Just as summer slips into autumn the corn fields are the scene of a gay festival. Each day the men have examined the ears and now that they are just right, the date is set. The Crier Chief steps out on his roof, which overlooks the entire town, and gaining the attention of the people, announces that the green corn festival will be held in two days. His announcement brings a great flurry of excitement and the women begin to prepare for the feasting which will take place.
On the appointed day all who are able to climb the steep trails hurry to the fields. Yesterday the men dug deep pits in the fields and gathered great quantities of firewood. Hundreds of ears of corn were picked and placed near the pits. Last night fires were started in the pits and all through the night fuel was thrown in to keep the fires roaring.
As the people arrive from the village the fires are allowed to die out and the ashes are scraped out of the superheated pits. Green corn stalks and leaves are used to line each pit and everyone gathers around to toss in the hundreds of ears of unshucked, green corn. When a pit is almost full, more corn stalks are tossed in and the pit is sealed with earth. All through the day the corn steams in the huge ovens.
Small fires are built around the edges of the fields and the women and girls spend the day preparing great quantities of food. The children romp about the fields while wrestling contests, races and games of skill occupy the boys and young men. The older men loaf and talk and, of course, gamble a little. As the day passes the excitement mounts and at last, as the cool evening breeze begins to rustle the corn leaves, the feasting begins.
The pits are opened and the steaming, tender ears are passed out to the famished crowd. It is a joyous feast for green corn is a favorite delicacy. Great quantities of food are consumed and a contented silence settles over the gorged, happy people.
Just as a monstrous full moon rises out of the eastern mesa they return to their homes. They thrill at the sight for it is something many of them seldom see. Cliff Palace cave faces west and they can see the full moon only by climbing to the mesa top.
With the green corn festival over, summer slips quickly into autumn. The slow, easy days of the growing season are over. The strenuous activity of the harvest season faces the people of Cliff Palace.
6
AUTUMN
With the arrival of autumn the finest weather of the year begins. For almost three months it will continue, until winter sweeps down out of the north. In early September the days are still warm but the nights have a pleasant coolness. As the season progresses the daytime warmth continues but the nights become cooler and cooler. By October they are crisp and finally there is frost. The mesas flame with the colors of autumn, the distant mountains are cloaked with a bluegray haze and for weeks the people enjoy the brisk invigorating weather of Indian Summer. Late in October, or in November, there may be a quick flurry of snow, a warning of what is to come, but it disappears as quickly as it came. Far into the autumn the warm days last: sometimes the winter storms do not begin until after the sun has started to return from the south.
Autumn is the happiest season of the year for the people of the Mesa Verde. It is a season of tremendous activity for now they must reap the rewards for the prayers of springtime and the labors of summer. During the spring they were gay and happy but it was not the full unrestrained happiness of autumn. As the farmers planted their crops last spring they felt a certain helplessness. With each tiny seed they planted a prayer: that was the only aid they could give it. Then they were forced to stand by while the forces of nature; the sun, the rain and the earth, did as they pleased with the precious seeds.