It seems to me a reasonable supposition that it was from the frequency of the occurrence of these corn-houses in the walls of Havasu (Cataract) Canyon, with the occasional appearance of a few of the larger houses used as dwellings by the Havasupais, that the absurd and romantic yarns had their origin that fifteen, or less, years ago, were current in Arizona and elsewhere about this interesting people. The cowboys, miners, prospectors, and others, who accidentally stumbled upon the upper entrance to the Havasu Canyon, and wandered down its meandering course for ten or forty miles, even to the village of the simple Havasupais, returned to civilization and propagated and circulated stories that out-Munchausened Munchausen. They said these people were cliff-dwellers, living at the present day in the walls of the canyon; they were of powerful physical presence, and possessed great endurance. Their fields and gardens were wonderful, and their peach orchards surpassed those of most civilized cultivation, and they held in slavery a lesser people, dwarfs or pigmies, doubtless, who were cliff-dwellers like themselves, and whom they compelled by great cruelty to perform the most arduous labors. Others, having heard these stories, but whose spirit of adventure took them no farther than the "rim" of the canyon, claimed to have looked into the village and side canyons, and there seen the truth of these stories demonstrated. They had seen the pigmies and the gigantic Havasupais, had heard the harsh yells of the latter at the former, and had seen the frantic endeavors of the little people to obey the stern behests of their masters. All these yarns are explained by the fact that the distance of view dimmed the vision; the pigmies were boys driving the burros or horses, yelling and shouting as Havasupai boys delight to do, the voices magnified fifty-fold by the echoing walls of the canyon, while the parents moved around attending to their own business, or looked on and occasionally helped by a shout of encouragement or suggestion. CHAPTER XV THE SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE HAVASUPAIS From the cradle to the grave the life of a Havasupai is practically an out-of-door life. Their hawas--even the best of them--are partially exposed and open, and in the summer hawas there is no pretence at what among civilized peoples is essential privacy. The games of the Havasupai children seem very few. I have seen only three. Of the first importance is shinny, or, as they call it, _tha-se-vi'-ga_. The goals are _go-ji-ga'_, the ball, _ta-ma-na'-da_, and the playing stick _ta-so-vig'-a_. The boys enter into this with the zest one would expect of such a time-honored game, yet, such is their general indifference to prolonged effort, they do not play it very often. An easier game, but generally left to the girls, is, _hui-ta-qui'-chi-ka to-ho'-bi-ga_, which I have fully described in my book on the Grand Canyon.