mates would not be idle while the venturesome
intruder was wedging himself along. Also, the bottoms of these
box-canyons afforded ideal corn fields. The central stream permitted easy
irrigation on each side by tapping the waterfall higher up; and the wash
of the silt of centuries ensured fertility to men, whose plowing must
have been accomplished by the shoulder blade of a deer used as a hoe.

Modern pueblo Indians claim to be descendants of these prehistoric dwarf
races. So are we descendants of Adam; but we don't call him our uncle;
and if he had a say, he might disown us. Anyway, how have modern
descendants of the dwarf types developed into six-foot modern Pimas and
Papagoes? It is said the Navajo and Apache came originally from
Athabasca stock. Maybe; but the Pimas and Papagoes claim their Garden of
Eden right in the Southwest. They call their Garden of Eden by the
picturesque name of "Morning Glow."

How reach the caves of the dwarf race?

To the Gila group, you must go by way of Silver City; and better go in
with Forest Service men, for this is the Gila National Forest and the
men know the trails. You will find ranch houses near, where you can
secure board and room for from $1.50 to $2 a day. The "room" may be a
boarded up tent; but that is all the better. Or you may take your own
blanket and sleep in the caves. Perfectly safe--believe me, I have fared
all these ways--when you have nearly broken your neck climbing up a
precipice to a sheltered cave room, you need not fear being followed.
The caves are clean as if kalsomined from centuries and centuries of
wash and wind. You may hear the wolves bark--bark--bark under your
pillowed doorway all night; but wolves don't climb up 600-foot precipice
walls. Also if it is cold in the caves, you will find in the corner of
nearly all, a small, high fireplace, where the glow of a few burning
juniper sticks will drive out the chill.

What did they eat and how did they live, these ancient people, who wore
fine woven cloth at an era when Aryan races wore skins? Like all desert
races, they were not great meat eaters; and the probabilities are that
fish were tabooed. You find remains of game in the caves, but these are
chiefly feather decorations, prayer plumes to waft petitions to the
gods, or bones used as tools. On the other hand, there is abundance of
dried corn in the caves, of gourds and squash seeds; and every cave has
a _metate_, or grinding stone. In many of the caves,