VOL. XIII 

 1891. 



] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 389 



Mr. CiisbiDg's best account of these people, however, is published in 

 another connection, wherein he relates how he made a long and danger- 

 ous journey from Moqui to the Supai CaGon.* 



Following his description of hazardous descent into that fearful gorge, 

 Gushing goes on to say in his article, that " the first Ha-va-su-pai I saw 

 may be taken as a type of his race. But lightly clothed, a strange close 

 head-band around his temples, he swiftly passed from one bush to an- 

 otlier as we we emerged from the little grove. Below us stretched a 

 green, moist plain of sandy soil, nearly two miles long by balf amileat 

 its greatest width. We could catch only occasional glimpses of it 

 through the rank growth of willows, the leaves of which everywhere 

 brushed our heads as we rode along the river trail ; these glimpses, 

 however, revealed numerous cultivated fields of corn, beans, sunflowers, 

 melons, peaches, apricots, and certain plants used in dyeing and basket 

 making, and usually carefully protected by hedges of wattled willows 

 or fences of cottonwood poles. Everywhere these fields were crossed 

 and recrossed by a net work of irrigating canals and trails. Here and 

 there were little cabins, or shelters, flat-roofed, dirt-covered, and closed 

 in on three sides by wattled flags, canes, and slender branches, while the 

 front was protected by a hedge like those of the fields, only taller, placed 

 a few feet before the house, and between which and the house burned 

 smoky fires." 



" The houses were always nestled down among the thick willows 

 bordering the river, or perched on some convenient shelf, under the 

 shadows of the western precipice. In several places, within some of 

 the great horizontal cracks of these western cliffs, and often high up, 

 were little buildings of stone laid in mud plaster, and not unlike the 

 cliff" dwellings we had observed on the way down, and of which ruins 

 exist in almost every caQon throughout the great southwest." 



" When we again caught sight of our Kuhni, in a little opening near 

 the trail, he was evidently uncertain whether to run forward and warn 

 the tribe — whose voices, mingled with the barking of dogs and the mur- 

 muring of the river, could be heard below — of our coming, or wait to 

 greet us. Finally, he shouted in a rapid, gurgling, soft sort of language, 

 that the villagers were coming; and then, with sort of a questioning 

 smile, turned toward us, keeping up a ceaseless gibberish, but eyeing 

 me closely, and evidently thinking me the most curious member of the 

 party." 



The only other facts of importance given in this narrative are that 

 those Indians have their medicine men and use tli«^ " sweat house," a 

 plan of treatment seen among many other tribes. They have a great 

 number of dogs about their village, and many of the, tamiliesare blessed 

 with from five to six children. They are, so far as the writer is aware, 

 upon excellent terms of friendship with the whites. I am not aware 



^Cashing, Frank Hamilton. " The Nation of the Willows." The Atlantic Monthly, 

 Sei)teniber, 188-2, pp. 362-.374. The quotation I make is from page 374. 



