. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . make altars of stones,and sticks trimmed with feathers. The sun, moon, and stars are sacred, as the authors of sea-sons of rain and of harvest. But here the resemblance to Pueblo Indians ceases. They do notacknowledge Montezuma, nor is he, in any way, referred to in their traditions. Neither they,nor any other Apaches, consider rattlesnakes as sacred, though they have some superstitionwhich leads them to pay particular veneration to bear
. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . make altars of stones,and sticks trimmed with feathers. The sun, moon, and stars are sacred, as the authors of sea-sons of rain and of harvest. But here the resemblance to Pueblo Indians ceases. They do notacknowledge Montezuma, nor is he, in any way, referred to in their traditions. Neither they,nor any other Apaches, consider rattlesnakes as sacred, though they have some superstitionwhich leads them to pay particular veneration to bears. They will neither kill nor eat , also, they have been known to refuse, even when suffering from hunger. In plate 35 are representations of paintings at Yampais spring, near Williams river. Thespot is a secluded glen among the mountains. A high shelving rock forms a cave, withinwhich is a pool of water, and a crystal stream flowing from it. The lower surface of the rockis covered with pictographs. None of the devices seem to be of recent date. Plate 36 contains copies of some of the figures carved upon rocks at Paiute creek, about Plate Etchings at Paiute creek. thirty miles west of the Mojave villages. These are numerous, appear old, and are too con-fusedly obscure to be easily traceable. From the Mojave villages we were accompanied, for about a hundred miles, by two Indianguides. By signs, and a few Spanish words, which they had gathered, they generally succeededin making themselves understood. One evening, desiring to learn something of their ideasregarding the Deity, death, and a future existence, we led one of them to speak upon thosesubjects. He stooped to the ground, and drew in the sand a circle, which he said was to repre-sent the former casa or dwelling-place of Mat-e-vil, .who was the creator of earth (which wasa woman) and heaven. After speaking for some time with impressive, and yet almost unin-telligible earnestness, regarding the traditions of tha
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