FEWKES] TRADITIONS 43 
There still survive among the Mexicans living in the neighborhood 
of Casa Grande (pls. 8, 9) a few stories connecting Montezuma with 
this ruin. One day while the writer was at work on Compound B, an 
old Mexican who visited the place said that several years ago as he was 
driving past the ruin from Florence to his farm, which is south of the 
main building, a man with a long white beard, clad only in a single 
short garment, stopped him and without a word took his seat on the 
wagon. When they arrived at Casa Grande the mysterious personage 
alighted and without speaking entered the ruin; he was never seen 
again. The Mexican asked whether the writer thought this strange 
person was Montezuma the old chief. 
Font’s LEGEND 
This legend (1775) contains the following story (related to Father 
Font by the governor of Uturituc), which is the oldest legendary 
account of Casa Grande, or Civanavaaki,! extant, from Pima sources: 
He [the governor] said— 
That in a very distant time there came to that land a man who, because of his 
evil disposition and harsh sway, was called The Bitter Man; that this man was old 
and had a young daughter; that in his company there came another man who was 
young, who was not his relative nor anything, and that he gave him in marriage 
his daughter, who was very pretty, the young man being handsome also, and that 
the said old man had with him as servants the Wind and the Storm-cloud. That the 
old man began to build that Casa Grande and ordered his son-in-law to fetch beams 
for the roof of the house. That the young man went far off, and as he had no ax nor 
anything else with which to cut the trees, he tarried many days, and at the end he 
came back without bringing any beams. That the old man was very angry and told 
him he was good for nothing; that he should see how he himself would bring beams. 
That the old man went very far off to a mountain range where there are many pines 
and, calling on God to help him, he cut many pines and brought many beams for 
the roof of the house. That when this Bitter Man came, there were in that land neither 
trees nor plants, and he brought seeds of all and he reaped very large harvests with 
his two servants, the Wind and the Storm-cloud, who served him. That by reason 
of his evil disposition he grew angry with the two servants and turned them away and 
they went very far off; and as he could no longer harvest any crops through lack of the 
servants, he ate what he had gathered and came near dying of hunger. That he sent 
his son-in-law to call the two servants and bring them back and he could not find them, 
seek as he might. That thereupon the old man went to seek them and, having found 
them, he brought them once more into his service, and with their aid he had once more 
large crops, and thus he continued for many years in that land; and after a long time 
they went away and nothing more was heard of them. 
He [the governor] said also, that after the old man there came to that land a 
man called The Drinker, and he grew angry with the people of that place and he 
sent much water so that the whole country was covered with water, and he went 
toa very high mountain range which is seen from there, and which is called The 
Mountain of the Foam (Sierra de la Espuma), and he took with him a little dog and a 
coyote. (This mountain range [Superstition Mountains] is called “of the foam” because 
at the end of it, which is cut off and steep like the corner of a bastion, there is seen high 
1 The term Civanavéaki, which has been translated “chief of the ancient house,”’ is a general term applied 
also to other casas grandes in the Gila-Salt Valley. 
