18 Our Araby 



Hot Springs Lane than the commonplace Spring 

 Street. 



The Hot Spring is the outstanding natural feature 

 of our village, though not so natural as when one 

 took one's bath in the rickety cabin which antedated 

 the present solid little bath-house. However, the 

 Spring itself is as natural, no doubt, as any time 

 this five or ten thousand years: and you may get as 

 weird a sensation in taking your bath, and as 

 healthful a result afterwards, as bygone generations 

 of Cahuillas have enjoyed. The water, which is just 

 comfortably hot and contains mineral elements 

 which render it remarkably curative, comes up 

 mingled with quantities of very fine sand. You may 

 bask in the clear water on the surface of the pool, 

 or, if you want all the fun you can get for your 

 money, you may lower yourself into the very mouth 

 of the spring where the mixture comes gurgling up. 

 This will yield you (especially at night and by 

 candle-light) a novel and somewhat shuddery 

 experience, though one absolutely without risk; and 

 you will come forth with a sense of fitness and fine- 

 ness all over to which only a patent medicine adver- 

 tisement writer of high attainments could possibly 

 do justice. 



Our village is bisected by the Reservation line, 

 which thus makes a geographical division of the 

 population. Only geographical, though, for, fortu- 

 nately, there has never been anything but complete 

 harmony between whites and Indians. Something 

 more will be said about the Indians later: here I 



