Folder 437

[single page document typed on lined note paper]

ZUNI BAKING DAY

The Zuni maiden bakes excellent bread in her oven. We call it a Dutch oven, but the Zunis have had this type of oven [illegible - 2 words crossed out] as far back as the white man’s knowledge of them goes. Her costume is her adaptation from the whites. The peton hanging down her back is purely ornamental. The buckskin wrappings on her legs are to [illegible - word crossed out] prevent snakebites. The Zunis are the most evolved Indians we have. They have been communists (in the sense that they share their property) ever since we have known them, and never quarrel. Their houses are excellently built, and they are the finest [illegible - words crossed out] silversmiths among all our Indians. Who they are and where they come from, nobody knows. They are honest and trustworthy. Their Sacred Mountain is a mesa ten miles long and two thousand feet high.