s to represent the
lightning, and almost all the patterns had to do in some way with lakes,
rivers, rain, or springs.

As the exile of Spain began to know the country he sometimes ventured on
journeys alone, without the tribe, to the north, away from the coast. In
these wanderings he met with tribes whose language was not wholly
strange, but whose customs and occupations were not exactly like those
of his own Indians. Once he found a village of deerskin tents where the
warriors were painting themselves with red clay, for a dance. He
remembered that the squaws, when he came away some days before, were in
great lamentation because they had no red paint for their baskets. He
took out a handful of shells and found that these Indians were only too
pleased to pay for them in red earth, deerskin, and tassels of deer hair
dyed red. They would hardly let him go till he promised to come again
and bring them more shells and shell beads. This suggested to him a way
in which he might make himself of use and value.

Longer and longer journeys he took, trading shells for new dyes, flint
arrow-heads, strong basket-reeds, and hides and furs of all sorts,
learning more and more of the country as he trafficked. Once he found
families living in a house built of stone and mud bricks, in the crevice
of a cliff, getting water from a little brook at the base of it, and
raising corn and vegetables along the waterside. Their houses had no
real doors. They had trap-doors in the roof, reached by a notched
tree-trunk inside and one outside. The corn that grew in the little farm
at the foot of the cliff was of different colors, red, yellow, blue and
white. Each kind was put in a separate basket. Each kind of meal was
made separately into thin cakes cooked on a very hot flat stone. A
handful of the batter was slapped on with the fingers so deftly that
though the cake was thin, crisp and even, the cook never burned herself.
The people were always on their guard against roving bands of Indians
who lived in tipis, or wigwams, and were likely to attack the
cliff-dwellers at any moment.

Cabeca de Vaca became interested in these wandering tribes, and moved
north to see what they were like. He found them quite ready to trade
with him and extremely curious about his wares. They had hides upon
their tipis of a sort he had not seen before, not smooth, but covered
with curly brown fur like a big dog's. It was some time before the
Spanish trader made out wha