 Chapter 13 of Arizona's Sketches by Joseph A. Monk This LibreBox recording is in the public domain, reading by Bologna Times. The Mulky Indians The Indians of Arizona are, perhaps, the most interesting of any of the American aborigines. They are as unique and picturesque as is the land which they inhabit, and the dead are no less so than the living. The Pueblo Indians, with which the Mulquys are classed, number altogether about 10,000 and are scattered in 26 villages over Arizona and New Mexico. They resemble each other in many respects, but do not all speak the same language. They represent several wholly disconnected stems and are classified linguistically by Brinton, belonging to the Uto Aztecan, Kera, Tehua, and Zuni stocks. He believes that the Pueblo civilization is not due to any one unusually gifted lineage, but is altogether a local product developed in independent tribes by their peculiar environment, which is favorable to agriculture and sedentary pursuits. The houses are constructed of stone and adobe, are several stories high, and contain many apartments. None of the existing Pueblos are as large as some that are in ruins, which, judging by the quantity of debris, must have been huge affairs. Since the advent of the Spaniard, the style of building has changed somewhat in form to modern ideas, so that now some families live in separate one-story houses having doors and windows, instead as formerly only in large communal houses that were built and conducted on the communal plan. Their manners and customs are peculiar to themselves and make an interesting study. Their civilization is entirely original, though modified to some extent by centuries of contact with the Whites. They understand the Spanish language, but have not forgotten their mother tongue. They hold tenaciously to their old customs and have not changed materially during the past 400 years. During that time, the Catholic missionaries endeavored to convert them to Christianity, but with only partial success. While they appeared to Aquias by giving formal obedience to the requirements of the new religion, they yet held sacred their old beliefs and, in the privacy of the Istufa, practiced in secret the rites and ceremonies of their ancient faith. The Spaniards undertook to conquer a free and independent people by teaching them dependence and submission, but signally failed. After a struggle of 280 years, Spanish civilization withdrew and left the Pueblo civilization victorious. Under successive Spanish, Mexican, and American rule, the Pueblo has preserved itself intact, which fact-steps the Pueblo people as being imminently valiant, self-reliant, and persevering. They are peaceable, industrious, and hospitable, and are said to be the best-governed people in the world. As nearly as can be ascertained, they are free from every gross vice and crime, and Mr. CF Lomas, who knows them well, believes them to be a crime-less people. The Mokwis of Arizona are the most primitive of the Pueblo Indians and are worthy representatives of their race. They are of the Aztecan branch of the Cheshonian family and probably the lineal descendants of the cliff-dwellers. Their home is on the painted desert in northeastern Arizona where they have lived for many centuries. It is a barren and desolate spot and has been likened to Hades with its fires extinguished. Nevertheless, it is an exceedingly interesting region and furnishes many attractions. The landscape is highly picturesque and the phantasmagoric effects of the rarefied atmosphere are bewitching. In the early Spanish days, Mokwi land was designated as the province of Tucean and was shrouded in mystery. The seven Mokwi towns were at one time regarded as the seven cities of Cebola, but later it was decided that Zuni and not Mokwi was the true Cebola. When Coronado, at the head of his intrepid army, marched through the land in the year 1540, he procured native guides to aid him in exploring the country, hoping to find fabulous wealth which failed to materialize. He had heard of a race of giants whom he wished to meet, but instead of finding them, discovered a river with banks so high that they, quote, seemed to be raised three or four leagues into the air, unquote. What he saw was the Colorado River with its gigantic canyon walls and wealth of architectural grandeur and beauty. The bewildering sight naturally astonished him as it does every beholder. Think of a fisher in the earth over a mile deep, but the Grand Canyon of Arizona is more than a simple fisher in the earth. It is composed of many canyons which form a seemingly endless labyrinth of winding aisles and majestic avenues, fit promenades for the gods. The land of the Mokwinos is full of surprises, and although they are not as startling as the Grand Canyon, they are sufficiently striking to make Arizona a wonderland that is second to none on the continent. The Mokwis live in seven towns or pueblos which are built upon three rocky maces that are many miles apart. The mesas are about 7,000 feet above sea level and from 6 to 800 feet higher than the surrounding plain. Upon the first or eastern mesa are located the three towns of Teua, Sichompovi, and Walpi. Teua is the newest of the three towns and was built by the Teuan allies who came as refugees from the Rio Grande after the Great Rebellion of 1680. They were granted permission to build on the spot by agreeing to defend the gap where the trail leaves the mesa against all intruders. Upon the second or middle mesa are the towns of Mi-Shang-Novi, Sheep-Poliovi, and Shang-O-Pavi. And on the third mesa is O'Ripe, which is the largest of the Mokwi villages and equal to the other six in size and population. The entire population of the seven Mokwi towns numbers about 2,000 souls. In 1583 Espeyo estimated that the Mokwis numbered 50,000, which, doubtless, was an overestimate, as he has been accused of exaggeration. However, since their discovery their numbers have greatly diminished and steadily continued to decrease as if it were also to be their fate to become extinct, like the ancient clipped-dwellers. The Mokwi Pueblos are well-protected by natural barriers upon all sides except towards the south. Perched upon their high mases, the people have been safe from every attack of an enemy, but their fields and flocks in the valley below were defenseless. The top of the several mases can only be reached by ascending steep and difficult trails, which are hard to climb but easy to defend. The paths of the mases have been cut deep into the hard rock, which were worn by the soft tread of moccasin feet during centuries of travel, numbering perhaps several times the 400 years that are known to history. The houses are built of stone and mortar and rise in terraces from one to five stories high, back from a street or court to a sheer wall. Some of the remodeled and newly built houses have modern doors and windows. The upper stories are reached from the outside by ladders and stone stairways built into the walls. The rooms are smoothly plastered and whitewashed, and the houses are kept tidy and clean, but the streets are dirty and unsanitary. In these sky cities, the Mokwis live a retired life that is well-suited to their quiet dispositions, love of home life, and tireless industry. The men are kind, the women virtuous, and the children obedient. Indeed, the children are unusually well-behaved. They seldom quarrel or cry, and a spoiled child cannot be found among them. The Mokwis love peace and never fight among themselves. If a dispute occurs, it is submitted to a peace council of old men whose decision is final and obeyed without a murmur. They are shy and suspicious of strangers, but if addressed by the magic word laloming, their reserve is instantly gone. It is the open sesame to their hearts and homes, and after that the house contains nothing too good to bestow upon the welcomed guest. They are true children of nature and have not yet become corrupted by the vices of white civilization. The worst thing they do is that the men smoke tobacco. Their industries are few, but afford sufficient income to provide for their modest needs. They are primarily tellers of the soil, and as agriculturists succeed under circumstances that would wholly battle and discourage an eastern farmer. Several years ago a man was sent out from Washington to teach the Mokwis agriculture, but before a year had passed, the teacher had to buy corn from the Indians. They make baskets and pottery, weave cloth, and dress skins for their own use and to barter and trade with their neighbors. They like silver and have skilled work-bin who make the white metal into beads and buttons and various trinkets for personal adornment. They care nothing for gold, and silver is their only money. Chochihutl is their favorite gem, and to own a turquoise stone is regarded as an omen of good fortune to the happy possessor. Just how the Spaniards got the notion that the Mokwis loved gold and possessed vast stores of that precious metal is not apparent unless it be, as Bandelir suggests, that it originated in the myth of the Eldorado, or Gilded Man. The story started at Lake Quattanita in Bogota and traveled north to Quivera, but the wealth that the Spaniards sought, they never found. Their journey led them over deserts that gave them but little food and only a meager supply of water and ended in disaster. The Maces are all rock and utterly barren, and their supplies are all brought from a distance over difficult trails. The water is carried in olas by the women from springs at the foot of the Mesa. Wood is packed on burrows from distant forests, and corn, melon, and peaches are brought home by the men when they return from their work in the fields. A less active and industrious people under similar circumstances would soon starve to death, but the Mokwis are self-supporting and have never asked nor received any help from Uncle Sam. In the early morning, the public crier proclaims instantorian tones from the housetop, the program for the day, which sends everyone to his daily task. They are enured to labor and do not count work as a hardship. It is only by incessant toil that they succeed at all in earning a living with the scanty resources at their command, and the only surprise is that they succeed so well. There is scarcely an hour during the day or night that men and women are not either coming or going on some errand to provision the home. The men travel many miles every day going to and from their work in the fields. If a man owns a borough, he sometimes rides, but usually prefers to walk. What the borough does not pack, the man carries on his back. He often sings at his work, just as the white man does in any farming community, and his song sounds good. The borough is the common carrier and because of his sterling qualities is a prime favorite in all of the pueblos. The man has any faults they are condoned except one, that of theft. If he is caught eating in a cornfield he is punished as a thief by having one of his ears cut off, and if the offense is repeated he loses his other ear in the same manner. The area of tellable land is limited and is found only in small patches which causes the farms to be widely scattered. The soil is mostly sand which the wind drifts into dunes to cover and destroy the growing crops. The peach trees are often buried in sand and only their top branches remain visible. There are no running streams of water and rains are infrequent. Corn is the principal crop in support of the mulquies. If there is a good crop, the surplus is stored away and kept to be used and the future should a crop fail. The corn is planted in irregular hills and cultivated with a hoe. The corn is planted with a stick and covered up. There is always enough moisture in the sand to sprout the seed which, aided by an occasional shower, causes it to grow and mature a crop. The corn is of a hardy, native variety that needs but little water to make it grow. The grain is small and hard like popcorn and ripens in several colors. It is carried home from the field by the men The sound of the grinding is heard in the street and is usually accompanied by a song that sounds weird but musical. The meal is ground into different braids of fineness and when used for bread is mixed with water to form a thin batter which is spread by the hand upon a hot, flat stone. It is quickly baked and makes a thin wafer that is no thicker than paper. When done it is removed from the stone and then removed from the mold which makes their prized pichi bread. It is said to be only one of 50 different methods which the Mokkuis have of preparing corn for the table or about twice the number of styles known to any modern chef. The Mokki woman is favored above many of her sex who live in foreign lands. As a child she receives much attention and toys galore as the parents are very fond of each time to their amusement. They make dolls of their kachinas which are given to the children to play with. A kachina is the emblem of a deity that is represented either in the form of a doll carved out of wood woven into a plaque or a basket or painted on tiles and pottery. There are between 300 and 400 kachina dolls each one representing a different divinity. When the girl is given to a child it is taught what it means thus combining instruction with amusement. The method is a perfect system of kindergarten teaching which the Mokkuis invented and used centuries before the idea occurred to Frobel. When the girl is 10 years old her education properly begins and she is systematically inducted into the mysteries of housekeeping. At 15 she has completed bake, sew, dye, spin, and weave and is indeed graduated in all the accomplishments of the Finnish Mokkui maiden. She now does up her hair in two large coils or whirls one on each side of the head which is meant to resemble a full blown squash blossom and signifies that the wearer is of marriageable age and in the matrimonial market. It gives her a striking yet unbecoming appearance and if her style of quaffir were adopted by modern fashion it would be something unusually attractive. As represented by Donaldson in the 11th census report the handsome face of Puticchi a maiden of the Pueblo of Sicho Movi makes a pretty picture that even her white sisters must admire. After marriage the hair is let down and done up in two hard twists and it will fall over the shoulders. This form represents a ripe, dried squash blossom and means fruitfulness. Her dress is not Spanish nor yet altogether Indian but is simple, comfortable and becoming which is more than can be said of some civilized costumes. She chooses her own husband inherits her mother's name and property and owns the house in which she lives and she so dearly loves to do in our own civilization the property and labor of the Mokui husband and wife are equally divided the former owning and tending the fields and flocks and the latter possessing and governing the house. The Mokuis are famous for the games, dances and festivals which have been fully described by Dr. J. Walter Fuchs in various reports to the Smithsonian institution. They have many secret orders, worship the supernatural and believe in witchcraft. Their great fate day is the snake dance which is held in alternate years at Walpi and Ori Bay at the former place in the odd year and at the latter place in the even year sometime during the month of August. It is purely a religious ceremony and elaborate supplication for rain and is designed to propitiate water god or snake deity. Preliminary ceremonies are conducted in the secret kiva several days proceeding the public dance. The kiva is an underground chamber that is cut out of the solid rock and is entered by a ladder. It has but a single opening on top on a level with the street which serves as door, window and chimney. The room is only used by the men and is in fact a lodge room where the members of the several secret orders meet and engage in their solemn ceremonials. It is a sacred place a holy of holies which none but members of a lodge may enter and is carefully guarded. The snakes used in the dance are all wild and captured out on the open plain. Four days prior to the dance the snake men, dressed in scanty attire and equipped with their snake capturing paraphernalia, search out in squads and scour the surrounding country in search of snakes. One day each is spent in searching the ground towards the four points of the compass in the order of north, west, south and east, returning at the close of each day with their catch to the kiva where the snakes are kept and prepared for the dance. The snakes caught are of several varieties but much the largest number are rattlesnakes. Respect is shown for serpents of every deity, and none are ever intentionally harmed, but the rattlesnake is considered the most sacred and is proportionately esteemed. Its forked tongue represents lightning. Its rattle, thunder, and its spots rain clouds. The number of snakes they find is surprising as they catch from one to two hundred during the four days hunt on ground that might be carefully searched by white men for months without finding a single reptile. Snakes men are very expert in catching and handling serpents and are seldom bitten. If one is bitten it is nothing serious as they have a secret medicine which they use that is both prophylactic and curative and makes them immune to the poison so that no harm ever results from a bite. The medicine is taken internally and also applied locally. Efforts have been made to discover its composition but without success. The rattlesnake is located which shows fight by the act of coiling. It is tickled with a snake whip made of eagle's feathers which soon soothes its anger and causes it to uncoil and try to run away. It is then quickly and safely caught up and dropped from the hand into a bag carried for that purpose. Visitors who attend the dance are under no restrictions but are free to come and go as they please either sightseeing or curios. If the visitor has a supply of candy, matches and smoking tobacco to give away he finds frequent opportunities to bestow his gifts. The children ask for candy. The women want matchy and the men are pleased with a smoke. On the morning of the dance both men and women give their hair an extra washing by using a mixture of water and crushed soap root. The white fibers of the soap root get mixed with the hair which gives it a tinge of iron gray. The children also get a bath which, because of the great scarcity of water, is not of daily occurrence. To the moquies the snake dance is a serious and solemn affair but to the visitors it is apt to be an occasion for fun and frolic. Owing to a misunderstanding of its true meaning and because of misconduct in the past on similar occasions notice is post on the Kiva asking visitors to abstain from loud laughing and talking. In other words, it is a polite request made by the rude red man of his polished question mark, white brother, to please behave himself. The dance begins late in the afternoon and lasts less than an hour but while it is in progress the action is intense. The snakes are carried in a bag or jar from the Kiva to the Kisa built of cotton wood boughs on one side of the plaza where the snakes are handed out to the dancers. After much marching and counter-marching about the plaza chanting weird songs and shaking rattles the columnist snake priest dressed in a fantastic garb of paint, fur and feathers halts in front of the Kisa and breaks up into groups of three. The carrier takes a snake from the Kisa puts it in his mouth while dancing. Some of the more ambitious young men will carry two or more of the smaller snakes at the same time. The hooker throws his left arm over the shoulder of the carrier and with his right hand fans the snake with his feather whip. The gatherer follows after and picks up the snakes as they fall to the ground. After the snakes have all been danced they are thrown into a heap and sprinkled with sacred cornmeal by the young women. The gathering of the meal is accompanied by a shower of spittle from the spectators who are stationed on convenient roofs and ladders viewing the ceremony. Fleet runners now catch up the snakes in handfuls and dash off in an exciting race over the Mesa and down rocky trails to the plains below where the snakes are returned unharmed to their native haunts. While the men are away disposing of the reptiles the women carry out large olas or jars filled with a black liquid which is the snake medicine that is used in the final act of purification by washing. When the men return to the Mesa they remove their regalia and proceed to drink of the snake medicine which acts as an emetic. With the remainder of the concoction and assisted by the women they wash their bodies free from paint. After the men are all washed and puked they re-enter the Kiva where the long fast is broken by a feast and the formal ceremonies of the snake dance are ended. The snake dance is annually witnessed by many visitors who gather from different sections of the country and even foreign lands. As there are no hotels to entertain guests every visitor must provide his own outfit for conveyance, eating and sleeping. Even water local springs barely furnish enough water to supply the native population and when the number of people to be supplied is increased from 1 to 200 by the visitors who attend the dance the water question becomes a serious problem. On the lower portion of the road which leads up from the spring to the gap at Wulpi on the first Mesa the trail is over drifted sand which makes difficult walking. To remedy this defect in the trail a path has been made of flat stones laid in the sand which shows that the Mokwi are quick to recognize and utilize an advantage that contributes to their convenience and comfort. The Santa Fe Pacific is the nearest railroad which runs about 100 miles south of the Mokwi villages. The tourists can secure transportation at reasonable rates of local liverymen either from Holbrook Winslow, Canyon Diablo or Magstow. The trip makes an enjoyable outing that is full of interest and instruction from start to finish. Some years ago the government through its agents began to civilize and Christianize these Indians and established a school at Keem's Canyon nine miles east of the first Mesa for that purpose. When the school was opened the requisition for a specified number of children from each Pueblo was not filled until secured by force. As free citizens of the United States being such by the treaty made with Mexico in 1848 and indeed already so under a system of self-government superior to our own and established long before Columbus discovered America they naturally resented any interference in their affairs but being in the minority and overpowered had to submit. When the object of the school was explained to them they consented to receive secular instructions but objected to any religious teaching. They asked to have schools opened in the Pueblos on the plan of our public schools where the children could attend during the day and return home at night and their home life be not broken up but the prayer was denied. The reservation school was open for the purpose of instructing the Milwaukee children in civilization but the results obtained have not been entirely satisfactory. The methods employed for enforcing discipline have been unnecessarily severe and have given dissatisfaction. As recently as the year 1903 the children of this inoffensive and harmless people were forcibly taken from their homes and put into the schools. The time selected for doing the dastardly deed was during the night in mid-winter when the weather was cold and covered with snow. Under the orders of the superintendent the reservation police made the raid without warning or warrant of any kind. While the people slept the police entered their houses, dragged the little children from their comfortable beds and drove them naked out into the snow and cold where they were rounded up and herded like cattle. The indignity and outrage until they have lost what little respect they ever had for Christianity and civilization. The policy of the government is to make them do whatever they do not want to do to break up the family as scatter its members. The treatment has created two factions among the Mokwis known as the hostiles who are only hostile and opposing oppression and any change in their religious faith and customs that the boss placed over them and comply with his demands. Religion is the dearest treasure of mankind and when assailed always finds ready defenders. Possessed by this innate feeling of right and rankling with the injustice of the past is it surprising that they should spurn any proffered help? They remember what they have suffered in the past and do not care to repeat the experiment. To this day the Mokwis hold and nothing could induce them to accept voluntarily any proposition that savored of the old regime. Every vestige of that period has been obliterated from the Pueblos that nothing tangible should remain to remind them of their undeserved humiliation. They are a highly religious people worshipping after their own creed and are sincere and conscientious in their devotions. Almost everything they do has some religious significance and every day it's religious observance. Their religion satisfies them and harms no one. Then why not leave them in peace? We believe that we can benefit them which is doubtless true but might they not also teach us some useful lessons? It would sometimes be more to our credit if we were less anxious to teach others and more willing to learn ourselves. Next to their religion they love their homes most. The rocks upon which they live are they not dear from associations? Is it not the land of their birth and the home of their fathers during many generations? They cling with stubborn tenacity to their barren maces and nothing thus far has succeeded in driving them away. Neither war, pestilence, nor famine. Repeated attempts have been made to induce them to leave but without success. Tom Pollocky, the principal man of Tewa was the first man to respond to the call to come down. He left the maces several years ago and went to the plain below to live. Having captured the bellwether it was presumed that the balance of the flock would soon follow but the contrary proved to be true. At the foot of the bluff near a spring on the road that leads up to the gap with the white man but the change did not suit him and after living in his modern house for a number of years he finally sold it and returned to his old home on the mesa. A few others at different times have tried the same experiment with no better success. The man would stay for a short time in the house provided for him but never made it a permanent home for his family. It is custom when a youth contemplates matrimony to make a marriage blanket. He grows the cotton, spends the yarn and weaves the cloth which requires a year or more of time to finish. Since the children have gone to school it is not deemed necessary for a young man to go to so much trouble and expense as to make a marriage blanket but instead he borrows one from a friend in the village and after the ceremony he never returns it to the owner. Even now it is not easy to find such a blanket and very soon they will be priceless as no more such garments will be made. The only reasonable explanation why any people should select a location like that of the Mokwiz is on the hypothesis of choice. There is much of the animal in human nature that is influenced by instinct and man like the brute often unconsciously selects his must congenial to his nature. Thus instinct teaches the eagle to nest on the highest crag and the mountain sheep to browse in pastures which only the hardest hunter dare approach. For no better reason apparently to the Mokwiz occupy their barren maces. They simply prefer to live there above any other place. Safety has been urged as a motive for their conduct but it alone is not a sufficient reason for their problem. Their position is safe enough from attack but in the event of a siege their safety would only be temporary. With their scant water supply at a distance and unprotected they could not hold out long in a siege but would soon be compelled either to fight, fly or famish. Again if safety was their only reason for staying they could have left long ago and had nothing to fear as they have been for many years the enemy, the predatory Navajo. But rather than go they have chosen to remain in their old home where they have always lived and will continue to live so long as they are left free to choose. The modern iconoclast and his unreasonable devotion to realism has perhaps stripped them of much old time romance but even with all of that gone enough of fact remains to make them a remarkable people. Instead of seeking to change them this last bit of harmless aboriginal life should be spared and preserved if possible in all of its native purity and simplicity. Chapter 13 Chapter 14 of Arizona Sketches by Joseph A. Monk This LibriVox recording is in the public domain reading by Bologna Times The climate of Arizona as described in the local vernacular is sure fine. The combination of elements which make the climate is unusual and cannot be duplicated elsewhere in the American continent. The air is remarkably pure and dry. Societity indeed is its distinguishing feature that the climate is due to geographical and meteorological conditions cannot be doubted but the effects are unexplainable by any ordinary rules. The region involved not only embraces Arizona but also includes portions of California and Mexico and is commonly known as the Colorado Desert. Yuma at the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers is approximately its geographical center. The general aspect of the country is low and flat and in the Salton sink the dry lands dips several hundred feet below the level of the ocean only by extreme is such land possible when more water rises in evaporation than falls in precipitation. There are but few such places in the world the deepest one being the Dead Sea which is about thirteen hundred feet lower than the ocean. The Colorado Basin is the dry bed of an ancient sea whose shoreline is yet visible in many places upon the sides of the mountains which surround it. Its floor is composed of clay with deposits of sand and salt. Strong winds sometimes sweep over it and pile up the sand in great dunes. The entire region is utterly bare and desolate yet by the use of water diverted from the Colorado River it is being reclaimed to agriculture. The rainfall is very scant the average annual precipitation at Yuma being less than three inches. The climate is not dry from any lack of surface water as it has the Gila and Colorado rivers the Gulf of California and the broad Pacific ocean to draw from. But the singular fact remains that the country is extremely dry and that it does not rain as in other lands. Neither is the rainfall deficient from any lack of evaporation. Upon the contrary the evaporation is excessive and according to the estimate of major Powell amounts fully to one hundred inches of water per annum. If the vapors arising from evaporation should all be condensed into clouds and converted into rain it would create a rainy season that would last throughout the year. The humidity caused by an abundant rainfall in any low hot country is usually enough to unfit it for human habitation. The combined effect of heat and moisture upon a fertile soil causes an excess of both growing and decaying vegetation that fills the atmosphere with the most obnoxious vapors and disease producing germs. The sultry air is so oppressive that it is more than physical endurance can bear. The particles of vapor which float in the atmosphere absorb and hold the heat until it becomes like a steaming hot blanket that is death to unacclimated life. All of this is changed where sicity prevails. The rapid evaporation and the dry heat desiccates the disease creating germs and makes them innocuous. The effect of heat upon the body is measured by the difference in the actual and sensible temperatures as recorded by the dry and wet bulb thermometers. When both stand nearly together as they are apt to do in a humid atmosphere the heat becomes insufferable. In the dry climate of Arizona such a condition cannot occur. The difference in the two instruments is always great, often as much as 40 degrees. For this reason a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit at Yuma is less oppressive than 98 degrees Fahrenheit is in New York. A low relative humidity gives comfort and freedom from sunstroke even when the thermometer registers the shade temperature in three figures. A dry warm climate is a stimulant to the cutaneous function. The skin is an important excreting organ that is furnished with a large number of sweat glands which are for the dual purpose of furnishing moisture for cooling the body by evaporation and the elimination of worn out and waste material from the organism. As an organ it is not easily injured by overwork but readily lends its function in an emergency in any effort to relieve other tired or diseased organs of the body. By vicarious action the skin is capable of performing much extra labor without injury to itself and can be harnessed temporarily for the relief of some vital part which has become crippled until its function can be restored. A diseased kidney depends particularly upon the skin for succor more than any other organ. When the kidneys from any cause fail to act, the skin comes to the rescue and throws off impurities which nature intended should go by the renal route. For this reason, diabetes and albuminuria the most stubborn of all kidney diseases are usually benefited by a dry warm climate. The benefit derived is due to an increase of the insensible transpiration rather than to profuse perspiration. The air of Arizona is so dry and evaporation so rapid that an increase in perspiration is scarcely noticeable except when it is confined by impervious clothing. The disagreeable feeling of wet clothes which accompanies profuse perspiration in a damp climate is changed to an agreeable sensation of coolness in a dry one. The atmosphere of Arizona is not only dry but also very electrical so much so, indeed, that at times it becomes almost painful. Whenever the experiment is tried sparks can be produced by friction or the handling of metal, hair, or wool. It affects animals as well as men and literally causes the hair to stand on end. The rider has on various occasions seen a string of horses standing close together at a watering trough drinking so full of electricity that their mains and tails are spread out and floated in the air and the long hairs drawn by magnetic attraction from one animal to the other all down the line in a spontaneous effort to complete a circuit. There are times when the free electricity in the air is so abundant that every object becomes charged with a fluid and it cannot escape fast enough or find a way out by any adequate conductor. The effects of such an excess of electricity is decidedly unpleasant on the nerves and causes annoying irritability and nervousness. The hot sun sometimes blisters the skin and burns the complex to a rich nut brown color but the air always feels soft and balmy and usually blows only in gentle zippers. The air has a pungent fragrance which is peculiar to the desert that is the mingle product of a variety of resinous plants. The weather is uniformly pleasant and the elements are rarely violently disturbed. In the older, settled sections of our country whenever there is any sudden or extreme change in the weather of either heat or cold, wet or dry it is always followed by an increase of sickness and death. The aged and invalid who are sensitive and weak suffer mostly as they feel every change in the weather. This is perhaps no place on earth that can boast of a perfect climate but the country that can show the fewest and mildest extremes approaches nearest to the ideal. The southwest is exceptionally favored in its climatic conditions and is beneficial to the majority of chronic invalids. Atmospheric pressure is greatest near the earth's surface and exerts a controlling influence over the vital functions. Atmospheric pressure is to the body what the governor is to the steam engine or the pendulum to the clock. It regulates vital action ensures safety and lessens the wear and tear of a machinery. Under its soothing influence the number of respirations per minute are diminished, the heart beats decreased in frequency and the tired brain and nerves rested. It is often better than medicine and will sometimes give relief as well. Arizona has a diversity of altitudes and therefore furnishes a variety of climates. The elevations range from about sea level at Yuma to nearly 13,000 feet upon the San Francisco mountains. By making suitable changes in altitude to fit the season it is possible to enjoy perpetual spring. Because Arizona is far south geographically it is only natural to suppose that it is all very hot which is a mistake. In the low valleys of southern Arizona the summers are hot but it is a dry heat which is not oppressive and the winters are delightfully pleasant. In northern Arizona the winters are cold and the summers cool. There is no finer summer climate in the world than is found on the high plateaus and pine top mountains of northern Arizona. Prescott, Williams staff have a charming summer climate while at Yuma, Phoenix and Tucson the winter weather is simply perfect. A mountain residence is not desirable for then nervous people or such as are afflicted with any organic disease. A high altitude is too stimulating for this class of patients and tends to increase nervousness and aggravates organic disease. Such persons should seek a coast climate and a low altitude which is sedative rather than risk the high and dry interior. Any coast climate is better than the mountains for nervous people but the Pacific coast is preferable to any other because of its freedom from electrical storms in every other form of disagreeable meteorological disturbance that tries the nerves. The nervousness that is produced by a high altitude does not as a rule develop suddenly upon the patient. Those of a sensitive nature feel it most and women more than men after making a change from a low to a high altitude sleep may be sound for a time but that soon becomes fitful and unrefreshing. It has been discovered that altitude increases the amount of hemoglobulin and thus enriches the blood and is particularly beneficial to pale then people. It also sharpens the appetite and promotes digestion and assimilation. Persons suffering from rheumatism neuralgia, advanced pulmonary consumption, organic heart disease and all disorders of the brain and nerves should avoid a high altitude. Patients that are afflicted with any of the above mentioned diseases are more comfortable in a low altitude and should choose between the coast of California and the low dry lands of the lower Gila and Colorado rivers according to the season of the year and the quality of climate desired. The diseases which are especially benefited by the climate of Arizona are consumption, bronchitis Qatar and hay fever. Anyone going in search of health who has improved by the change should remain where the improvement took place last by returning home and being again subjected to the former climatic conditions which caused the disease, the improvement be lost and the old disease reestablished with increased severity. Most sick people who are in need of a change live in a humid atmosphere where the winters are extremely cold and the summers uncomfortably hot and to be benefited by a change must seek a climate in which the opposite conditions prevail. The climate of the southwest furnishes just what such invalids require. The sick who need cold or damp weather, if there be any such can be accommodated almost anywhere, but those who want a warm dry climate must go where it can be found. Not every invalid goes in search of health finds a cure as many who start on such a journey are already past help when they leave home. When a case is hopeless the patient should not undertake such a trip but remain quietly at home and die in peace among friends. As already intimated the climate of the Colorado Basin is ideal in winter but becomes very hot in summer. Its low altitude, rainless days, cloudless skies and balmy air form a combination that is unsurpassed and is enjoyed by all either sick or well. The heat of summer does not create sickness but becomes monotonous and tiresome from its steady and long continuance. Many residents of the territory who tire of the heat and can afford the trip take a vacation during the summer months and either go north to the Grand Canyon and the mountains or to the Pacific Coast. Every summer witnesses a hajira of sun-baked people fleeing from the hot desert to the mountains or ocean shore in search of coolness and comfort. Life in the tropics perhaps inclines to indolence and langur particularly if the weather is humid, but in a dry climate like that of Arizona the heat, although sometimes great is never oppressive or debilitating. It has its lazy people like any other country and for the same reason that there are always some who are born tired and never outgrow the tired feeling but Arizona climate is more bracing than innovating. The Adobe House of the Mexican is a peculiar institution of the Southwest. It may be interesting on account of its past history but it is certainly not pretty. It is nothing more than a box of dried mud with its roof, walls, and floor all made of dirt. It is never free from a disagreeable earthy smell which, if mingled with the added odors of stale smoke and filth as is often the case, makes the air simply vile. The house can never be kept tidy because of the dirt which falls from the Adobe unless the walls are plastered and whitewashed which is sometimes done in the better class of houses. If the house is well built it is comfortable enough in pleasant weather but as often as it rains the dirt roof springs a leak and splashes water and mud over everything. If by chance the house stands on low ground and is surrounded by water as sometimes happens after a heavy rain the walls become soaked and dissolved into mud when the house collapses. The Adobe house may have been suited to the wants of a primitive people but in the present age of improvement it is scarcely worth saving except it be as a relic of a vanishing race. In order to escape in a measure the discuffberts of the midday heat the natives either seek the shade in the open air where the breeze blows or what is more common close up tight the Adobe house in the morning and remain indoors until the intense heat from the scorching sun penetrates the thick walls which causes the inmates to move out. In the cool of the evening they visit and transact business and when the hour comes for retiring go to bed on hot made up outdoors where they sleep until morning while the house is left open to cool off during the night. This process is repeated every day during the hot summer months and is endured without complaint. The natives also take advantage of the dry air to operate a novel method of refrigeration. The cloth covered army canteens soaked in water and the handy water jug of the eastern harvest field wrapped in a wet blanket are familiar examples of an ineffectual attempt at refrigeration by evaporation but natural refrigeration finds its best illustration in the arid regions of the southwest by the use of an air filter which is a vessel made of porous pottery a stout canvas bag or a closely woven Indian basket a suitable vessel is selected filled with water and suspended somewhere in mid air in the shade if it is hung in a current of air it is all the better as any movement of the atmosphere facilitates evaporation a slow seepage of water filters through the open pores of the vessel which immediately evaporates the dry air and lowers the temperature the water in the ola soon becomes cold and if properly protected will remain cool during the entire day the dry air also acts as a valuable preservative during the winter when the weather is cool but not freezing if fresh meat is hung out in the open air it will keep sweet a long time a dry crust soon forms upon its surface it automatically seals the meat from the air and keeps it perfectly sweet in the summer it is necessary to dry the meat more quickly to keep it from spoiling it is then made into jerky by cutting it into long thin strips and hanging them up in the sun to dry after it is thoroughly dried it is tied up in bags and used as needed either by eating it dry from the pocket when out on a tramp or if in camp serving it or if it is in the stove even the carcass of a dead animal that is left exposed upon the ground to decompose does not molder away by the usual process of decay but what is left of the body after the hungry buzzers and coyotes have finished their feast dries up into a mummy that lasts for years climate everywhere unquestionably influences life in its evolution but it is not always easy to determine all of its effects in detail Arizona, which is but a comparatively small corner of our country lives several races of men that are as different from each other as nature can make them yet all live in the same climate the Pueblo Indian is in a manner civilized peaceable and industrious he is brave in self defense but never seeks war nor bloodshed quite different is his near neighbor the bloodthirsty Apache who seemed to delight only robbing and killing people cunning and revenge are pronounced traits of his character and the government has found him difficult to conquer or control the Mexican leads a shiftless, thriftless life and seems satisfied merely to exist he has unfortunately inherited more of the baser than the better qualities of his ancestors and to all appearance is destined to further degenerate the American is the last calmer to push civilization and commerce into the remotest corners and as usual, dominates the land as diverse as are all these several races in many respects each one of them furnishes splendid specimens of physical manhood the Indian has always been noted for his fine physique and his large bodied well-muscled and full-chested one advantage which the southwest has over other countries is that he is mild and favorable to an outdoor life which is conducive to health and physical development no single race of men flourish equally well everywhere but each one is affected by his own surroundings and what is true of a race is also true of an individual the pioneer in any country is always an interesting character but he differs in peculiarities according to his environment of mountain, plain or forest occupation also exerts an influence and in time develops distinct types like the trapper, miner, soldier and cowboy that only the graphic pencil of a Remington can accurately portray the eccentricities of character which are sometimes met in men who dwell on the frontier are not always due alone to disposition but are largely the product of the wildlife which they live that inclines them to be restless and even desperate there is no better field for observing and studying the effects of environment upon human life than is furnished by the arid region of the southwest End of Chapter 14 End of Arizona sketches by Joseph A. Monk