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Show 1~6 EXPLORATION OF THE O.ANONS OF THE OOLORADO. second cliff; up this we go, by easy st.:<tges, leading the animals. Now we reach the stinking water pocket; our ponies have had no water for thirty hours, and are eager even for this foul fluid. We carefully strain a kettleful for ourselves, then divide what is left between them-two or three gallons for each; but this does not satisfy them, and they rage around, refusing to eat the scanty grass. We boil our kettle of water, and skim it; straining, boiling, and skimming makes it a little better, for it was full of loathsome, wriggling larvre, with huge black heads. But plenty of coffee takes away the bad smell, and so modifies the taste that most of us can drink, though our little Indian seems to prefer the original mixture. We reach camp about sunset, and are glad to rest. September 19.-W e are tired and sore, and must rest a day with our Indian neighbors. During the inclement season they live in shelters, made of boughs, or bark of the cedar, which they strip off in long shreds. In this climate, most of the year is dry and warm, and during such time they do not care for shelter. Clearing a small, circular space of ground, they bank it around with brush and sand, and wallow in it during the day, and huddle together in a heap at night, men, women, and children; buckskin, rags, and sand. They wear very little clothing, not needing much in this lovely climate. Altogether, these Indians are more nearly in their primitive condition than any others on the continent with whom I am acquainted. They have never received anything from the Government, and are too poor to tempt the trader, and their country is so nearly inaccessible that the white man never visits them. The sunny mountain side is covered with wild fruits nuts and native grains, upon which they subsist. 'rhe oose, the fruit of the y'u cca,' or Spanish bayonet, is rich, and not unlike the paw-paw of the valley of the. Ohio. They eat it raw, and also roast it in the ashes. 'rhey gather the fnuts of a cactus plant, which is rich and luscious, and eat them as grapes, o:r from the.m express tl~e juice, making the dl'y pulp into cakes, and saving tl~em ~or wmter; the wme they drink about their camp fires, until the midmght 1s merry with their revclrie~. They gather the seeds of many plants, as sunflowers, golden rods, and grasses. For thi~ put·po e, they have large couical ba:;kots, which hold two HABITS ANn OUSTOMS. 127 01' more h!lshels. rrhe women carry them on their backs, suspended from their forehead8 by broad stra.ps, and with a smaller one in the left hand, and a willow woven fan in the right, they walk among the grasses, and swoop the seed into the smaller basket, which is emptied, now and then, into the larger, until it is full of seeds and chaff; then they winnow out the clmif and roast the seeds. rrhey roast these curiously; they put the seeds, with a quantity of red hot coals,. into a willow tray, and, by rapWly and dexterously shaking and tossing them, keep the coals aglow, and the seeds and tray from burning. As if by magic, so skilled are the crones in this work, they roll the seeds to one side of the tray, as they are roasted, and the c:oals to tho other. Then they grind tho seeds into a fine flour, and make it into cakes and mush. It is a merry sight, sometimes, to see the women grinding at the mill. F or a mill, they use a large flat rock, lying on the ground, and another small cylindrical one in their hands. They sit prone on the gronnd, hold the large flat rock between tho feet and legs, then fill their laps witL seeds, making a hopper to the mill with their dusky legs, and grind by pn!:>hing the seeds across the larger rock, where it drops into a tray. I have seen a group of women grinding together, keeping 1i.mo to a chant, or gossiping and chatting, while the younger lassies would jest and chatter, and make the pine woods merry with their laughter. Mothers carry their babes curiously in baskets. 'rhey make a wicker board, by plaiting willows, and sew a buckskin cloth to either edge, and this is fulled in tho middlA, so as to form a sack, closed at the bottom. At the t.op, they make a wicker shade, like "my grandmother's sun bonnet," and, wrapping the little one in a wild cat robe, place it in the basket, and this they carry on their backs, strapped over the forehead, and the little brown midgets are ever peering over their mother's shoulders. In camp, they stftnd the basket again~t the trunk of a tree, or hang it to a limb. There is little game in tho country, yet they get a mountain sheep now and then, or a deer, with their arrows, for they are not yet supplied with guns. They aot many rab bit~, sometimes with arrows, sometimes with nets. They make a 110t of twine, made of tho fibers of a native flax. Somotin10s thi~ is made a hundred yards in Jongtu, and is plu.cod in a half circular pol;ition, with wi11gs of sago brus1t. They have a circle hun t., and dri ve great num- • |