But she was a woman. And what is a woman
without a child in her arms or nursing at her breasts? How she longed to be
a mother! But where was a father for her child? Alas! there was not a man
in the whole universe?
"Day after day, longing for maternity filled her heart, until one morning -
glorious morning for Pukeheh and the Havasu race - the darkness began to
disappear, and in the far-away east soft and new brightness appeared. It
was the triumphant Sun, coming to conquer the long night and bring light
into the world. Nearer and nearer he came, and, at last, as he peeped over
the far-away mesa summits, Pukeheh arose and thanked Tochopa, for here, at
last, was a father for her child. She conceived, and in the fullness of
time bore a son, whom she delighted in and called In-ya-a, the son of the
Sun.
"But as the days rolled on, she again felt the longings for maternity. By
this time she had wandered far to the west and had entered the beautiful
Canyon of the Havasu, where deep down between the rocks were several grand
and glorious waterfalls, and one of these, Wa-ha-hath-peek-ha-ha, she
determined should be the father of her second child.
"When it was born it was a girl, and to this day all the girls of the
Havasu are proud to be called 'Daughters of the water.'
"When these two children grew up they married, and thus became the
progenitors of the human race. First the Havasupais were born, then the
Apaches, then the Wallapais, then the Hopis, then the Paiutes, then the
Navahos.
"And Tochopa told them all where they should live, and you find them there
to this day."
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Colorado River From The Mountains To The Sea
Perhaps no river in the world has so remarkable a life-history as has the
Colorado. It is formed of two great streams, the Green and the Grand. Both
have their rise in the far-away mountains, in banks of virgin and purest
snow. Hence the waters of the Colorado at their source are pure and sweet.
Yet such is the vehement force of this river, such its haste to reach the
ocean, that it cuts down and carries with it millions of tons annually of
sand and silt, rock debris and dirt until, when it reaches the desert,
through which it flows as a lazy dragon, reddish-yellow, tawny, it is the
dirtiest stream in the world. For not only does it carry the sand of its
own grinding, as it passes through the hundred miles of canyon of its
waterway, but it accepts the sweepings of vast areas made by its
tributaries.
