Ancient Chinese account of the Grand Canyon, or course of the ColoradoMcAllan, Alexander
History
Ancient Chinese account of the Grand Canyon, or course of the Colorado
McAllan, Alexander
America -- Discovery and exploration -- Chinese; Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico)
Remember that our own government has erected numbers of forts on
hilltops throughout the South-west expressly for the purpose of holding
such tribes as the Navajoes and Apaches in check. (And in addition we
are furnishing the red men with supplies.) But in the 11th century there
were no Congressional appropriations, no detachments of troops hurrying
down from Washington to preserve order. Yet the ancestors of our savage
tribes were certainly there. And although the warrior chieftans
immediately around the young queen appear to have been filled with
jealousy of each other, it is certain that they were united as one in
devising for the princess a calm or sure retreat which no barbaric host
could take by assault. From its base the savage ranks would reel, or
break into foam like waves of the sea.
Aloft in this secure retreat she gave birth to =Mo=.
Who was his father?
The American General already referred to, supplies his own report of the
Pimo interpreter's words:
"All he knew was a tradition amongst them, 'that in bygone days, a woman
of surpassing beauty resided in a green spot in the mountains near the
place where we were encamped. All the men admired and paid court to her.
She received the tributes of their devotion, grain, skins, etc., but
gave no love or other favor in return. Her virtue and her determination
to remain unmarried were equally firm. There came a drought which
threatened the world with famine. In their distress, people applied to
her, and she gave corn from her stock, and the supply seemed to be
endless. Her goodness was unbounded. One day, as she was lying asleep
with her body exposed, a drop of rain fell on her stomach, which
produced conception. A son was the issue, the founder of a new race
which built all these houses'.... The houses of the people (the
agricultural or sedentary Pimos) are mere sheds, thatched with willow
and corn stalks" (n. 85.)
This report is more rational than the other in so far as it represents
the multitudinous houses of stone or adobe as being reared by a "race"
rather than by a "boy"! But, of course, the "son" could not have been
the "founder" of his mother or of her ancestors. It is further apparent
that the infant could not have been either the builder or inventor of
the house or stronghold in which he was born.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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