Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/195

 who is man's good friend and has brought him the great boon of fire. The gods of the Hualpais are different in name though not in functions or peculiarities from those of the Apaches and Navajos, but are almost identical with those of the Mojaves.

As with the Apaches, so with the Hualpais, the "medicine men" wield an unknown and an immeasurable influence, and claim power over the forces of nature, which is from time to time renewed by rubbing the body against certain sacred stones not far from Beale Springs. The Hualpai medicine men also indulge in a sacred intoxication by breaking up the leaves, twigs, and root of the stramonium or "jimson weed," and making a beverage which, when drunk, induces an exhilaration, in the course of which the drunkard utters prophecies.

While the colonies along the Atlantic coast were formulating their grievances against the English crown and preparing to throw off all allegiance to the throne of Great Britain, two priests of the Roman Catholic Church were engaged in exploring these desolate wilds, and in making an effort to win the Hualpais and their brothers to Christianity.

Father Escalante started out from Santa Fé, New Mexico, in the year 1776, and travelling northwest through Utah finally reached the Great Salt Lake, which he designated as the Lake of the Timpanagos. This name is perfectly intelligible to those who happen to know of the existence down to the present day of the band of Utes called the Timpanoags, who inhabit the cañons close to the present city of Salt Lake. Travelling on foot southward, Escalante passed down through Utah and crossed the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, either at what is now known as Lee's Ferry, or the mouth of the Kanab Wash, or the mouth of the Diamond; thence east through the Moqui and the Zuni villages back to Santa Fé. Escalante expected to be joined near the Grand Cañon by Father Garces, who had travelled from the mission of San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, and crossed the Colorado in the country inhabited by the Mojaves; but, although each performed the part assigned to him, the proposed meeting did not take place.

It is impossible to avoid reference to these matters, which will obtrude themselves upon the mind of any one travelling through Arizona. There is an ever-present suggestion of the past and unknown, that has a fascination all its own for those who yield to