ns are dying out,
though curing shamans will remain for centuries yet. As the Indians
now have to perform their dances secretly, the growing generation
has less inclination and little opportunity to learn them, and the
tribe's ritual and comprehensive songs will gradually become lost.

My shaman friend in San Francisco complained to me that the other
shamans did not know the words of the songs well enough. Tayop (Father
Sun) and the other gods do not understand them, he said, and therefore
these shamans cannot accomplish anything with "los senores." It was
like sending a badly written letter: "the gentlemen" pass it from
one to another, none of them being able to make out its meaning.

In the mean time my efforts to obtain anthropological specimens were
more laborious than successful, because it was very difficult to get
anyone to show me where they could be found. To make things worse,
suddenly another man dreamed that I had enough "heads," and so I was
not permitted to search for them any more. But I did not intend to
content myself with the few I had secured. I had made arrangements with
a Cora some time before to show me some skulls he knew of, and after
much procrastination on his part I at last got him to accompany me.

We rode for fifteen miles in the direction of Santa Teresa. The
country was rough and but sparsely inhabited. In fact, I passed three
deserted ranches, and near one of them I killed a Gila monster that
was just making its burrow. There lay an air of antiquity over the
whole landscape. About half a league before reaching the caves we
sought, I came upon quite an extensive fortification; I also noticed
a number of trincheras in one arroyo; and above it on a mesa, running
along the edge, we found a wall built of loose stones. The mesa, 300
by 200 feet in extent, was a natural fortress difficult of access,
except at one point where a little cordon, like an isthmus, led to
it. Here, however, I found no vestige of ancient inhabitants.

There were two shallow caves close to each other in the remote valley
into which the guide had led me. In the larger one, which was eight
feet deep and twelve feet broad, nine skulls were found. In the other
were only a few bones, and I noticed indications of partitions, in the
shape of upright stones, between the skeletons. The bodies must have
been partly buried, with the heads protruding, in spaces a foot square.

It was nearing dusk and I had to get back to my camp