THE APPROACH 



15 



known land to them and yet it had its terrors. 

 Tradition told that the Evil Spirit dwelt there, 

 and it was his hot breath that came np every 

 morning on the wind, scorching and burning 

 the brown faces of the mountain-dwellers ! 

 Fire ! he dwelt in fire. Whence came all the 

 fierce glow of sunset down over that desert if it 

 was not the reflection from his dwelling place ? 

 The very mountain peaks flared red at times, 

 and in the old days there were rivers of fire. 

 The petrified waves and eddies of those rivers 

 were still visible in the lava streams. Were 

 there not also great flames beneath the sands 

 that threw up hot water and boiled great vol- 

 canoes of mud ? And along the base of many 

 a cliff were there not jets of steam and smoke 

 blown out from the heart of the mountains ? 



It was a land of fire. No food, no grass, no 

 water. There were places in the canyons where 

 occasionally a little stream was found forcing 

 itself up through the rock; but frequently it 

 was salt or, worse yet, poisoned with copper or 

 arsenic. How often the tribe had lost from its 

 numbers slain by the heat and drought in 

 that waste ! More than once the bodies had 

 been found by crossing bands and always the 

 same tale was told. The victims were half 



Th land of 

 fire. 



Drought 

 and heat. 



