A NEW RACE OF PEOPLE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 119, 17 October 1874, Page 3

A NEW RACE OF PEOPLE.

A curious set of people has been lately disco\ ered by Captain W, C. Manning in a village in North-Western New Mexico, just south of the border line between that territory and Colorado, and of whom a description is given in the Denver Nans, a Colorado paper. A strong wall surrounds the village, which contains houses sufficient to accommodate 4,000 people. The population has, however, dwindled to about 1,800. The language and some of the customs of the inhabitants correspond to the language and customs of the Chinese. The women are of the true Celestial type. They dress themselves and their hair in Chinese fashion. Their religion is described as “barbarously magnificent.” Montezuma is their deity. His coming is looked for at sunrise each day. Immortality is part of their creed. The priests have heavily embroidered robes, used for unnumbered years. The ceremonies of worship arc formal and pompous. The morality of the people is unimpeachable. They keep a record of events by means of tying peculiar knots in long cords. Their government is a Conservative Republic. Power is vested in a council of thirteen caciques. Six of them are selected for life. Old men are generally chosen, in order that their terms of office may not be inordinately long. The remaining seven are selected from time to time. One of them is the Executive Chief ; another is a sort of Vice-President. There is a war chief and a chief of police. These seven caciques are usually young men. They serve but a few mouths. Suffrage is universal, and civilisation is “quite far advanced.” Woman, as might be expected under these circumstances, is held in the highest possible respect and veneration. Nothing is too good for her, and her only tastes are those of housekeeping. This isolated community has maintained its traditions unbroken for at least three and a half centuries, and it is, in fact, a paradise for women and priests.