186 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



symmetrical in Nature's handiwork in this realm of desert 

 bloom. 



Man comes and goes through life, dancing in and out of 

 the Great Scheme, but he has missed much of the picture and 

 the skein of life if he has not gone out to see the desert. For 

 it is there on the broad high mesas of these vast arid stretches 

 that life begins and ends; it is this desert land of plants and 

 flowers, the great dry region of the earth, that haunts us, 

 fascinates us, beckons us, allures us, just as it did the ancient 

 pueblo and cave dweller, in ages long gone by. 



We have finished our long trip into the mysterious realm 

 of the Fantastic Clan, and we hope that you have gone with 

 us in fancy along all the devious and rocky paths into the 

 habitats of the cactus plants, and sensed something of their 

 strange and matchless growth, and much of their beauty 

 and charm. For you have not seen Life in all its many and 

 varied forms till you have viewed at least once the wondrous 

 parade of the brilliant cactus flowers, and surveyed the gor- 

 geous painted canvas flung far out over the burning mesas on 

 the Great American Desert. And remember, too, the words 

 of the poet: 



"If you have not, then I could not tell, 

 For you could not understand." 



(Madge Morris: "Lure of the Desert") 



