This Is But One Of Many Such Trips Which I Will Now Briefly And Succinctly
Name, Each One Of Which Is Different From Every Other One.
To Havasu Canyon.
One, two, or three weeks (or more) can profitably be
spent in going westward (twenty-five miles) over the Topocobya Road to the
head of the Topocobya Trail into Havasu (Cataract) Canyon. This is a drive
of forty miles. Camp over night there, and then descend in the cool of the
morning down either arm of this stupendous cliff (see chapter on Havasu
Canyon) to Topocobya Spring, and on down the wash into Havasu Canyon,
fifteen miles or so to the Havasupai village.
Camp near, or in, one of the fields of the Indians, where good alfalfa can
be purchased for the animals and fresh vegetables and fruit (in season) for
one's own use. If you are not too squeamish to see aboriginal man in his
primitive dirt, study him in his home. Try to learn to look at things from
his standpoint. If possible, witness one of his dances - a religious
ceremony - and arrange to enter his primitive toholwoh or sweat-house, where
he will give you a most effective and powerful Russo-Turkish bath. Swim in
Havasu Creek to your heart's content, several times a day. Climb to the old
fort, where the Havasupais used to retire to defend themselves when pressed
too closely by their hereditary foes, the Apaches. Listen to the stones,
the legends, the myths about the stone figures your eye cannot fail to see
soon after you reach the village, which command the widest part of the
Canyon, where the Indians live, and which are called by them Hue-puk-eh-eh
and Hue-gli-i-wa. Get one of the storytellers to recite to you the deeds of
Tochopa, their good god, and Hokomata, their bad god, and ask them for the
wonderfully fascinating legend of the mother of their tribe - the daughter
of Tochopa, from whom the whole human race descended. Ask one of the old
men to tell you the stories of some of their conflicts with the Apaches,
and why Tochopa placed the Hue-gli-i-wa in so prominent and salient a
position. If you desire something of a different nature, engage some of the
younger men to get up a horse race. The wise and judicious expenditure of a
few dollars will generally produce the desired effect.
Then, when you are ready to travel again, get a Havasupai to guide you - no
one else can - up to the fascinating spring called Pack-a-tha-true-ye-ba, or
to some of their side canyons where cliff-dwellings, corn-storage houses
and pictographs abound.
Bridal Veil Falls. On your return, descend to Bridal Veil Falls, and see
where a capitalist spent many thousands of dollars in unnecessary work
because he had been deluded into the belief that platinum existed here.
Then forget men and their mad search for gold, and stand reverent before a
secret shrine of beauty incomparable - this exquisite fall in its majestic
setting.
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