Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1895-04-05


ugly little jaws wide, pressing upon
the sides Of the head; and when the
recurring fangs had risen from their
grooves 10 the roof Of the mouth and
stood tense, a stream so inconceivably
hnd that the eye could barely note IT
spurted from each, and in the space OF
two or three inches melted into invis-
ible spray. Yet that Jet, finer than
cobweb strand, was enough 70 give
swift death to the largest aud strong
est animal that walks.
Wien the hunt was over / told my
Indian chums of the pichu-cuate, and
asked them many questions. They all
knew o. the snake though several had
never seen one, aad al agreed that it
is extremely rare. The crotalus ranks
among the Pueblo divinities, and their
charmers have no dificulty with that
stead-going and respectable reptile.
But even among these people with
whom the cult af the rattlesnake has
such astounding features, aud, where
until recent years every Pueblo kept u
sacred rattlesnake in sacred room,
with special priests to attend him, the
villainous little sand viper is accursed.
Even those who have 1.-THE power of
the snakes can do nothing with him,
he scorps to be tanned even, by the
dropping upon his head of the mystic
pollen of the corn blossom.
And he was more dangerous than
the rattlesnake? Oh, yesl A Thousand
times wore than ch'a-ra-ra-deh! No
one ever get well If the plchu-cuate
bit him. Even a medicine man once,
who knew all the sacred herbs, and so
was proof against snakes, brought a
pichu-cuate ia his blanket to the
Pueblo to tame it, But when he let
it out upon the floor and sang to it.
and went to take it up it struck him
in the wrist, and he fell down and died
in the time one could count fifty. All
remembered, too, the fate Of Cruz
Abeita, a young man who had gone out
to tle llano to herd cattle. Clearly,
he had seen a rabbit run down its bur
row aud had tried to get it out with a
switch, for when they found him he
was lying there, terribly swollen and
black, with his arm still down 10 the
hole; aud in his other hand, clenched
with the grip Of the dead, was
crushed pichu-cuate. IRldden in the
sand, it had struck him in the face
while he was reaching after the rab-
bit, and both had died together. They
had heard of other cases (and so have
II of the bite of the American asp,
and always with fatal results.
mo! But there was man, and he
is the only one that was ever struck by
the pichu-cuate without dying" said
francisco. And he was a Moqui
that l know. lie is of the snake men
there, who make the rajtlesnake
dance, so he has. the power of the
snakes. But it was net for this that
he escaped; and though he lives he
can no longer weaye-he who was be-
fore one OF the best manta weayers OF
the People of Peace.
"He chanced to be coming one day
from Ohua-tu.e, and, sitting down in
the desert to rest, put his hand back
and felt himself struck 10 the knuck-
les. Thinking IL TO be a rattlesnake,
he rose and turned TO charm it, but
when he saw it was a pichu-cuate,
against which even the mah-Que-beh
is no remedy, he took his hunting
knife like lightning and chopped off
his right hand at the wrist, afterwards
killing the snake. And for many
weeks we looked for him TO die. Since
then he can no longer charm even the
rattlesnakes, for when he sees any
snake his heart dies IN him, and the
snake, beholdlng that he is afraid,
will not obey him, but always fights.
Ay! such is the pichucuatol Buena
suerte that yonder one pricked you
notm
And l heartily agreed with Fran
cisco.