Living remote from the whites, these people, like those of Old Zuñi, have kept more of their primitive manners, and live more as their fathers did, than those do who inhabit the pueblos of the Rio Grande, where they have been longer in contact with Europeans. Forty years ago they knew only a few Spanish words, which they had learned when Spaniards held their country. In a remarkable manner, the people have kept their own tongue and nationality free from foreign taint. From this fact we are led to think them much the same people that they were long, long ago. There are other buildings in the country of the Gila, called _Casas Grandes_,[4] or Great Houses, which are quite different from those described in this chapter, but were apparently built for a similar purpose of defence. FOOTNOTES [1] SEVEN CITIES. See preceding chapter. [2] PUEBLO, Spanish for town or village. [3] ADOBE, Spanish. The same material is much used throughout New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, and Colorado. [4] CASAS GRANDES, or Casas Montezumas. Lieut. Emory, U.S.A., thus describes one seen on the Gila: "About the noon halt a large building was seen on the left. It was the remains of a three-story mud house, sixty feet square, and pierced for doors and windows. The walls were four feet thick. The whole interior of the building had been burned out and much defaced." Casa Grande is on a map of 1720; is on the Gila. FOLK LORE OF THE PUEBLOS. While professing Christianity, the Pueblo Indians have mostly kept some part of the idolatrous faith of their fathers. Thus the two have become curiously blended in their worship. We often see the crucifix, or pictures of the Virgin hanging on the walls of their dwellings, but neither the coming of the whites, nor the zeal of missionaries could wholly eradicate the deeply grounded foundations of their ancient religion. The little we know about this belief, in its purity, comes to us chiefly in the form of legendary lore, although since the Zuñi have been studied[1] with this object we have a much clearer conception of it than ever before. By this uncertain light we find it to be a religion of symbols and mysteries, primarily founded upon the wondrous workings of nature for man's needs, and so embodying philosophy growing out of her varied phenomena. Therefore sun, moon, and stars, earth, sky, and sea, and all plants, animals, and men were supposed to bear a certain mystical relation to each other in the plan of the universe. Instead of one all-supreme being, the Zuñi worshipped many gods each of whom was supposed to possess some special attribute or power. Some were higher, some lower down in the scale of power.