Mesa trails were meant to be traveled on horseback, at the jigging7 coyote trot8 that only western-bred horses learn successfully. A foot-pace carries one too slowly past the units in a decorative10 scheme that is on a scale with the country round for bigness. It takes days' journeys to give a note of variety to the country of the social shrubs. These chiefly clothe the benches and eastern foot-slopes of the Sierras,—great spreads of artemisia, coleogyne, and spinosa, suffering no other woody stemmed thing in their purlieus; this by election apparently11, with no elbowing; and the several shrubs have each their clientele of flowering herbs. It would be worth knowing how much the devastating12 sheep have had to do with driving the tender plants to the shelter of the prickle-bushes. It might have begun earlier, in the time Seyavi of the campoodie tells of, when antelope13 ran on the mesa like sheep for numbers, but scarcely any foot-high herb rears itself except from the midst of some stout14 twigged16 shrub2; larkspur in the coleogyne, and for every spinosa the purpling coils of phacelia. In the shrub shelter, in the season, flock the little stemless things whose blossom time is as short as a marriage song. The larkspurs make the best showing, being tall and sweet, swaying a little above the shrubbery, scattering17 pollen18 dust which Navajo brides gather to fill their marriage baskets. This were an easier task than to find two of them of a shade. Larkspurs in the botany are blue, but if you were to slip rein19 to the stub of some black sage20 and set about proving it you would be still at it by the hour when the white gilias set their pale disks to the westering sun. This is the gilia the children call "evening snow," and it is no use trying to improve on children's names for wild flowers.
From the height of a horse you look down to clean spaces in a shifty yellow soil, bare to the eye as a newly sanded floor. Then as soon as ever the hill shadows begin to swell21 out from the sidelong ranges, come little flakes22 of whiteness fluttering at the edge of the sand. By dusk there are tiny drifts in the lee of every strong shrub, rosy-tipped corollas as riotous23 in the sliding mesa wind as if they were real flakes shaken out of a cloud, not sprung from the ground on wiry three-inch stems. They keep awake all night, and all the air is heavy and musky sweet because of them.
Farther south on the trail there will be poppies meeting ankle deep, and singly, peacock-painted bubbles of calochortus blown out at the tops of tall stems. But before the season is in tune24 for the gayer blossoms the best display of color is in the lupin wash. There is always a lupin wash somewhere on the mesa trail,—a broad, shallow, cobble-paved sink of vanished waters, where the hummocks25 of Lupinus ornatus run a delicate gamut26 from silvery green of spring to silvery white of winter foliage27. They look in fullest leaf, except for color, most like the huddled28 huts of the campoodie, and the largest of them might be a man's length in diameter. In their season, which is after the gilias are at their best, and before the larkspurs are ripe for pollen gathering29, every terminal whorl of the lupin sends up its blossom stalk, not holding any constant blue, but paling and purpling to guide the friendly bee to virginal honey sips30, or away from the perfected and depleted31 flower. The length of the blossom stalk conforms to the rounded contour of the plant, and of these there will be a million moving indescribably in the airy current that flows down the swale of the wash.
There is always a little wind on the mesa, a sliding current of cooler air going down the face of the mountain of its own momentum32, but not to disturb the silence of great space. Passing the wide mouths of canons, one gets the effect of whatever is doing in them, openly or behind a screen of cloud,—thunder of falls, wind in the pine leaves, or rush and roar of rain. The rumor33 of tumult34 grows and dies in passing, as from open doors gaping35 on a village street, but does not impinge on the effect of solitariness36.
In quiet weather mesa days have no parallel for stillness, but the night silence breaks into certain mellow37 or poignant38 notes. Late afternoons the burrowing39 owls40 may be seen blinking at the doors of their hummocks with perhaps four or five elfish nestlings arow, and by twilight begin a soft whoo-oo-ing, rounder, sweeter, more incessant41 in mating time. It is not possible to disassociate the call of the burrowing owl9 from the late slant42 light of the mesa. If the fine vibrations43 which are the golden-violet glow of spring twilights were to tremble into sound, it would be just that mellow double note breaking along the blossom-tops. While the glow holds one sees the thistle-down flights and pouncings after prey44, and on into the dark hears their soft pus-ssh! clearing out of the trail ahead. Maybe the pinpoint45 shriek46 of field mouse or kangaroo rat that pricks47 the wakeful pauses of the night is extorted48 by these mellow-voiced plunderers, though it is just as like to be the work of the red fox on his twenty-mile constitutional.
Both the red fox and the coyote are free of the night hours, and both killers49 for the pure love of slaughter50. The fox is no great talker, but the coyote goes garrulously51 through the dark in twenty keys at once, gossip, warning, and abuse. They are light treaders, the split-feet, so that the solitary52 camper sees their eyes about him in the dark sometimes, and hears the soft intake53 of breath when no leaf has stirred and no twig15 snapped underfoot. The coyote is your real lord of the mesa, and so he makes sure you are armed with no long black instrument to spit your teeth into his vitals at a thousand yards, is both bold and curious. Not so bold, however, as the badger54 and not so much of a curmudgeon55. This short-legged meat-eater loves half lights and lowering days, has no friends, no enemies, and disowns his offspring. Very likely if he knew how hawk56 and crow dog him for dinners, he would resent it. But the badger is not very well contrived57 for looking up or far to either side. Dull afternoons he may be met nosing a trail hot-foot to the home of ground rat or squirrel, and is with difficulty persuaded to give the right of way. The badger is a pot-hunter and no sportsman. Once at the hill, he dives for the central chamber58, his sharp-clawed, splayey feet splashing up the sand like a bather in the surf. He is a swift trailer, but not so swift or secretive but some small sailing hawk or lazy crow, perhaps one or two of each, has spied upon him and come drifting down the wind to the killing59.
No burrower60 is so unwise as not to have several exits from his dwelling61 under protecting shrubs. When the badger goes down, as many of the furry62 people as are not caught napping come up by the back doors, and the hawks63 make short work of them. I suspect that the crows get nothing but the gratification of curiosity and the pickings of some secret store of seeds unearthed64 by the badger. Once the excavation65 begins they walk about expectantly, but the little gray hawks beat slow circles about the doors of exit, and are wiser in their generation, though they do not look it.
There are always solitary hawks sailing above the mesa, and where some blue tower of silence lifts out of the neighboring range, an eagle hanging dizzily, and always buzzards high up in the thin, translucent66 air making a merry-go-round. Between the coyote and the birds of carrion67 the mesa is kept clear of miserable68 dead.
The wind, too, is a besom over the treeless spaces, whisking new sand over the litter of the scant-leaved shrubs, and the little doorways69 of the burrowers are as trim as city fronts. It takes man to leave unsightly scars on the face of the earth. Here on the mesa the abandoned campoodies of the Paiutes are spots of desolation long after the wattles of the huts have warped71 in the brush heaps. The campoodies are near the watercourses, but never in the swale of the stream. The Paiute seeks rising ground, depending on air and sun for purification of his dwelling, and when it becomes wholly untenable, moves.
A campoodie at noontime, when there is no smoke rising and no stir of life, resembles nothing so much as a collection of prodigious72 wasps73' nests. The huts are squat74 and brown and chimneyless, facing east, and the inhabitants have the faculty75 of quail76 for making themselves scarce in the underbrush at the approach of strangers. But they are really not often at home during midday, only the blind and incompetent77 left to keep the camp. These are working hours, and all across the mesa one sees the women whisking seeds of chia into their spoon-shaped baskets, these emptied again into the huge conical carriers, supported on the shoulders by a leather band about the forehead.
Mornings and late afternoons one meets the men singly and afoot on unguessable errands, or riding shaggy, browbeaten78 ponies79, with game slung80 across the saddle-bows. This might be deer or even antelope, rabbits, or, very far south towards Shoshone Land, lizards81.
There are myriads82 of lizards on the mesa, little gray darts83, or larger salmon-sided ones that may be found swallowing their skins in the safety of a prickle-bush in early spring. Now and then a palm's breadth of the trail gathers itself together and scurries84 off with a little rustle85 under the brush, to resolve itself into sand again. This is pure witchcraft86. If you succeed in catching87 it in transit88, it loses its power and becomes a flat, horned, toad-like creature, horrid-looking and harmless, of the color of the soil; and the curio dealer89 will give you two bits for it, to stuff. Men have their season on the mesa as much as plants and four-footed things, and one is not like to meet them out of their time. For example, at the time of rodeos, which is perhaps April, one meets free riding vaqueros who need no trails and can find cattle where to the layman90 no cattle exist. As early as February bands of sheep work up from the south to the high Sierra pastures. It appears that shepherds have not changed more than sheep in the process of time. The shy hairy men who herd91 the tractile flocks might be, except for some added clothing, the very brethren of David. Of necessity they are hardy92, simple livers, superstitious93, fearful, given to seeing visions, and almost without speech. It needs the bustle94 of shearings and copious95 libations of sour, weak wine to restore the human faculty. Petite Pete, who works a circuit up from the Ceriso to Red Butte and around by way of Salt Flats, passes year by year on the mesa trail, his thick hairy chest thrown open to all weathers, twirling his long staff, and dealing96 brotherly with his dogs, who are possibly as intelligent, certainly handsomer.
A flock's journey is seven miles, ten if pasture fails, in a windless blur97 of dust, feeding as it goes, and resting at noons. Such hours Pete weaves a little screen of twigs98 between his head and the sun—the rest of him is as impervious99 as one of his own sheep—and sleeps while his dogs have the flocks upon their consciences. At night, wherever he may be, there Pete camps, and fortunate the trail-weary traveler who falls in with him. When the fire kindles100 and savory101 meat seethes102 in the pot, when there is a drowsy103 blether from the flock, and far down the mesa the twilight twinkle of shepherd fires, when there is a hint of blossom underfoot and a heavenly whiteness on the hills, one harks back without effort to Judaea and the Nativity. But one feels by day anything but good will to note the shorn shrubs and cropped blossom-tops. So many seasons' effort, so many suns and rains to make a pound of wool! And then there is the loss of ground-inhabiting birds that must fail from the mesa when few herbs ripen104 seed.
Out West, the west of the mesas and the unpatented hills, there is more sky than any place in the world. It does not sit flatly on the rim70 of earth, but begins somewhere out in the space in which the earth is poised105, hollows more, and is full of clean winey winds. There are some odors, too, that get into the blood. There is the spring smell of sage that is the warning that sap is beginning to work in a soil that looks to have none of the juices of life in it; it is the sort of smell that sets one thinking what a long furrow106 the plough would turn up here, the sort of smell that is the beginning of new leafage, is best at the plant's best, and leaves a pungent107 trail where wild cattle crop. There is the smell of sage at sundown, burning sage from campoodies and sheep camps, that travels on the thin blue wraiths108 of smoke; the kind of smell that gets into the hair and garments, is not much liked except upon long acquaintance, and every Paiute and shepherd smells of it indubitably. There is the palpable smell of the bitter dust that comes up from the alkali flats at the end of the dry seasons, and the smell of rain from the wide-mouthed canons. And last the smell of the salt grass country, which is the beginning of other things that are the end of the mesa trail.
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1
spiny
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| adj.多刺的，刺状的；n.多刺的东西 | |
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shrub
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| n.灌木，灌木丛 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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dwindling
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| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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jigging
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| n.跳汰选，簸选v.（使）上下急动( jig的现在分词 ) | |
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trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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antelope
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| n.羚羊；羚羊皮 | |
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twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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twigged
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| 有细枝的，有嫩枝的 | |
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scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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pollen
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| n.[植]花粉 | |
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rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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23
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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gamut
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| n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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sips
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| n.小口喝，一小口的量( sip的名词复数 )v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的第三人称单数 ) | |
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depleted
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| adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
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momentum
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| n.动力，冲力，势头；动量 | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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solitariness
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| n.隐居；单独 | |
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mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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burrowing
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的现在分词 )；翻寻 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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43
vibrations
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| n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 )；震动；感受；（偏离平衡位置的）一次性往复振动 | |
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44
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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45
pinpoint
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| vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置 | |
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46
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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47
pricks
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| 刺痛( prick的名词复数 )； 刺孔； 刺痕； 植物的刺 | |
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48
extorted
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| v.敲诈( extort的过去式和过去分词 )；曲解 | |
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49
killers
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| 凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事 | |
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50
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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51
garrulously
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52
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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53
intake
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| n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口 | |
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54
badger
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| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
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55
curmudgeon
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| n. 脾气暴躁之人，守财奴，吝啬鬼 | |
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56
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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burrower
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| 借钱人； 借用人，剽窃者 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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hawks
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| 鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物 | |
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64
unearthed
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| 出土的（考古） | |
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excavation
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| n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地 | |
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translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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71
warped
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| adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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72
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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74
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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browbeaten
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| v.（以言辞或表情）威逼，恫吓( browbeat的过去分词 ) | |
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ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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80
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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81
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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82
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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83
darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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84
scurries
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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85
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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86
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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87
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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transit
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| n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过 | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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layman
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| n.俗人，门外汉，凡人 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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kindles
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的第三人称单数 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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savory
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| adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的 | |
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102
seethes
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| （液体）沸腾( seethe的第三人称单数 )； 激动，大怒； 强压怒火； 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth) | |
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103
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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104
ripen
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| vt.使成熟；vi.成熟 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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106
furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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107
pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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108
wraiths
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| n.幽灵( wraith的名词复数 )；（传说中人在将死或死后不久的）显形阴魂 | |
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