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John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10) - Southern California; Grand Canon of the Colorado River; Yellowstone National Park by John L. (John Lawson) Stoddard
page 76 of 145 (52%)
Spaniards, they would not naturally have reached without centuries of
patient plodding. Moreover, before the arrival of the Europeans, the
Aborigines of America had never seen horses, cows, sheep, or dogs,
and the turkey was the only domestic animal known to them. Hence, in
ancient American society there was no such thing as a pastoral stage
of development; and the absence of domestic animals from the western
hemisphere is a very important reason why the progress of mankind in
this part of the world was not more rapid. Still it is a remarkable
fact that the most ancient race, of which we have any actual
knowledge on this continent, is, also, the most peaceful,
self-supporting, and industrious, subsisting principally on the sale
of their curiously decorated pottery, and the products of their arid
soil. We saw here a young man who had been educated in the Government
School at Carlisle; but, like most of his race, after returning to
his village he had reverted to the ways of his ancestors,
disqualified by his birth and instincts of heredity from doing
anything else successfully.

[Illustration: MOQUI CART AND PLOW.]

[Illustration: MOQUI CHILDREN.]

It was late on the night succeeding our visit to Ácoma that we
arrived at Flagstaff, and our entire party was asleep. Suddenly we
were aroused by a prolonged shout and the discharge of half a dozen
revolvers. Five minutes later there came a general fusillade of
pistol shots, and near and distant cries were heard, in which our
half-awakened faculties could distinguish only the words: "Hurry up!"
"Call the crowd!" "Down the alley!" Then a gruff voice yelled just
beneath my window: "Let her go," and instantly our locomotive gave a
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