SPINNER AND WEAVER.
seeds, berries, and leaves gathered from far and near. The Mokis are practical botanists. No plant has escaped their piercing eyes; they have given them names and found out their good and bad qualities; pressed them into service for food, medicine, religion, basket making and a hundred other uses, from an antidote for snake bites to a hair brush. They are also perforce vegetarians. Oñate, the Conqueror, said slightingly of Zuñi that there were as many rabbits as people around it. Such a condition of things in Tusayan would fill the Moki with joy, for he has the same fondness for rabbit as the negro has for "'possum with coon gravy." Snakes seem to be more plentiful than rabbits, although it takes ardent hunting to catch enough reptiles for the Snake dance. Rats, mice, prairie dogs and an occasional deceased burro or goat vary the menu of the pueblos. The Mokis never eat their dogs, though to do so would be at least putting them to some use.
Centuries ago, when the Mokis lived in the White Mountains and the Mogollones, they must have been hunters. What could have driven them from that paradise of coolness and greenery? There under the giant pines roamed elk, deer, antelope and bear; in the brush were turkey; in the trees birds and squirrels; in the cool streams were trout, and the wild bees furnished delicious honey. There was abundant rain, and in the broad valleys corn could be raised by "dry fanning." For
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