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Show 292 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Photograph by Earl II. Morris A MAZE OF ROCK PAINTINGS The caves of the Canyon of Death are a veritable picture gallery. Upon the smooth rock faces are depicted tens of thousands of snakes, birds, men, and animals, as well as geometric patterns. Many pigments were used-white, yellow, blue, green, red, and black. In age the paintings vary from the red square-shouldered men drawn by the Basket Makers to charcoal drawings done by the present-day Navajo. the other forearm was a small basket nearly half full of long, crescentic beads of white shell. Heaped upon the wrists were three neck cords. One bore a single pendant of abalone shell as large as the palm of one's hand, and another two smaller ones of the same colorful, iridescent material. The third breast ornament was a masterpiece. Lashed at short intervals to the neck cord, and overlapping like links of armor, were 18 shell rings, each about three inches in diameter. As worn, they formed a tinkling white collar which reached from shoulder to shoulder. Covering the entire cluster of treasures was a basket nearly two feet in diameter. NOTES OF AN ANCIENT FLUTE CONJURE UP SCENE OF SAVAGE POMP Several explanations of this "Burial of the Hands" could lie written, but probably not one of them would come near to the truth of the mystery which lies behind it. Our last great find was separated from the hands only by the thickness of an upright slab. Beneath a stone floor there lay nearly a wagonload of cedar bark and grass, crowded into a space six feet by three. The surface of it was bright and fresh, as if it had been deposited but yesterday. However, at a depth of a few inches it changed to a mass thoroughly carbonized, but not reduced to ash. Since the charring did not extend to the outer limit of the inflammable material in any direction, the fire could not have been set after the burial was completed. Spontaneous combustion seems out of the question; hence it appears not improbable that fire was buried with the dead. As my fingers reached the offerings with the first body, I cursed the destructive agencies-decay, erosion, burrowing animals, vandals, fire-which so often had conspired to thwart us. A large basket had lain over the head, and on the breast were beads of wood and of yucca seeds, a stone pipe, and many other objects |