Just Then The Storm Waters From Above, Seeking Their Accustomed
Drainage Channels, Found Their Way Down To A Rock Which Overhung My
Sleeping-Place As A Rude Spout, And Began To Pour Upon Me In Bucketfuls.
Yet
I vowed I would never admit that my sleep was in the slightest disturbed.
So I turned over in my watery bed, and kept up the play until morning came,
while the angry man complained the entire time.
Funny? In spite of my own
misery, it was funny enough to make a burro laugh.
Two Days' Rest. It took us a couple of days to get well dried out, which we
spent at Tuba City, a Mormon town since abandoned by order of the Courts,
which found that it was illegally located on an Indian reserve. Then we
enjoyed a day or two at Moenkopi, watching the Hopi Indians at their
interesting occupations, caring for their fields, and preparing to go on to
Oraibi, forty miles distant, where the Snake Dance was soon to occur.
Camp at Blue Canyon. The heat was fearful - it was the middle of August -and
the sand made hard pulling for the horses. It was late in the evening
before we reached Blue Canyon. The road was uncertain, so we camped on the
rim above, leading our animals down, as best we could, to a Navaho hogan,
where we thought we might get water and some cornstalks for them. We got
both, and then decided to hobble the animals and turn them loose in the
Canyon, while we returned to our wagon above. The wind had come up, and was
blowing fiercely, so, in the dark, I chose for a sleeping place a piece of
ground that was somewhat sheltered from it. It was irregular, rocky and
rolling, and as the wind continued to blow, the fine sand blew over and on
to my face, while the coarser sand settled into my blankets. It was not a
refreshing and comforting night.
An Exciting Descent. In the morning, when we went down for our animals, we
found that they had broken through the flimsy fence of the Navaho, and had
worked considerable havoc in his corn-patch. The Navaho grumbled and
gesticulated, and showed unmistakable anger, but I took the matter coolly
and, after seeing the extent of the damage, quietly asked the head of the
family: "Tu-kwe peso?" (How many dollars?) On receiving his answer, I
offered to give him sugar and flour to that amount. We became friends at
once, and he invited us to bring our wagon down and spend the day with him.
As we were all wearied, we decided to do so. To save going around by the
wagon road, he showed us a quicker way of descent. It was a sand bank not
quite vertical, but as nearly so as ever any one drove down and lived to
tell the tale. So, harnessing the animals, we brought the wagon to the edge
of this sandy descent; then, tying all the wheels securely, so that they
would drag, all of us holding on to the hind axle and with weights trailing
behind, the whole mass went over.
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