“Gesnip,” called her mother, “bring me the grinding stones.” The girl went to the jacal and brought two stones, one a heavy bowlder with a hollow in its top, which had been made partly by stone axes, but more by use; the other stone fitted into this hollow.
“Now bring me the basket of roasted grasshoppers,” said the mother. Taking a handful of grasshoppers, Macana put them into the hollow in the larger stone, and with the smaller stone rubbed them to a coarse powder. This powder she put into a small basket which Gesnip brought her.
“I am glad we caught the grasshoppers. They taste better than acorn meal mush,” said Payuchi.
“How many grasshoppers there are in the fall,” said Gesnip, “and so many rabbits, too.”
“We had such a good time at the rabbit drive,” said Payuchi.
“And such a big feast afterwards, nearly as good as last night,” said Gesnip.
“Tell me about the rabbit drive,” said Cleeta, squatting down beside the children in front of the fire.
“It was in the big wash up the river toward the mountains,” began Payuchi. “You have seen the rabbits running to hide in a bunch of grass and cactus when you go with mother to the mountains for acorns, haven’t you?”
Cleeta nodded. “Not this winter, though. We saw only two to-day,” she said.
“That is because of the drive,” said her brother. “It was in the afternoon, with the wind blowing from the ocean, and all the men who could shoot best with bow and arrow, or throw the spear well, stood on the other side of the wash.”