Page 266 - TheHopiIndians

258 MESA FOLK OP HOPILAND
we must leave behind many things that came to the
people since the Spaniards sallied from Mexico to the
new land of wonders. Sheep, goats, chickens, burros,
horses, cattle there are none, and the children of
the sun have no domestic animal except the turkey.
The coyote-like dog haunted the pueblos, but his an
cient enemy, the cat, was not there to dispute with
him. Xo peaches or apricots were on the bill of fare,
and the desert must be scoured for small berries and
the fruit of the yucca and prickly-pear. Corn, beans,
melons, and squashes there were, but wheat, oats, and
alfalfa came from other hands. What would be the
deprivation if sugar, coffee, flour, and baking powder
were cut off from the present Indians. The ancients
had none, nor were the useful vessels of tin and iron
for cooking dreamed of. The agave of the South furn
ished a sweet in the roasted leaves, which took the
plaee of sugar and went far and wide by early com
merce. Tobacco always grew wild around the pueblos,
but the ancients never knew the fascination of the
modern leaf.
Before the trader's cotton stuffs, were those of
native cotton and before woolen stuffs there were
warm blankets of strips of rabbit fur interwoven with
cord, feather garments, mats of yucca, and blankets
of mountain goat and buffalo wool, with girdles and
stockings of the same textile. Perhaps more in use
than these for clothing were the tanned skins of the
elk, deer, and antelope, ornamented with native col