The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

THE SACRED FLAME.
seeking; * they only fought when obliged to; then they
fought honestly, man to man; there was no nation that
could stand against the Zunis.
~ Montezuma had protected them since the creation of the
earth. Had he iiot instructed them how to manufacture
their own clothing; to raise their food out of the ground; to
raise flocks and herds; to build houses to live in? Were
they not more prosperous than the wild tribes who wandered
over the country, but to destroy and lay waste?
They had always prospered until the Spaniards came.
Then all vas changed. From the day that those people
came, they had been cursed.
Montezuma no longer regarded them with his former love;
the Spaniards had made his heart cold towards them; but
the Great Spirit would again kindle the flame in his heart.
It must be a punishment that he had sent upon them, because
they, his children, had permitted the sacred flame to burn
dimly that he had kindled with his own hands upon the
altar of their estufas; but they relied upon the promise
he had made them, that he would one day return and lead
them as of old- for was not Montezuma the very embodi ment of truth?
In this garrulous, simple manner the old man entertained
* A statement not confirmed by Coronado's report of the condition in
which he found the adjoining kingdoms in 1540. See Coronado's report to
the Emperor Charles V.
408