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At one o'clock we descend into a lovely valley, with a carpet of waving grass; sometimes there is a little water in the upper end of it, and during some seasons the Indians we wish to find are encamped here. Chuar'ruumpeak rides on to find them, and to say we are friends, otherwise they would run away or propose to fight us, should we come without notice.
I am anxious to learn the circumstances, and as the people of the tribe who committed the deed live but a little way from these people and are intimate with them, I ask Chuar'ruumpeak to make inquiry for me. Then we go to bed. September 17. Early this morning the Indians come up to our camp. They have concluded to send out a young man after the Shi'vwits.
Having finished our business for the evening, I ask if there is a tugwi'nagunt in camp; that is, if there is any one present who is skilled in relating their mythology. Chuar'ruumpeak says Tomor'rountikai, the chief of these Indians, is a very noted man for his skill in this matter; but they both object, by saying that the season for tugwi'nai has not yet arrived.
Soon we see Chuar'ruumpeak riding at full speed and hear him shouting at the top of his voice, and away in the distance are two Indians scampering up the mountain side. One stops; the other still goes on and is soon lost to view. We ride up and find Chuar'ruumpeak talking with the one who had stopped.
Sitting in camp this evening, Chuar'ruumpeak, the chief of the Kai'vavits, who is one of our party, tells us there is a tradition among the tribes of this country that many years ago a great light was seen somewhere in this region by the Paru'shapats, who lived to the southwest, and that they supposed it to be a signal kindled to warn them of the approach of the Navajos, who lived beyond the Colorado River to the east.
Now and then he would interrupt the play for the purpose of correcting the speakers or impressing the moral of the story with a strange dignity and impressiveness that seemed to pass to the very border of the ludicrous; yet at no time did it make me smile. The story is finished, but there is yet time for an hour or two of sleep. I take Chuar'ruumpeak to one side for a talk.
I have but one pony for the two, and they were to ride "turn about"; but Chuar'ruumpeak, the chief, rides, and Shuts, the one-eyed, barelegged, merry-faced pigmy, walks, and points the way with a slender cane; then leaps and bounds by the shortest way, and sits down on a rock and waits demurely until we come, always meeting us with a jest, his face a rich mine of sunny smiles.
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