THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 167 



"A wonderful country" indeed this of New Mex- 

 ico and Arizona, to those who have eyes to see and 

 imaginations with which to dream backward — nay, 

 forward. Within its immense area the oldest civil- 

 ization in the United States had its birth — a civili- 

 zation dating not later than six hundred years after 

 the Christian Era, and brooding with the romance 

 of ages earlier.* To this day, despite the work 

 of archeologists and historical students the "marvel- 

 lous country"retains much of the glamor of the 

 Northern Mystery — the glamor which led the 

 Spaniards, themselves belonging to the age of mir- 

 acles, to struggle on, again and again thwarted, 

 without guide, without actual knowledge, in the 

 bliss of an ignorance the age of science scorns — to 

 struggle, and to succeed ! 



Here in the Land of the Northern Mystery linger 

 traces of cities antedating that of Rome; amazing 

 tapestries, intricate and elaborate adornments of 

 gold and silver and precious stones decked men and 

 women who have vanished into the Unknown ; even 

 their acequais were protected with a form of con- 

 crete hardly inferior to our own. Endless surmise 

 is the sole result, so far, of historical research. 

 Still do the mountains hold secrets in their deep 

 hearts. Fertile vale and flowerstrewn mesa, the 

 desert's remorseless spaces covering generations 

 of men out of mind and forgotten, high ranges 

 through whose tall grass the wind whispers of that 

 mysterious past; the vast horizon, castellated or 

 pyramidal, flaming at dawn or sunset under an in- 

 comparable sky — all are dumb. Craters whose 



*H. O. Ladd. 



