Yours Sincerely

"BUTTERFLY DANCERS" BY JACK BREED.

This dance scene was taken in the plaza of the Hopi Indian village of New Oraibi. The dance is the Butterfly Dance which celebrates the flowering of all living things. The Butterfly Dance is one of the most beautiful and poetic of the ancient Hopi ceremonial rituals.

STANDING ROCKS:

I enjoyed tremendously the Garners' article in the May issue on the Land of Standing Rocks. I must rise to your challenge, however, and inform you that your pictures were neither the first published nor, by any means, the first ever taken of that area. Mr. Ross Musselman, who until last fall operated a ranch east of Monticello, Utah, (he has since taken a new ranch near Moab) has for years led pack trips into that country. Ross himself has taken many pictures in the area, some of which were, I believe, published in a Salt Lake City newspaper more than ten years ago, and various members of his parties in years past have doubtless taken hundreds of pictures. Mrs. Carpenter and I were members of last summer's party which spent 19 days in that area, and we have some hundreds of Kodachromes to prove it. Randall Henderson, editor of Desert Magazine, was a member of our party and wrote the story of the trip for the October and November, 1949, issues of the magazine under the title "19 Days on Utah Trails." His accompanying pictures antedate those of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

Your picture of the arch facing page 21 is one which Ross has christened The Wedding Band, because of its nearly circular shape. The Garners missed a big thrill when they were in the vicinity of the Needles and the Devil's Lane by not climbing to the point directly above the junction of the Green and the Colorado Rivers. We were there on the 24th of July, exactly 80 years and 8 days after Major Powell and his first river exploring party came down the Green to that point and camped on a sand bar which was visible to us, 1300 feet above the rivers. Although we were not the first of Ross' parties to visit that spot we were the first to erect a cairn there.

There are probably hundreds of arches and bridges in that area which have never been seen by any but the ancients who once peopled it. But whether or not one is the first to see them is a matter of small moment. To see them under any circumstances is a rare privilege.

M. SCOTT CARPENTER Nutley, New Jersey

NO GLAZED PAPER

Three cheers. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS came today. Beautiful, as usual. And best of all, the color pic tures are on matte paper once again. How we mourned when the last few issues came with glazed paper, and how we hoped it was only a temporary situation! Please keep the lovely magazine as it is.

Especially congratulations to the Abbotts for their fine pictures. "Canyon Wall" is so real you can almost climb over the boulders.

We are very glad to hear that more of the Indian paintings are to come. All our friends appreciated their unusual charm, too, and hoped to see more of them. Mr. & Mrs. Howard Lederer Mill Valley, California

FROSTED JELLO CANTALOUPE:

To show you how carefully we read your fine magazine we've already tried the "frosted jello cantaloupe" described so mouthwateringly in "Cow Country Cookaroo."

DISTANT FRIENDS:

During World War II our town of Sutton, Cold. field, became a part of the U. S. A. as it was the Headquarters of the First Base Post Office of the U. S. Army and was full of American service men and women.

We had the joy of getting to know many of them and formed some wonderful and lasting friendships.

It was through one of my friends that I came to know and admire your lovely magazine. Last Christmas she presented me with a year's subscription to it.

I often take my copies down to school and show them to my class and they think that the pictures are beautiful. I look forward keenly to my monthly copy.

Miss Joyce Fuller Sutton, Coldfield, England.

THE BRAVE POPPY:

The color plate entitled "The Brave Poppy" in your December, 1949, issue is of inspirational value and may save a few lives.

It should be printed with title "The Brave Poppy in the Desert" or "The Will to Live," and distributed for framing by some drug company to be hung in doctor's waiting rooms and in mental institutions and clinics.

It has had a good influence on several that I know of that were discouraged at their progress. The print is provocative of courage and should be properly distributed.

LET'S TALK TEXAS:

My brother was thoughtful enough to make me a Christmas present of a year's subscription to your splendid publication.

We boastful Texans hate to admit anything has us bested, but I hand it to you, in this unique enterprise!

C. L. Patterson Bandera, Texas

SALTY VERNACULAR:

I have been missing your articles by my fellow Dallasite, Ramon Adams, with his salty vernacular of the Old West. Hope you run more of them soon if you can get him away from his candy kitchen long enough to write them.

Joseph A. Shirley Dallas, Texas

PICTURES ON WALLS:

I am a doctor in a bomb shattered industrial city where a spot of lovely nature, at which the eyes can rejoice, is scarcely to be found. I put some of the color prints from your magazine on the walls of my consulting room. They are for me some of those little things which give us joy and diversion from the troubles of daily life by reminding us of the beauty which is to be found everywhere in the big wide world.

Dr. Karla Walter Mannheim, Germany

Dr. J. J. McCarthy Lakewood, Ohio

SILVER BRACELET (To Randall Honwesima, Silversmith, Williams, Arizona)

A muted flash of sun on a dove's wings in flight is mellow silver..

Quiet acquiescence of the mesa under the touch of a Spring moon. is warm silver..

Shimmering rush of the creek between the fingers of leaning willows is vibrant silver..

Wind-rippled water of the lake at dawn is cool silver..

Birch trees bathed in the sparkle of slanting rain are living silver..

All of these, with patient skill, the silversmith has fashioned in this bracelet's charm..

And then to add a final grace, he mounts a turquoise stone, a bit of captive sky whose four corners speak of the four winds of heaven which carry the spirit outward to the place of long-abiding..

LORRAINE BABBГГТ

OLD PROPHECY

The Old One says it must be trueWhen five dust-devils dance in view, And whirl across the bone-dry plain, That means we'll soon be having rain!

Five whirling winds; ten dusty daysAnd rain will follow them always!

ANYA P. SALA

FANTASIA ON THE GRAND CANYON

Words! Words! Words! Turquoise, amethyst, And rich amber; Torn from the peaks Of towering cliffs; Thundering down Into fern-trimmed depths. Let me gather them And fashion an epic crown, To the glory of God Who visioned This matchless chasm.

MARGARET WHEELER ROSS

DESERT TREASURES

Unasked, the sun gives gold to man, And the moon silver in a giant span. There are pearl clouds in a turquoise sky. And shining stones in the hills close-by. There's a changing canvas every hand, In the colors of the reaching sand. But the greatest treasure she gives, by far, Is to put within reach of all. . . a star.

PAULINE B. KIENE

BACK COVER-"AHOTE OR HO-O-TE KΑCHINA DOLL" BY JACK BREED.

This Kachina Doll is distinguished by pop eyes, horns and snout and carries bow and arrows and rattle. The Kachina this doll represents appears in the Mixed Kachina Dances, one-day ceremonies, described as ordinary or regular Kachina dances held in village plazas during the first half of the Hopi year. Such events are social occasions.