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for untold generations. We also believe that we know something of the people who fly them. They are called The Hav-musuvs."

   "Who are the Hav-musuvs?"

   "They are a people of the Panamints, and they are as ancient as Tomesha itself."

   He smiled a little at my confusion.

   "You do not understand? Of course not. You are not a Paiute. Then listen closely and I will lead you back along the trail of the dim past.

   “When the world was young, and this valley which is now dry, parched desert, was a lush, hidden harbor of a blue-water sea which stretched from half way up those mountains to the Gulf of California, it is said that the Hav-musuvs came here in huge rowing ships. They found great caverns in the Panamint’s, and in them they built one of their cities. At that time California was the island which the Indians of that state told the Spanish it was, and which they marked so on their maps.

   “Living in their hidden city, the Hav-musuvs ruled the sea with their fast-rowing-ships, trading with far-away peoples and bringing strange goods to the great quays (openings high in the cliffs) said still to exist in the caverns.

   "Then as untold centuries rolled past, the climate began to change. The water in the lake went down until there was no longer a way to the sea. First the way was broken only by the southern mountains, over the tops of which goods could be carried. But as time went by, the water continued to shrink, until the day came when only a dry crust was all that remained of the great blue lake. Then the desert came, and the Fire-God began to walk across Tomesha. The Flaming-Land.

   "When the Hav-musuvs could no longer use their great rowing-ships, they began to think of other means to reach the world beyond. I suppose that is