The mystic mid-region, the deserts of the Southwest . e animal and a fewfragments of the hide. And were he to lookaloft, he, too, would discern not a speck againstthe blue canopy above him. CHAPTER V HUMANITY IN THE DESERT WHY human beings should have chosensuch a place as the desert for theirhabitation is a mystery without a the forefathers of the present dwell-ers of the region fled thither to escape theoppression of tribes more powerful and war-like than their own. Be that as it may, theredwell in the Great Mojave and in the Coloradodeserts several tribes of men who, accor
The mystic mid-region, the deserts of the Southwest . e animal and a fewfragments of the hide. And were he to lookaloft, he, too, would discern not a speck againstthe blue canopy above him. CHAPTER V HUMANITY IN THE DESERT WHY human beings should have chosensuch a place as the desert for theirhabitation is a mystery without a the forefathers of the present dwell-ers of the region fled thither to escape theoppression of tribes more powerful and war-like than their own. Be that as it may, theredwell in the Great Mojave and in the Coloradodeserts several tribes of men who, accordingto their traditions, have made their home theremany centuries. Up in the Death Valley region is a tribeknown as the Panamint Indians. They livein rude huts built of sticks and mud, and theysubsist upon the most disgusting of a certain season of the year Owens Lakeand several smaller saline lakes in that regionabound with a white grub — the larva of atwo-winged fly, cphydra Californica — calledby the Indians Koochabee. The Indians 68. 1 roiii photograph by I A CHEMEHUEVI INDIAN AND COYOTE 69 Hunianity in the Desert 71 visit the lakes at the st;ason of the year whenthe L^Tub is most plentiful, and from the shoresof the lakes they gather them where the wavesthrow them up in windrows several inchesdeep. 1 he grubs are dried and are then pul-verized in rude stone mortars. The powderis used in making a sort of bread which ishighl)- prized as an article of food. Snakes and lizards are also cooked andeaten by the Panamints, and their vegetablediet consists chiefly of leaves and buds ofcactus })lants and other wild herbs. They arenot atrriculturists and are but indifferent hunt-ers. They seem contented with their lot andevince no desire to leave the desert for amore habitable region. The Seri Indians are found at the extremesouthern portion of the desert. At one timethere were considerable numbers of them inthe Colorado Desert, but in 1779 the MexicanCJovernment, then i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdeserts, bookyear1904
