crier—an annually elected official—went the rounds of all the streets, clad in a scarlet blanket and jingling bells like those on the sleigh-reins of children, chanting the while a monotonous invocation. It proved to us the truth of an observation that contrary to the usual pueblo custom of a town-crier shouting out his news from the highest roof-top, Ácoma has always pursued a fashion of her own, sending the man through street after street just as we heard him. When asked in the morning the meaning thereof, our host said it was the announcement of important work at the watering place and a warning to all to bestir themselves. That might be reasonable for the six-o’clock round, but it hardly seemed so for the others in dead of night. We wondered if perhaps it had aught to do with the invasion of the Crag by three Americans. Almost all visitors speak of the Ácomas as unusually cleanly, and certainly our experience bears this out. But since they lie down at night in their clothes on their fur rugs or thin _colchones_, one wonders when they get the refreshment of baths or of changed attire. Morning toilets are consequently brief, and we, like our Indian friends, were early astir. Except where the household has adopted American ways, meals are served on the floor in the ancient fashion. There the family will seat itself in a circle around the bowls of chili and coffee and bread. We were therefore interested to observe that this household had assembled about an ordinary rectangular deal table. Here also had come for his breakfast the governor of the pueblo, because he belonged, like our hostess, to the Eagle Clan and had the right to be considered temporarily a member of her family. His own people were already gone to the farm-lands at Acomita and we were told that many others would join the colony there upon the arrival of the children next day from the schools at Albuquerque or Santa Fé.