368 YOSEMITE. 
she dipped up the water of the lake in her basket and quaffed long and 
deep. She even drank up all the water and drained the lake dry before 
her husband arrived. And thus, because the woman had drunk all the 
water, there came a grievous drought in that land, and the earth was dried 
up so that it yielded neither herb nor grass. But the thing which the 
woman had done displeased her husband, and his wrath was greatly moved 
because he had no water, so that he beat the woman with his staff full sore. 
She fled from before him, but he pursued after her and beat her yet the 
more. And the woman wept, and in her anger she turned about and reviled 
the man and flung her basket at him. So it befell that, even while they 
were in this attitude, one standing over against the other, facing, they were 
turned into stone for their wickedness, and there they have remained to 
thisday. The basket lies upturned beside the husband, while the woman’s 
face is tear-stained with long dark lines trailing down. 
South Dome is the woman and North Dome is her husband, while beside 
the latter is a lower dome which represents the basket. The acme of female 
beauty is reached in the fashion of cutting off the hair straight across the 
top of the forehead, and allowing the side-locks to droop beside the ears ; 
and the Indians fancy they discover this square-cut appearance on the face 
of the South Dome. Probably the only significance of this little story is a 
reference to some severe drought that once prevailed in the valley. 
There are other legends in Yosemite, including one of a Mono maiden 
who loved an Awani brave and was imprisoned by her cruel father in a 
cave until she perished; also one of the inevitable lover's leap. But neither 
Choko nor any other Indian could give me any information touching them, 
and Choko dismissed them all with the contemptuous remark, “ White man 
too much lie.” 
