PREFACE
THIS story is the result of eight years spent in ethnological and archæological study among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. The first chapters were written more than six years ago at the Pueblo of Cochiti. The greater part was composed in 1885, at Santa Fé, after I had bestowed upon the Tehuas the same interest and attention I had previously paid to their neighbours the Queres. I was Prompted to perform the work by a conviction that however scientific works may tell the truth about the Indian, they exercise always a limited influence upon the general public; and to that public, in our country as well as abroad, the Indian has remained as good as unknown. By clothing sober facts in the garb of romance I have hoped to make the "Truth about the Pueblo Indians" more accessible and perhaps more acceptable to the public in general.
The sober facts which I desire to convey may be divided into three classes,--geographical, ethnological, and archæological. The descriptions of the country and of its nature are real. The descriptions of manners and customs, of creed and rites. are from actual observations by myself and other ethnologists, from the statements of trustworthy Indians,
To those who have so kindly assisted me,--in particular to Rev. E. W. Meany of Santa Fé, and to Dr. Norton B. Strong, of the United States Army,--I herewith tender my heartfelt thanks.
AD. F. BANDELIER
SANTA FÉ, NEW MEXICO