white metal into beads and buttons and
various trinkets for personal adornment. They care nothing for gold,
and silver is their only money. Chalchihuitl is their favorite gem and
to own a turquoise stone is regarded as an omen of good fortune to the
happy possessor.

Just how the Spaniards got the notion that the Moquis loved gold and
possessed vast stores of that precious metal is not apparent unless it
be, as Bandelier suggests, that it originated in the myth of the El
Dorado, or Gilded Man.[2] The story started at Lake Guatanita in
Bogota, and traveled north to Quivera, but the wealth that the
Spaniards sought they never found. Their journey led them over deserts
that gave them but little food and only a meager supply of water, and
ended in disaster.

The mesas are all rock and utterly barren, and their supplies are all
brought from a distance over difficult trails. The water is carried in
ollas by the women from springs at the foot of the mesa; wood is packed
on burros from distant forests; and corn, melons and peaches are
brought home by the men when they return from their work in the fields.
A less active and industrious people, under similar circumstances,
would soon starve to death, but the Moquis are self-supporting and have
never asked nor received any help from Uncle Sam.

In the early morning the public crier proclaims in stentorian tones
from the housetop the program for the day, which sends everyone to his
daily task. They are inured to labor and do not count work as a
hardship. It is only by incessant toil that they succeed at all in
earning a living with the scanty resources at their command, and the
only surprise is that they succeed so well. There is scarcely an hour
during the day or night that men and women are not either coming or
going on some errand to provision the home.

The men travel many miles every day going to and from their work in the
fields. If a man owns a burro he sometimes rides, but usually prefers
to walk. What the burro does not pack, the man carries on his back.
He often sings at his work, just as the white man does in any farming
community, and his song sounds good.

The burro is the common carrier and, because of his sterling qualities,
is a prime favorite in all of the pueblos. If he has any faults they
are all condoned except one, that of theft. If he is caught eating in
a corn field he is punished as a thief by having one of his ears cut
off; and if the offe