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Gila Crossing, Salt River. During the moon preceding the meteoric shower the Yumas, armed with clubs, bows, and arrows, attacked the Maricopa village. The Yumas surprised the Maricopas and captured their women, whom they surrounded and tried to take away with them. They were about to cross the Gila with their captives when the Pimas arrived and attacked them. The women took advantage of the confusion to escape into the chaparral. The Yumas fought bravely, but they were overpowered by numbers and few escaped to tell of their defeat.

In the early winter the meteoric shower took place. This event was followed by heavy rains that caused floods in the Salt and Gila rivers. The spectacle of falling stars was to the Pimas an augury of disaster, and the succeeding floods were regarded as a punishment for sins which they had committed. What the sins might be they did not know, but concluded that they must have offended some medicine-man who possessed great magic power. Many thought it must be the medicine-man Kak who brought this calamity upon them because they had not shown him the respect that he thought was due him. It is said that when the flood was at its height he climbed a cottonwood tree and thence proclaimed in a loud voice that he would perform certain miracles that would prove disastrous to them if they did not listen to him and show him respect.

Others declared that the floods were caused by the two sons of an old goddess, Takwa-artam. When she saw the flood threatening to overwhelm the Pimas and Maricopas she said to her sons: "Give me back my milk and then you can drown my people. The land is yet what it was when it was new." This puzzled the two brothers. They knew that they could not return the milk that had nourished them in infancy, so they did not allow the flood to rise any higher, but caused it to go down.

Salt River. This year was long remembered because of the bountiful crops of wheat, corn, squashes, pumpkins, and watermelons that were raised. The desert mesas were carpeted with flowers and the