THE HAVASUPAl OF CATARACT CANON 



G39 



hand and drops away on the otluM- side 

 with nauseating precipitancy to tlie 

 rocky floor below. Now we entered a 

 cleft deeper than usual and arrived at 

 the liead of a great fall of rock, down 

 which the rough trail zigzagged in be- 

 wildering fashion to negotiate the last 

 drop of five hundred feet to the canon 

 bed. Following the example of my In- 

 dian companions, I dismounted and led 

 my horse— not in the least envious of 

 one foolhardy Indian boy who rode 

 aliead. jumping his liorse like a moun- 

 tain sheep from rock to rock. Arriving 

 at last on the comparatively level floor 

 of the caiion, we mounted onr horses 

 again and rode rapidly forward along 

 the arid bed of Cataract Creek. Still 

 descending, through cactus 

 thickets and over great rocks, 

 we came finally upon the 

 Havasupai oasis, fully 

 twelve miles from our ini- 

 tial plunge over the rim. 



Here Cataract Creek 

 bursts forth in full volume to 

 dash away along its rocky 

 bed for about two miles be- 

 fore it tumbles in a series 

 of cascades down another 

 thousand feet or so to join 

 the Colorado Eiver. Over 

 the dense thicket of willows 

 and Cottonwood trees that 

 fills the caiion from wall to 

 wall drifts the blue smoke 

 from camp fires, in ethereal 

 strata. 



Set among the trees and 

 difficult to delineate in the 

 dusk are the brush-covered 

 houses : some of these are 

 rectangular with dirt-strewn 

 roofs and brush walls ; 

 others are shaped like our 

 own wall tents, but so low 

 and so covered with dirt as 

 to seem mere sand mounds ; 

 still others are rough log 

 cabins such as the Xavaho 

 build : but the greatest num- 



ber perhaps are dome-siiaped, brush- 

 thatched structures like huge beehives. 

 Around them stretch fields of corn, 

 beans, and squash, dotted with peach 

 and fig trees, irrigated by ditches lead- 

 ing from the little dams which divert 

 the current of Cataract Creek. 



The life of these Indians of the 

 canon depths was most interesting to 

 study and to enter into. With dawn 

 the camps are awake, and after a hasty 

 meal, men, women, and children are off 

 to the fields. The early morning hours 

 witness an almost feverish activity- 

 planting, hoeing, reaping, or the more 

 strenuous household duties and native 

 crafts, such as scraping and tanning 

 the rapidly drying deer hides; for with 



Tlie Havasupai still make fire on occasion with two dry 

 sticks, one of which, the "drill," is held with its point against 

 the other and then steadily twirled between the palms until 

 a glowing heap of wood dust collects on the hearth. When this 

 pliotograph was taken to illustrate the method, a brisk fire 

 was made in less than a minute. When traveling, the Hava- 

 supai carry short fire sticks, tlie drill being set in an arrow 

 shaft for use 



