Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 99: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Seven Cities of Cibola to it certain other lines, till he had made what is now known as the swastika, the oldest form of the cross known among the Indians. Presently she signed for food. No sooner was she understood than one of the men ran back up the hill and came back presently with a little bundle of flat cakes made of coarse maize flour. They were the tortillas that she knew so well, and along with them there were certain round, small slices of white meat that she ate without question, finding them delicious. Later she was to find out more about that meat. She tried*to talk to them in Spanish, but they knew no word of it. The dia- lects of Anahuac that she had learned from Maria were equally unintelligible to her new friends.. The only way she could make herself understood was by such simple signs that she could make and they could understand. They showed her plainly enough that she was to go with them, but they care- fully refrained from touching her in any way as they led her up the hill to the spot where they had been working. There a small tent made of leather stood on a little level spot. This she was shown was hers, and the leader made signs by passing his hands from right to left and by pointing to the sun and counting, that ‘when she had rested they would go to their own place. For a moment her brave heart sank as she realized that™her wanderings were not yet over. Even her most sanguine hope could mot make her now believe that these new friends would take her to a place where she could be in touch with her own people. At least they were friendly and. that was much, but what the end of it all would be she could not even guess. The demeanor of the men assured her that only good was intended, so she entered the little hot tent and with a short prayer to the Virgin who had thus far befriended®her she threw her- self upon the little heap of skins and clothing and sank into the dreamless sleep of utter exhaustion. Day came all too soon, and with it a meal such as she had not eaten for many a day. Red fruit of the prickly-pear was there, stripped of its fairy thorns, and beans cooked in an earthen pot with tor- 8c tillas and water that tasted all too plainly of the goat-skin bag. The meal over, the men packed up their few belongings and Mercedes was given to understand that they were to: start for some place beyond the range of mountains. Ten days’ travel they told her by the simple signs of pointing to the sun and holding up ten fingers. . Then came a wonderful thing, for one of them very patiently piled pebbles around four sides of a small rectangle and, pointing to his companions, laughed pleasantly. It was clearly indicated that they lived in a city that was walled with stone walls, ten days away across the hills. She knew it could not be a Spanish city, for they treated her with a veneration that had been shown no Spaniard since Cortez had landed twenty-five years be- fore in Anahuac. What place could it be? Suddenly the purpose of Coronado’s quest occurred to her. Cibola! Could it be that they came from Cibola? They knew the sign of the cross and venerated it, and the people of, Cibola were supposed to be Christians! She did not know that the swastika that the men had. made for her was simply a perverted symbol of old-time phallic worship common to all prime- val peoples. Could it be that she was about to stumble by accident on the great adventure that had set on foot the great- est expedition that the New World had yet seen? She asked the question by pointing to the heap of pebbles and saying— “Cibola ?” The man shook his head as he replied — “Acoma.” Then, pointing to the northwest, he said— ‘“Hawikuh.” “Cibola,” the girl repeated energeti- cally. A sudden gleam of understand- ing lit the man’s eyes and he opened a skin bag that he carried about his neck and poured from it a little heap of small yellow nuggets’of gold and a handful of gold-dust. ‘“Siboyla,” he said quite clearly and pointed toward the southwest. Mercedes was puzzled. The man was > evidently trying to tell her that there were several walled cities, from one of which, named Siboyla, the gold was ob- \ COPMICLOO© cS (E(ol ff