Rattlesnake’s Paradise 
71 
is as though the lips of the Sphinx should part and utter solemn 
words. A bunch of white flowers at the tip of the obelisk, flowers 
springing white and wonderful out of this dead, gaunt, prickly 
thing—is not that Nature’s consummate miracle, a symbol of resur¬ 
rection more profound than the lily of the fields.” * 
Then there is the glorious ocotillo, waving its long, slender 
wands from the ground-centre, each green with its myriad little 
lance-shaped leaves, and bursting at the end into a scarlet 
flame of blossoms dazzling in the burning sunlight. Near 
by springs up the Barrel cactus, a forbidding column no one 
dares touch. A little farther is the “yant ” of the Pai Ute, 
with leaves fringed with teeth like its kind, the Agaves. This 
is a source of food for the native, who roasts the asparagus-like 
tip starting up in the spring, and he also takes the whole head, 
and, trimming off the outer leaves, bakes it in pits, whereby it 
is full of sweetness like thick molasses. The inner pulp is dried 
in sheets and laid away. Near by, the Pinyon tree in the au¬ 
tumn sheds its delicious nuts by the bushel, and meanwhile 
there are many full, nutritious grass seeds, the kind called 
“ak” by the Pai Utes almost equalling wheat in the size of 
its kernel. In the lowlands grows the stolid mesquite tree, 
more underground than above, whose roots furnish excellent 
firewood,—albeit they must be broken up with a sledge ham¬ 
mer, for no axe will stand the impact. Near it may be seen 
huge bunches of grass (or perhaps straw would describe it bet¬ 
ter), which the white man gathers for hay with a huge hoe. 
Then there is the ever-present, friendly sage-brush, miniature 
oak trees, with branch and trunk so beautiful. It grows, as a 
rule, about two feet high, but I have seen it higher than my 
head; that is, at least six feet. Beneath its spreading shade in 
the south lurks the Gila Monster, terrible in name at any rate, 
a fearful object to look upon, a remnant of antediluvian times, 
a huge, clumsy, two-foot lizard. The horned toad is quite as 
forbidding in appearance, but he is a harmless little thing. 
Here we are in the rattlesnake’s paradise. Nine species 
are found along the Mexican border; and no wonder. The 
^ Harriet Monroe, Atlantic Monthly, June, igo2. 
