Identifier: indiansofsouthwe00dors (find matches)
Title: Indians of the Southwest
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Dorsey, George A. (George Amos), 1868-1931 Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Subjects: Indians of North America
Publisher: (Chicago) Passenger department, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway system
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ainst his thumb, or withtweezers. * * * Then the runners and the judges went downto the plain, while every one else gathered on the edge of thecliff. At the signal, the twelve light, clean-faced athletes startedoff like deer. Their running costume consisted of the dark-blue patarabo, or breech-clout, and their sinewy trunks andlimbs were bare. Each side had a stick about the size of alead-pencil; and as they ran, they had to kick this along in frontof them, never touching it withthe fingers. The course wasaround a wide circuit whichincluded the mesa of Aeomaand several other big hills. Iwas told afterward that thedistance was a good twentv-five miles. The Aeoma boys,who won the race, did it intwo hours and thirty-one min-utes — which would be goodrunning, even without thestick-kicking arrangement. The wonders of Aeoma, themarvelous effect of desert,plain and blue sky are not tobe absorbed in a single dav,and one could spend manydays in the fascinating con-templation of rugged nature
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The Hot The Enchanted Mesa. and the still more wonderful aerielike village made by thehand of man. Except in the manufacture of pottery, thepeople of Acoma make no provision for the entertainment ofThe visitor, and all too soon we shall be obliged to set out^onthe return journey to Laguna for that greater journey to thewest, where larger, more primitive and more interesting pueblosawait us. The Enchanted Mesa This enormous pinnacle of rock which seems to rise sheerout of the plain, and to which we gave but scant attention onthe journey to Acoma, must now be noted m more detail.According to the ancient tradition the summit of this rock,the so-called Mesa Encantada, was in ancient times the homeof the people of Acoma. It is said there took place a mightycataclysm, by means of which the single trail, so steep aprecipitous, was broken away from the mother rock. Uponthe summit were left a remnant of the village to perish themajority of the inhabitants being engaged at the time m thesmall v

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