The herald., 1895-09-08

This story was told down Yuma way
on the overland from Tucson after sup
per during pipes, where the trains had
parked for the night, while the mules
were crunching gramma hay inside the
circle formed TO hold stock and resist
A pacbes.
There was no wird, but the camp fires
Jared lust the same and spat and crack
led, for it was built of CROSSWORD and
made our shadows lurch along the line
of freighing wagons sihouetttes when
they ship off their screen.
A pack train pulled into camp after
supper fires were lighted and was now
sharing the protection of our circle for
the night. 1t was owned by Cavalry
PeIe' and was condemned government
outfit, so contained Missouri mules and
Mexican aperejos, which were packing
in style.
We were lounging on the rigging,
watching the sparks float upward from
the exploding crossword land the talk
turned on snakes. Snakes are safe sub
ject in a land where mans affairs are
either apparent or else entirely his wn.
and where his business, If not evident,
is best kept to himself. There are not
many subjects. Papers don't reach you.
and politics don't interest, because you
don't know the men and they were elect
ed SO long ago; the tariff don't affect you
because you have to make everything for
yourself and transportation is enormous
women ars not discussed because you see
none, andSthe ones you once knew have
either been forgotten or else are unknown
to the men you meet. Religion is not in
ovida beCquse fhara farv 90
and you have no chance 10 practice it,
The weather is not discussed; 1T is too
permanent to permit differences of opin.
ion. Even the future affords no topic,
for it is too uncertain and is sure to be
unlike the past. OF the past there has
been plenty, and it includes both Indians
and snakes, so they are safe subjects and
keep men from growing bigoted. hearing
always OF things in adventures utterly
unlike your own in this monotonous land
of permanent turquoise skies and unfor-
getabe landscape which has been so
costly with life and so versatile with in
cident.
Several men who had told snake stories
now turned to Pete. Pete was never fer
ward with his anecdotes, but IL you could
dig out one of his chronicles it was gen.
orally worth the digging. He had buffet
ed badly. for he was an educated man
cursed with love of adventure.
Pete shifted his position against the
pack rigging and began.
Probably l have had one original ex-
perience, for | allow am the only man
that was ever sentenced by jury to die
at the hands of SNAKE"
"A snake!' echoed tins camp.
''pll bet the judge was drunk and they
did not execute it," said the master Of
transportation.
''Pll bet there warn't no Judge and
the camp had run shy on ropes, observed
q teamster with a twinkle.
There was no judge and there were
plenty OF ropes; it was jury-not as
you could call my peers-but their SEN
tence was executed, at least so far as the
snake was able to do his. duty." replied
Pete in slow correction TO facetious in
terruptions. and then continued:
''If you amt Been among the Moquis it
ssly are pedSa mu0f h aSo art fn ss
pusblo Indian, just as they were when
"But their houses must be higher now,
for they had a queer custom of continu-
ing building from generation to genera
ton. adding story to story, for they
room to build any other way, because
their torefathers had selected small de-
tached buttes as site for the village.
"The buildings with their inclosed
court filled the top of the butte to the
edge of the bluff, which rose hundreds
court were 100 yards long and the build
ing continuous all around the plaza.
Some of the buildings were six stories
high, with a terrace above each floor.
When a couple married they added an
other cupola. mudswallow fashion, to the
ancestral martin box; built ten feet more
ladder to connect with the terrace bslow
and the rest was ready. If they had kept
up this style of building much longer
some of the stories would have toppled
Off and fallen the hIuff h1t No
10 dying now and they have quit build
ing. They intermarry, So the tribe will
soon come to an end. The women do
the proposing. and most all the work, and
the fool way they lived ON the crest of
those high buttes left plenty of chores TO
be done. The water was at the base OF
the bluffs and wood had to be fetchedsup
steep cobble trails leading from the mesa.
The corn patch was miles away in the
valley and the sheep and goat folds were
IN dugouts near the springs under the
hill.
ages ago they lived like sensible peo-
pie ON the streams in the valley. Then
the Apaches came and defeated them IN
fortified then, and for days hurled
powders over the bluff onto the heads of
their beslegers. After a while the A paches
withdrew from the siege and collected the
Moquls' stock and drove 1t south.
1.-The Apaches have never been back,
but the Moquis still live, like swamp rab-
bits, crowded on a knoll when the flood is
on in the bottom. The men arc too
cowardly to fight in the open, so 1 sup
pose their women will drag wood and
water up those bluffs until the day of
judgment.
1.-THE married women drive the stock
to pasture on the plain, and till the
maize and barley land in the valley
where it is irrigated from the streams.
The girls remain indoors, and weave
baskets and wooden blankets and grind
corn on metates. When a girl wishes to
marry she grinds necessarily IN token of
her longing. The men. seeing the sign,
gather round if she BIO comely. and when
the chosen one appears she filings nour
in the face OF him she would favor. If
he accepts her he quits the estufa long
enough to erect the cote on top of the
ancestral mansion, arranSes a LADDER to
connect with the terrace below. after
which the ceremony is concluded by
big feast at the estufa.
Then his squaw no longer grinds ard
weavss, but goes farther with the sheep
into :he valley and tills and sows and
harvests. while he returns to loaf and
smoke at the estufa. The estufa is q big
dug, out defensively arranged on the bow of
the bluff. just outside one of the build
ines inclosing the court, and is entered
through hatchway by ladder. 1t is as
big and as dark as the hold of ship, and
is grimly lighted by the sacred estufa fire.
which IS kept always burning in the CEN
ter or the room and the smoke aScendS