Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico); Grand Canyon (Ariz.); United States -- Discovery and exploration
piki. After we have partaken of goat stew and bread a course of
dumplings, melons, and peaches is served, and this finishes the feast.
What seem to be dumplings are composed of a kind of hash of bread and
meat, tied up in little balls with cornhusks and served boiling hot.
They are eaten with much gusto by the party and highly praised. Some
days after we learned how they are made; they are prepared of goat's
flesh, bread, and turnips, and kneaded by mastication. As we prefer to
masticate our own food, this dainty dish is never again a favorite.
In the evening the people celebrate our advent by a dance, such it
seemed to us, but probably it was one of their regular ceremonies.
338 CANYONS OF THE COLORADO.
After dark a pretty little fire is built in the chimney corner and I
spend the evening in rehearsing to a group of the leading men the story
of my travels in the canyon country. Of our journey down the canyon in
boats they have already heard, and they listen with great interest to
what I say. My talk with them is in the Mexican patois, which several of
them understand, and all that I say is interpreted.
The next morning we are up at daybreak. Soon we hear loud shouts coming
from the top of the house. The cacique is calling his people. Then all
the people, men, women, and children, come out on the tops of their
houses. Just before sunrise they sprinkle water and meal from beautiful
grails; then they all stand with bare heads to watch the rising of the
sun. When his full orb is seen, once more they sprinkle the sacred water
and the sacred meal over the tops of the houses. Then the cacique in a
loud voice directs the labor of the day. So his talk is explained to us.
Some must gather corn, others must go for wood, water must be brought
from the distant wells, and the animals of the strangers must be cared
for. Now the house tops present a lively scene. Bowls of water are
brought; from them the men fill their mouths and with dexterity blow
water over their hands in spray and wash their faces and lave their long
shining heads of hair; and the women dress one another's locks. With
bowls of water they make suds of the yucca plant, and wash and comb and
deftly roll their hair, the elder women in great coils at the back of
the head, the younger women in flat coils on their cheeks. And so the
days are passed and the weeks go by, and we study the language of the
people and record many hundreds of their words and observe their habits
and customs and gain some knowledge of their mythology, but above all do
we become interested in their religious ceremonies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account