Arizona citizen., 1875-05-01
A Valuable Book.

We have previously noticed, in these
 columns "Bancroit's Native Races of
 the Pacific States" and the more we see
 of the book the more we become interest
 ed in it. Instead of being dry com
 pilation of facts and statistics we find It
 as interesting to the general reader as 1t
 promises to be useful and instructive to
 the more critical student and man of let
 ters. Take the following, from the advance
 sheets of Vol. 8. of this work, on subject
 particularly interesting to this locality
 DEUCE OF THE PIMAs.
 l The Pimas, neighboring and closely | allied people to the PapagoS, say that the
 earth was made by certain ChioWot-
 mahke, that is to say Earth prophet. It | appeared in the beginning like a spiders web, stretching far and fragile across the nothingness that was. Then the Earth prophet flew over all lands in the form ef | butterfly, till he came to the place he judg- | ed fit for his purpose, and there he made
 man. And the thing was after this wise: | the Creator took clay in his hands, and mixing it with the sweat of his own body, kneaded the whole into lump. Then | he blew upon the lump till 1t was filled
 with life and began to move; and It became
 man and woman. This Creator had son | called Szeukha, who, when the world was beginning to be tolerably peopled, lived in the Gila valley, where lived also at the
 same time great prophet, whose name
 has been forgotten. Upon certain night
 when the prophet slept, he was wakened | by noise at the door of hIs house, and
 when he looked, great eagle stood be- fore him. And the eagle spoke: Arise, | thou that healest the sick, thou that shouldest know what is to come, for | bebold deluge is at hand. But the
 prophet laughed the bird to scorn and gathered his robes about him and slept. l Afterwards the eagle came again and warned him of the waters near at hand; | but he gave no ear to the bird at all. | Perhaps he would hot listen because this
 eagle had an exceedingly bad reputation | among men, being reported to take at times the form of an old woman that | lured away girls and children to certain | cliff so that they were never seen again: of this, however, more anon. third time, the eagle came to warn the prophet, | and to say that all the valley of the Gila | should be laid waste with water; but the prophet gave no heed. Then, in the twinkling ot an eye, and even as the l Tapping Ot the eagles wings dled away 1 into the night, there came peal of thunder and an awful crash; and green mound of water reared itself over the
 plain. It seemed to stand upright for
 q second, then, cut necessarily by the | lightning, goaded on like great beast,
 it flung itself upon the prophets hut. 1 When the morning broke there was nOth- l ing to be seen alive but one man--lf | indeed he were man; Szeukha, the son | of the Creator, had saved himself by
 floating on ball of gum or resin. On
 the waters falling a little, he landed near | the mouth of the Salt River, upon mountain where is cave that can still be
 seen, together with tools and utensils
 Szeukha used while he lived there.
 Szeukha was very angry with the great
 eagle, who he probably thought had had
 more to do with bringing on the flood than appears in the narrative. At any
 rate the general reputation of the bird
 was sufficiently bad, and Szeukha prepar- ed a kind of rope ladder from very 1 tough species of tree, much like wood l bine, with the aid of which he climbed up
 to the cliff where the eagle lived, and
 slew him. Looking about here, he found
 the mutilated and decayiDg bodies of @
 great multitude of those that the eagle | had stolen ana taken TOT prey, duu uc
 raised them all to life again and sent
 them away to repeople the earth. In the
 house or den of the eagle, he found wo-
 man that the monster had taken to wife,
 and child. These he sent also upon their
 way, and from these are descended that
 great people called Hohocam, 'ancients
 or grandfathers,' who were led in all their
 wanderings by an eagle, and who eveDtu- ally passed into Mexlco. One of these Hohocam named Sivano, built the Casa Grande on the Gila, and indeed the ruins of this structure are called after his
 name to this day. On the death of Sivano, his son led branch of the Hohocam to
 Salt River, where he built certain edifices
 and dug large canal, or acequis, At last
 it came about that a woman ruled over
 the Hohocam. Her throne was cut out
 of blue stone, and mysterious bird was | her constant attendant. These HohO-
 cam were at war with people that lived | to the east of them, on the Rio Verde, and one day the bird warned her that the
 enemy was at band. The warning was | disregarded or it came too late, for the
 eastern people came down in three bands, | destroyed the cities of the Hohocam, and ! killed or drove away all the inhabitants