Arizona, the Wonderland; The History of Its Ancient Cliff and Cave Dwellings, Ruined Pueblos, Conquest by the Spaniards, Jesuit and Franciscan Missions, Trail Makers and Indians a Survey of Its Climate, Scenic Marvels, Topography, Deserts, Mountains, Rive (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE FASCINATIONS OF THE LAND No book on Arizona can be regarded as complete that fails to attempt, at least, an explanation of the fascinations it exerts over so many and such diverse people. To do this satisfactorily for others may be impossible, but I can set down wherein Arizona has been a never-failing joy, delight, allurement and source of fascination to me. Years ago, in the introduction to my Indians of the Painted Desert Region, and earlier still, in In and Around the Grand Canyon, I sought to present some of these allurements and fascinations. I wrote of the mystery and glamour of the Cliff-Dwellings. In those days we knew far less of them than we do now. They had the charm of stimulating the unbridled imagination. Who were the cliff-dwellers? Whence had they come ? Whither had they gone ? Many a time imagination has run riot when I have sat perched high on a cliff- shelf, reached with great difficulty, and, perhaps, at the peril of my life, as I have thought of the primitive and long-dead people. Who built these inaccessible eyries? Of course ? so I cogitated ? there could have been no other reason for the building of homes in such aloof and impossible sites than that of pursuit by cruel, vindictive, relentless and persistent foes, determined to hurry them out of existence. The cat watching for the mouse; the panther stealthily following its prey; the weasel falling upon quarry asleep; the spider weaving its web and confidently awaiting the entanglement of its victim, wereall types and symbols suggestive of the pursuers of the harmless, helpless, doomed cliff-dwellers. Then the final scenes of carnage, blood and wanton destruction, when these devoted people were totally destroyed. I pictured the night assaults, the awakened men and terrified women and ch...