The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-08-02


of prospectors have spent months Of ton
trying to find the Madre foro, but, it is
scarcely necessary to say, with no re-
suit. -=----77 = +. = = - - 49, = -
Miners in the quartz mines believe
that the rats-there are thousands of
them in mines that are being worked
can tell when an earthquake or cave in
the walls of the mine is coming. They
claim that before anything of the kind
occurs the rats will be seen trying to
crowd into the cages or buckets, as the
case may be, in which the ore is hoisted
to the surface. There is a similar be-
lief about the cockroaches, which are
said to crawl up the shaft before an &C
cident happens. M
1t sometimes happens that in the clay
casings," or seams of clay between
the ledge and the rock on each side of
it, punches of wire silver will be found.
In Northwestern Arizona this is fre-
quently the case. These punches con-
sist of pure silver in the form of wire
curiously matted together. The Indians
and Mexicans account for them by say
ing that the silver dislikes the rock in
which it finds itself and tries to get out.
Reaching the clay it finds that there is
more rock beyond and so, in despair,
stays where it is. A more fanciful ex-
PLANTATION which is sometimes given is
that the matted punches of silver wire
were originally little snakes turned into
metal and placed in the clay as a pun
ishment for having offended the Great
Snake God.
BEwITCHED ARAsTRAs.
One of the oldest superstitions Is that
connected with the :" arastras" An
"arastra" is a circular pit about two
feet deep, lined with stones. in which,
| by the aid of mule, stones are dragged
around. The silver ore being put into
it is ground, water being added during
the grinding. into slime. 1t is proba-
bly, the most ancient method still en-
ployed for pulverizing ore. Sometimes,
the Mexicans tell you, the arastras ="
get bewitched. and will not work. 1t is
of no use to relieve them with fresh
stones, nor does it do any good 10 put In
new grinding blocks. The g arastra
is bewitched, and that is the end of it.
If the witch who has done the mischief
cannot be found there is one thing
to do. The owner gets three
ball cacti-vegetable globes COW
cred with thorns-and splits each
into four parts. He places these twelve
pieces at equal distances around the
edge of the arastra pit. He then
fills the pit with finely broken ore and
starts the mule up. The grinding-st stones
being drawn around for about an hour,
the machine is stopped and the ore
carefully examined. 1t is always found
to be ground more in one place than
in another. The owner takes the pieces
of cactus near the part where the ore is
not ground, and burns them to ashes.
The other pieces he throws away
1 Hoviprr r,1rt ord TO fha cr,a1I 1,x- fhis
operation, he relieves the '' arastra,"
puts in fresh grinding stones, and find
ing that it works all right, points tri-
umphantly to the fact as proving that
it had been bewitched and cured by the
cactus. When asked why the cactus
removes the spell from the "arastra,"
the Mexican will say, stMy father
did it," and there is an end to the ques-
tions.
A belief common, especially among
the Indians, is that the lairs in which
great snakes keep themselves are always
over gold veins. One of the most COM
mon snakes in the southwest is called
the "gold snake" from this cause
Many MeMcans are infected with this
superstition, and the writer remembers
one case where large gold snake was
killed in Southern Arizona, not very far
from small village. Before ten o'clock
next day two men had been killed in the
fight which arose between those anxious
to locate mine on the spot where the
snake had been found It is scarcely
necessary to say that a careful examina-
ton failed to show a ledge or anything
like one. For. all that, the location,
when made, was sold to some enterpris-
ing capitalists in the neighborhood-
| Y. World