Our Catholic Heritage in T ezas
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there were one hundred huts. The natives came out to meet them at a short distance, and when they first caught sight of the weary travelers, they set up a loud yelling and vigorously slapped their hands on their thighs, making much noise. They brought pumpkins (gourds) bored with holes and pebbles inside, which they held in great reverence. These appear to have been used in connection with healing and their great festivals. 12 But before the little group arrived, they crossed a large river, as wide as the Guadalquivir in Spain, which was almost one hundred yards wide and whose water came up above their waist. This was, it seems, the Guad- alupe, and not the Rio Grande as suggested by some. 83 According to the route they were following, they must have passed very near the present site of San Marcos springs. It was in this region that they first saw mountains. They had reached the Balcones Escarpment along which there is a series of springs and spring rivers such as Barton Springs in Austin, San Pedro and Olmos Springs in San Antonio, and others all along the road to Del Rio. The Indians were so anxious to touch the now famous medicine men of whose wonderful cures they had heard that they almost crushed them to death in the scramble. They carried them bodily to the village amidst great rejoicing. From here on, with one or two exceptions, the progress of the heretofore weary travelers became a continuous triumphal march, the people of one village escorting them to the next and looking after all their wants. Their fame spread like wildfire and their escort soon developed a tradition whereby they shared in the triumph of the strange medicine men. Thus it became the established practice that the people of each village had to give presents to the Spaniards, which in turn were distributed among those who had escorted them from the previous village, who returned happily to their homes. Those of the village visited went on to the next and there received the offerings of the visited. After a short while the custom of pillaging the villages visited by those accom- panying the survivors developed, which grieved the Spaniards deeply, but there was nothing they could do to prevent it and the natives them- selves did not seem to resent it. IZBarcia, I, 29-30. 83 Some even suggest it was the Colorado near Austin. See Hodge, 90 ; Bandelier, 129; R. C. Hill, Dalla.r News, November 11, 1933, who thinks it might have been the Colorado. Davenport and Wells declare it was the Rio Grande below Falfurrias. Quarterl,y, 22, pp. 232-236.
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