Page 254 - TheHopiIndians
P. 254
246 MESA FOLK OP HOPILAND
and put these questions to him, "You good man,
uneshtan', you honesht man?" Then as if satisfied,
he turned to another of the party and said, "You
handsome man; you beautiful man," and it was not
long before Toby had a packet of coveted smoking to
bacco, although from the unkempt appearance of the
explorers, his laudations were base flattery.
It was plain that Toby was desirous of airing his
remarkable English, of which he is very proud, and
also of paving the way to sundry small gratuities.
These intentions of the Hopi are quite as apparent as
that of the little child who says, ' ' Ducky likes sweet
cakes." Toby was asked to bring in a burro load of
wood for cooking purposes, but with great suavity he
explained that on this day the Snake priests hunted in
the East world-quarter, and according to custom no
one must work in that direction. On account of these
conscientious scruples of Toby's, the venerable peach
tree was requisitioned for enough dead branches till
such time as he should sally forth with his burros for
cedar billets.
The day before the Antelope Dance Toby came down
to the camp on important business chewing a moc
casin sole which he was stitching. He broached the
subject by mysteriously saying, "Plenty Navaho come
to see Snake Dance. Navaho velly bad, steal evely-
thing." (This in a furtive way, because the Hopi are
afraid of the Navaho.) "Me stay, watch camp; you
go see dance: Navaho bad man." It is well to say