The Hohokam Dig Page 2

for them and we got them."

  Sidney stared, shocked at George's statement. "You're crazy, all right,"he said. "Hohokams in the middle of the Twentieth Century?"

  "I didn't say they're Hohokams, though they probably are, of the villagehere."

  "You said they're prehistoric," Sidney accused. He quavered, "Just howcould they be?"

  "Sid, you remember in our Indian studies, again and again, we meet themedicine man who has visions. Even modern ones have done things that arepretty impossible to explain. I believe they have spiritual powersbeyond the capability of the white man. The prehistoric medicine men mayhave developed this power even more. I think the old man there is theirmedicine man."

  "So?" Sidney invited.

  "I'm just supposing now, mind you," George went on. He rubbed his baldpate again as though afraid of what thoughts were taking place under it."Maybe way back--a good many hundreds of years ago--this medicine mandecided to have a vision of the future. And it worked. And here he isnow with some of his people."

  "Wait a minute," Sidney objected. "So he had this vision and transportedthese people to this moment in time. But if it was hundreds of years agothey're already dead, been dead for a long time, so how could they--"

  "Don't you see, Sid? They can be dead, but their appearance in thefuture--for them--couldn't occur until now because it's happened with usand we weren't living and didn't come along here at the right time untilthis minute."

  Sidney swallowed. "Maybe," he muttered, "maybe."

  "Another thing," George said. "If we can talk with them we can learneverything we've tried to know in all our work and solve in a minutewhat we're ready to spend the whole summer, even years, digging for."

  Sidney brightened. "That's what we wanted to do."

  George studied the Indians again. "I think they're just as surprised aswe are. When they discovered themselves here and saw us--and you mustremember we're the first white men they've ever seen--their immediateinstinct was to attack. Now that we don't fight back they're waiting forus to make a move."

  "What do we do?"

  "Take it easy," advised George. "Don't look scared and don't lookbelligerent. Look friendly and hope some of the modern Indian dialectswe know can make connection with them."

  * * * * *

  The two scientists began, at a gradual pace, to make their way towardthe old man, the young man, and the girl. As they approached, the girldrew back slightly. The young man reached over his shoulder and from thefurred quiver slung on his back drew an atlatl lance and fitted it tohis throwing stick, holding it ready. The other warriors, all about,followed suit.

  The medicine man alone stepped forward. He held up a short colored stickto which bright feathers were attached and shook it at the two whitemen. They stopped.

  "That's his aspergill," observed Sidney. "I'd like to have that one."

  The medicine man spoke. At first the scientists were puzzled, thenGeorge told Sidney, "That's Pima, or pretty close to it, just pronounceddifferently. It probably shows we were right in thinking the Pimasdescended from these people. He wants to know who we are."

  George gave their names. The medicine man replied, "The man who haswhite skin instead of red speaks our language in a strange way. I amHuk." He turned to the young man at his side and said, "This is GoodFox, our young chief." He indicated the girl. "That is Moon Water, hiswife."

  George explained what he and the other white man with him were doinghere. Huk, along with all the other Indians, including Good Fox and MoonWater, listened intently; they seemed greatly excited and disturbed.

  When George was finished Good Fox turned to Huk and said, "You havesucceeded, wise one, in bringing us forward, far in the future to thetime of these men with white skins."

  "This is the truth," said the wrinkled Huk; he did not boast but ratherseemed awed.

  Moon Water spoke in a frightened tone. She looked about at the partiallyexcavated ruins and asked, "But what has happened to our village?" Shefaltered, "Is this the way it will look in the future?"

  "It is the way," Good Fox informed her sorrowfully.

  "I weep for our people," she said. "I do not want to see it." She hungher pretty face over her bare body, then, in a moment, raised itresolutely.

  Good Fox shook the long scraggly black hair away from his eyes and toldthe white men, "We did not mean to harm you. We did not know what elseto do upon finding you here and our village buried."

  Ignoring that in his excited interest, Sidney asked, "What year areyou?"

  "Year?" asked Good Fox. "What is this word?"

  Both Sidney and George tried to get over to him what year meant inregard to a date in history, but Good Fox, Huk, and Moon Water, and noneof the others could understand.

  "We do not know what you mean," Huk said. "We know only that we livehere in this village--not as you see it now--but one well built andalive with our people. As the medicine man I am known to have extrapower and magic in visions. Often I have wondered what life would belike in the far future. With this group I conjured up a vision of it,carrying them and myself to what is now here before us."

  George and Sidney glanced at each other. George's lips twitched andthose of Sidney trembled. George said softly to the Indians, "Let us befriends." He explained to them what they were doing here. "We are tryingto find out what you were--are--like. Especially what made you desertpeople leave your villages."

  They looked blank. Huk said, "But we have not left--except in thisvision."

  In an aside to George, Sidney said, "That means we've caught them beforethey went south or wherever they went." He turned back to Huk. "Havethe cliff people yet deserted their dwellings?"

  Huk nodded solemnly. "They have gone. Some of them have joined us here,and more have gone to other villages."

  "We have read that into the remains of your people, especially at CasaGrande," Sidney told him. With rising excitement in his voice he asked,"Can you tell us why they left?"

  Huk nodded. "This I can do."

  Now the glance of Sidney and George at each other was quick, their eyeslighting.

  "I'll take it down on the typewriter," Sidney said. "Think of it! Nowwe'll know."

  He led Huk to the table set in front of the tent, where he brought out aportable typewriter and opened and set it up. He sat on one chair, andHuk, gingerly holding his aspergill before him as though to protecthimself, sat on the other.

  Good Fox, Moon Water and the other Indians crowded about, curious to seethe machine that came alive under Sidney's fingers as Huk began torelate his story. Soon their interest wandered in favor of other thingsabout the two men with white skin. They wanted to know about the machinewith four legs.

  George opened up the hood of the station wagon and showed them theengine. He sat in the car and started the motor. At the noise theIndians jumped back, alarmed, and reaching for their atlatls. Moon Waterapproached the rear end of the car. Her pretty nose wrinkled at thefumes coming from it and she choked, drawing back in disgust. "It istrying to kill me," she said.

  Clearly, she did not approve of an automobile.

  George cut off its engine.

  Over Good Fox's shoulder hung a small clay water jug hung in a plaitedyucca net. George asked for a drink from it and when he tasted it andfound it fresh it was wondrous to him that its water was hundreds ofyears old. He brought out a thermos, showing the Indians the modernversion of carrying water. They tasted of its contents and exclaimed atits coolness. Good Fox held the thermos, admiring it.

  "Would you like to have it?" asked George.

  "You would give it to me?" the handsome young Indian asked.

  "It's yours."

  "Then I give you mine." He gave George his clay water jug and could notknow how much more valuable it was than the thermos.

  George then took them to the portable television set and turned it on.When faces, music, and words appeared the Indians jerked back, thenjabbered and gathered closer to watch. A girl singer, clad in a gownthat came
up to her neck, caused Moon Water to inquire, "Why does shehide herself? Is she ashamed?"

  The standards of modesty, George reflected as he glanced at the lovelynude form of the prehistoric Indian girl, change with the ages.

  Of the people and noises on the TV screen Good Fox wanted to know quitesolemnly, "Are these crazy people? Is it the way you treat your peoplewho go crazy?"

  George laughed. "You might say it's something like that."

  A shout came from Sidney at the card table near