42 
CUSTOMS OP THE NAVAJOS.—INSCRIPTIONS.—MOJAVE CREED. 
represented was the regularity with which the sticks were carved. There were, probably, 
hundreds, lying in a pile, cut into the same figures as represented in this sketch, and differing 
only in the degree of decay which time had produced. 
One, who for many years had been a prisoner among the Navajos, gave the following account 
of their customs. The ceremony of marriage consists simply of a feast upon horse-flesh. A 
plurality of wives is allowed, and a man may purchase according to his ability, the price 
being paid in horses. Hence, the wealthy often possess from ten to twenty women. The wife 
last chosen is always mistress of her predecessors. There are among them medicine-men, who 
deal in roots, and songs, and incantations, blowing ashes and muttering spells upon the invalid 
to he cured. Navajos believe in one Great Spirit; to him they make, like the Zufiians, offerings 
of flesh and flour, asking favors and seeking good fortune. They also make altars of stones, 
and sticks trimmed with feathers. The sun, moon, and stars are sacred, as the authors of sea¬ 
sons of rain and of harvest. But here the resemblance to Pueblo Indians ceases. They do not 
acknowledge Montezuma, nor is he, in any way, referred to in their traditions. Neither they, 
nor any other Apaches, consider rattlesnakes as sacred, though they have some superstition 
which leads them to pay particular veneration to hears. They will neither kill nor eat them. 
Pork, also, they have been known to refuse, even when suffering from hunger. 
In plate 35 are representations of paintings at Yampais spring, near Williams river. The 
spot is a secluded glen among the mountains. A high shelving rock forms a cave, within 
which is a pool of water, and a crystal stream flowing from it. The lower surface of the rock 
is covered with pictographs. None of the devices seem to he of recent date. 
Plate 36 contains copies of some of the figures carved upon rocks at Paiute creek, about 
Plate 36. 
thirty miles west of the Mojave villages. These are numerous, appear old, and are too con¬ 
fusedly obscure to be easily traceable. 
From the Mojave villages we were accompanied, for about a hundred miles, by two Indian 
guides. By signs, and a few Spanish words, which they had gathered, they generally succeeded 
in making themselves understood. One evening, desiring to learn something of their ideas 
regarding the Deity, death, and a future existence, we led one of them to speak upon those 
subjects. He stooped to the ground, and drew in the sand a circle, which he said was to repre¬ 
sent the former casa or dwelling-place of Mat-e-vil, who was the creator of earth (which was 
a woman) and heaven. After speaking for some time with impressive, and yet almost unin¬ 
telligible earnestness, regarding the traditions of that bright era of their race, which all 
Indians seem to delight in calling to remembrance, he referred again to the circle, and, suiting 
his action to the word, added: this grand habitation was destroyed, the nations were dispersed, 
and Mat-e-vil took his departure, going eastward over the great waters. He promised, how- 
