Evening star., 1924-05-18

600 sheep and goats owned by the
Navajos in order to curtail their food
supplies. History discloses, however,
that Col. Carson made "a grave mis-
take in destroying the fruit trees. as
they belonged to the Hopi Indians.
who were inoffensive and peaceful.
Before Carson finished the job ne
made the Navajos rue the day that
they had ever marauded white SCI
Elements or ranches.
\ :. =
IF you are familiar with sky-bed-
chamber systems as practiced i'll
the far west, you may have heard of
the horse or coW-hair ropes which
the 'old-timers use to coil in a large
loop around their blankets. or sleep
ing bags placed on the earth. to keep
away rattlesnakes. 1t is one of the
traditional superstitions of the range
country that a rattlesnake will never
cross one of these homespun lariats
which usually are about thirty fee
in length. Will Barnes states thar
he accepted this control measure as
100 per cent truthful, and for many
years used to surround his blankets
nightly with the hair rope coil while
he was sleeping in the rattlesnals
country He continued:
Although l asked hundreds AID
hundreds of cowboys, foresters.
ranchers. prospectors and Indians, !
never found anybody who had ac-
tually seen a rattlesnake go around
instead of crossing one of these
ropes. l determined 10 make the test
the next time I came across rattler
as every year since my associ alton
with the forest service / have spen-
about six months out of every twelve
inspecting the different cattle ranges
in the federal forests, which. of
course. required long saddle trips and
sleeping quarters wherever sunset
overlook US.
Finally in the high Sierras of
California / met with a big rattle
snake and by careful maneuyerinsa
and manipulation of my hair rome
was able repeatedly TO throw tn,
larlat IN the snakes path. without
exciting or irritating the reptile so
that 1T would either have to cross over
or pass around the rope In every in
stance the snake crawIed directly
over the rope.
Later, in southern Utah ] repeated
Ihe test ana again found that the
rattiesnake paid no attention to The
halr rope. My experimentation b,s
proved that the superstition about tbs
protection afforded by a hair rope is
nothing more than myth"
Years ago." continued Mr. Rarr.
ran curio shop in Phoenix. Ariz
where j specialized in basketrv and
Indian art work The Indians ba..r
10 orlng in rattlesnakes. and / had IN
pus the reptiles at 25 cents apiece 10
keep on the good side of the redskins
Flnally ! got so many rattlers that
put an advertise in a eastern
paper offering rattlers for sale. Ire
celved orders from scientists and
showmen in every state in the Union
and most of the foreign countries.
pullt up a good business in poisonous.
rattlesnakes.
"A FrencYman. an amateur seien-
tist, who had attended the snak.
dances of the Hopi Indians and care
FULLY watched how the redmen han
died the snakes, frequently visited nv
store and asked permission to demon.
strate his ability in handling rattlers
He claimed that he could handle them
as e&pertly as the Indians Finally
one day he opened the cover of ou,..
display snake case and hauled on, :.
hve-foot Diamond Black rattIer. one
OIL the most surly and savage of dan
gerous snakes
Inc Frenchman leased the snake
until 1t struck, and then grasped il
hrmiy back of the head as do the In,
dians while it was still extended. The
1nfuriated snake made a great din
with it's rattles and writhed and turn
ed until finally it got couple of coils
around the mans arm. This gave il
leverage enough so that it could par
tally coil itself and strike him.
"All the ordinary frontier precau-
tions were taken-the tourniquet was
used, the wound was slashed with a
razor and sucked, and two doctors
aided all they could, but fifteen hours
later the man died with frightful suf-
fering."
Mr. Barnes says enas .s a result of
thirty-five years experience :. ;ne
southwest he has learned that it does
not pay to take any chances with rat
tlesnakes. 1t is folly for white man
to attempt to emulate the Hopi In
dians, who are adept rattlesnake
charmers. These redskins .and their
ancestors for thousand years back
have been handling and worshiping
poisonous snakes. Even the most ex-
pert Indian snake charmers are some
times bitten. The Hopi Indians use a
mysterious and efficacious cure for
these poisonous snake bites-a cure
which they have refused to divulsa
for the use of their pale face friends
=