Year: 1875

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