rest to-day; yesterday there was none. Soon the party gains
the summit of the range, before which winds the valley of the Black with
miles of placid stream in view. Quite different is this from White river,
which is ever hurrying, rushing along. The Black flows within its grassy
banks for long distances with scarcely a ripple; then a whirling rapid is
passed, beyond which glides another long stretch of almost silent water.

However, mescal does not grow by cool streams, and the trail again leads
up into high mountains. On a broad slope well toward the summit the final
halt is made. Close by is the mescal pit, perhaps twenty feet in diameter
and three feet deep; it may have been used a hundred years or a thousand,
abandoned for a long period, and then brought into use again. Each time it
is employed it must first be cleaned of the refuse from the last burning;
this done, a large supply of fuel is gathered and thrown in, and over all
are piled great quantities of stones.

Then begins the harvest of the mescal. With baskets on their backs the
women go out to gather the plants. Their implements consist of a stick
about two inches in diameter and three feet long, wedge-shaped and
sharpened at one end, and a broad hatchet-like knife. On reaching a plant,
the woman places the sharp end of the stick at its base and by a blow with
a stone severs the root and pries it up. Nothing could be more primitive.
The women of the Stone Age who gathered mescal on the same ground, and
perhaps used the same pit, thus far must have used identical tools.

[Illustration: Mescal - Apache]

Mescal - Apache

_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_

When the plant is cut from its root it is turned over and trimmed. For the
latter the women employ the hatchet-like knife, cutting off the outer ends
of the leaves. The plant now resembles a large head of cabbage and weighs
from five to twenty pounds. As fast as the plants are cut the women place
them in the burden baskets and carry them to the pit, load after load. To
make it possible for each woman to identify her mescal after the cooking,
each piece is branded with a distinguishing device--a property mark. The
gathering of the mescal continues for several days, an area covering a
radius of perhaps two miles being stripped of its budding plants, for such
only are harvested.

The pit being ready and the mescal gathered, the w