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Show 226 Notwithstanding an Indian taboo against entering the cave, the explorers found thousands of human footprints in the fine, moist clay bottom, as well as evidence of fires in many places in the cave. Yet when Bean prevailed upon the Indians to guide him through they steadfastly refused, t e l l i n g him they had not dared enter the cave for generations. Both Bean and Martineau recorded the ancient Indian legend surrounding t h i s mysterious cave in their writings. Bean wrote: They have a legend, t h a t two squaws went into the cave, a long time ago, and remained six months. They went in perfect nudity and returned dressed in fine buckskin, and reported they bad found a large and beautiful valley inside clothed with vegetation, timber, and water, and filled with game of the choisest specie. Also, a band of Indians in an advanced state of civilization; being dressed like white men. They asserted the tracks we 14 found were made by these subterranean inhabitants. "All the Indians firmly believe t h i s story and will not enter i t , " wrote Martineau in the company h i s t o r y . 1 5 But Bean noted that one brave, after watching the explorers return safely from the cave after an hour, did accompany them on their second expedition into the cave. This was apparently before Martineau's arrival in the area. The superstition of Bean's Pockage Cave lasted for many years. Miners traveling through Cave Valley in the l860s reported the legend was s t i l l very strong among the natives. One group of miners was able to hire the services of an Indian guide for "an enormous quantity of cold grub," who claimed to have "been in the cave a day's t r a v e l . " Their account of 1866 continues: He told us a l l manner of stories about about the cave. He said that after traveling three days we would come t o a new world, where there was another sun and moon, and another race of human beings, who had horses, c a t t l e, |
