It will be noticed that the ancient Chinese account connects lights, or "an illumination of Torches" (chuh), with the very stream which the Spaniards of a later age, and of their own accord christened the Rio del Tizon.
A Torch-lighted stream, say the Chinese.
A Torch-lighted stream, say the Spaniards.
The author or explorer last quoted says with reference to Indians dwelling on the banks of the Colorado, that "the custom still prevails among them of carrying a firebrand in the hand in cold weather," which was noticed by the Spaniards.
Of course the flaming brands may well be used in winter to warm those who hold them, but the Ancients who inhabited the cave or cliff houses (which they built and which are now more or less in ruin, according to exposure or original inherent strength) might have used the chuh or torches as lights. These torches are mentioned in connection with excessive heat, and it would be absurd to suppose that the Sun People of old desired a still higher temperature. But mention is made of cave dwellings, and such are actually there; and we can readily understand why the ancient dwellers in the cave houses should have frequently used the ready-to-hand torches when climbing to their dark and break-neck abodes.
Even today the chuh or torches are used as lights. The withered stalks or stems, so abundant in the Canyon, are a melancholy illustration of the scorching power of the sun within the chasm. We have not forgotten the fact that the Chinese term han is used in the ancient text and that it stands for the "crispness" of scorched or dried up plants. An actual visit to the Ta-Hoh or Great Canyon referred to, shows that it is this han—or withered, scorched and crisp—vegetation which provides no end of torches (chuh) for dwellers in the vicinity. One stumbling visitor uses the following language: "We struck for it ... through the thick night, the guide occasionally lighting a torch of grass" (n. 63). Unable to directly or steadily illumine the angles or recesses of the Canyon, the bright and clear-headed sun does the next best thing and raises a bounteous harvest of firebrands. Nature here concentrates her attention on the task of serving the necks (rather than the bellies) of her children, and presents them with a crop of seasoned and brilliant torches. Certain it is that most efficient firebrands are raised here in profusion and constitute such a unique feature of the stream that in order to distinguish it from others in the region, the Spaniards called our river the Rio del Tizon. Torches have lighted the Canyon in the past and they now throw light on the ancient record.
Mentioned in connection with withered vegetation and intense heat, the natural inference is that the torches were used to light the steps of dwellers in the Canyon. Of course they might in winter have been used, like other vegetable produce, as fuel, but the old record now before us does actually connect the chuh or torches with a high scorching temperature; and our impression or deduction is that they were used as lights amid the blackness of the chasm.
And the Torches (chuh) are used as lights still. One explorer says: "We fear that we shall have to stay here clinging to the rocks until daylight. Our little Indian gathers a few dry stems, ties them in a bundle, lights one end, and holds it up. The others do the same, and with these Torches we find a way out of trouble."
Observe that these torches (or chuh as the Chinese would call them) were not ignited to warm the explorers. They were held aloft to find or light the way among perilous cliffs. Without their aid it would have been madness for the explorers to move. Practically they were as men born blind, but the Indian guide, with knowledge derived from the depths of antiquity, obtains the necessary torches and light at his elbow. With one withered and hot stem he ties together a number, lights them and then finds the way out of trouble for both himself and his bewildered party. What have we here but a duplication of the "illumination of torches" referred to in the ancient record?
17. chuh (the illumination of torches; a candle; a torch.)