The women also brought wild fruit,and would eat nothing till the guests had seen and touched it. If thevisitors seemed offended, the natives were terrified, and apparentlythought that they should die unless they had the favor of these wise andgood men. Farther on, people did not come out into the paths to gatherround them, as the first had done, but stayed meekly in their houses,sitting with their faces turned to the wall, and with their propertyheaped in the middle of the room. From these people the travellersreceived many valuable skins, and other gifts. Wherever there was afountain, the natives readily showed it, but apparently knew nothing ofany miraculous gift; yet they themselves were in such fine physicalcondition, and seemed so young and so active, that it was as if they hadalready bathed in some magic spring. They had wonderful endurance of heatand cold, and such health that, when their bodies were pierced through andthrough by arrows, they would recover rapidly from their wounds. Thesethings convinced the Spaniards that, even if the Indians would notdisclose the source of all their bodily freshness, it must, at any rate,lie somewhere in the neighborhood. Yet a little while, no doubt, and theirvisitors would reach it.It was a strange journey for these gray and careworn men as they passedup the defiles and valleys along the St.
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