A Sportsman 405 



after leaving Santa ¥6. We were a great surprise 

 and attraction at the few Mexican settlements we 

 passed through, as no white woman had ever been 

 seen there before, and the inhabitants, men and 

 women, old and young, and the children would come 

 about us as if we had been visitors from another planet. 

 It amused us to tear out leaves from a few illustrated 

 magazines we had and distribute them among the 

 people, which were sought for with the greatest eager- 

 ness, and the fortunate possessor of one of these pages 

 became immediately the centre of a delighted group. 

 We met on several occasions small bands of Navajos, 

 looking more savage than peaceful Indians should. 

 They were accompanying small bands of sheep which 

 they were driving out for disposal at Mexican towns. 

 Mounted and dressed in their buckskin garb, with 

 gay blankets and hideously painted faces, with red 

 bandana handkerchiefs bound about their heads, 

 they looked ferocious enough to pursue the wanton 

 pastimes of their ancestors. 



At a spring one day, where my cousin, Mrs. Wood, 

 was temporarily lingering away from our party, she 

 was much alarmed by the approach of a Navajo 

 painted brave, who came on horseback at some 

 speed, brandishing a quart bottle which he held 

 by the neck in his hand. Espying her he stopped 

 and addressed her in the mixed dialect of Spanish 

 and Indian tongue, at which she was much alarmed, 

 but relieved at the approach of Captain Slawson, 

 who explained the object of the brave as being to have 

 the loan of a drinking cup which Mrs. Wood had 

 with her. 



Intoxicants are forbidden by law from being 



