As the summer got hotter, the men learned how to spot the rattlesnakes by using flashlights adapted with ultraviolet light filters. They were amazed to discover that on a hot summer night several could be spotted in the yard. By covering their horse’s legs with a stiff boot material, they were able to ride around the house and into the pastures after dark. The heavy leather simply made it too hard for any snake to bite into the flesh. With those horses they could explore at night when the snakes were active. They would ride out into the pasture then turn on their flashlights. The flashlight beam would reflect glittering sparkles of light from the skin of the rattlesnakes. Even the moon could occasionally cause a dull sparkle by reflecting off the mirrored scales. This enabled them to literally hunt the rattlesnakes at night with small rifles, staying far enough away not to spook the horses.
Many of the rattlesnakes were killed, but in only a short while the rattlesnakes learned to slither down nearby holes at the approach of any larger animal. They could feel the vibrations of the approaching horses for quite some distance. As the baby rattlesnakes started to grow, the problem only worsened. Several close calls occurred when one of the men would almost step on a rattlesnake or pick one up with a bale of hay in the barn. The snakes were fearless, harder to spot and harder to hit with a bullet than the native rattlesnakes, and the canyon lands crawled with them. Except for an occasional coyote, all the smaller animals again disappeared from around the ranch house.
Finally, my natural curiosity aroused, I asked a simple but obvious question, “Why are they attacking the ranch houses? They don’t seem to be bothering animals out in the pastures unless they have human smells associated with them. Why are the rattlesnakes warring with humans?”
The Undulating Serpent
The first apprehension was a result of finding a hose loose. The gas clothes dryer that June used in the wintertime had an exhaust that was held to a floor bracket with a ring clamp. It would take a massive amount of effort to dislodge the clamp without taking a flathead screwdriver and unscrewing the screws. Yet, there it was loose and just lying there on the floor. Any animal that could get under the house could have entered the house without a soul knowing it until it was too late. Uncle Ken was angry. “There is just no way that a snake could get that hose off, I put it on myself and I know I did it right,” he exclaimed in frustration.
A snake does not need much room to hide; in fact, they are masters of camouflage and stealth. The humans spent two days searching the house with UV lights but never found anything. Every bed had to be torn apart, every drawer had to be taken out with the contents looked through and every piece of pottery had to be examined for the possible presence of a rattlesnake. They found nothing but the many things that they had put away somewhere and then forgotten where they had put them.
Nothing happened for the next two weeks. Then a most peculiar thing happened. I had gone to bed early that night, lying in bed for almost two hours before actually drifting off to sleep. My mind was in turmoil thinking about all of the events that had occurred. Finally I drifted off into a sound sleep but was awakened when I thought I could hear a mouse in the room. At the moment, it had never occurred to me that a mouse could have gotten into the room, as I continued to wake up and find my senses; I realized that there couldn’t have been a mouse in the house. The doors and windows were all screened or boarded over. Reaching over to my end table I picked up the flashlight I always kept there. It still had the UV filter on it. As I turned it on I quickly noticed several rattlesnakes on the floor. In terror, I sat up and quickly noticed that the door to my room had been opened. Just then, one of the snakes head popped up at the foot of my bed. As the other snakes appeared to flee from the UV light, this particular snake literally poured itself on the bed. Much larger and thicker than any rattlesnake I had ever read about, I discovered that I couldn’t make my body move; I was frozen with fear.
The snake raised its head, as if ready to strike, but instead, it moved its head slowly back and forth as if trying to hypnotize me. It was a phantasmagoric scene, the snake glowing under the lighting the flashlight provided. The slit eyes showed like glowing red embers never blinking, holding a cold and cruel focus. I remember thinking, Snakes do not undulate before they strike, why was this snake making loops with its head?”
The snake had an effect on me, as if it was trying to communicate something primal. I couldn’t understand what the snake wanted but I did have the distinct impression that the snake was intelligent. I finally regained self-awareness and realized I was gripping the covers in my hand. In an instant as the snake dipped its head, I managed to throw the covers over it and ran out the door. Scanning with my flashlight so I could avoid any other snakes, I almost ran head first into Corey who stood there with only his shorts on, staring at the floor. In less than a minute, Ken and June came running out of their bedroom with their heads bent over in search of snakes on the floor. The only person that had not appeared was Hidalgo so everyone went to his room in order to see how he was doing.
We found Hidalgo in bed, wrestling with an imaginary snake just inches from his face, only there wasn’t a snake there. He was having a nightmare. After waking up a very sweaty Hidalgo, we all just looked at each other for a moment. How could they have all experienced the same intense dream? The dream was so real, and the details they all shared were astounding. In everyone’s dream the snake had risen from the end of the bed and seemed to spill out on top of the bed covers. The only difference had been in Hidalgo’s dream. He actually had grabbed the head of the snake and was rolling around with a death grip on it. Then the next thing he remembered was Corey shaking him.
Corey had a look of puzzlement on his face as he whispered quietly, “Now I understand why Luna shot his foot. He thought he was shooting a snake. But, those were real snake bites that he received, I don’t understand.”
I volunteered a guess, “Maybe his snakes were real and of course, he did have that revolver with him. None of us had a gun with us”.
“Well, that is not entirely true.” Hidalgo interjected, “I had my police issue with me but I never thought about using it. In my dream the snake was on me too fast.”
“One thing I do understand,” says Ken. “If those snakes can make all of us have the same dream at the same time, there is much more to this than any of us ever thought. They are controlling our minds.”
June nodded her head up and down in agreement. “We really have discovered something strange here. Let’s search the house.” Not finding anything, not even a loose hose, we finally relaxed and began to ponder the situation. Sleep finally returned just as the sun began to show on the horizon. The actual mystical snakes that had caused the dreams had already begun their long journey back to their nest.
The Confrontation
All summer long the humans and the rattlesnakes warred with each other. Finally, the first cold days of fall returned, and the snakes began to disappear again. Corey, Hidalgo and I decided they had to return to Serpiente to see if there was a way to get rid of the rattlesnakes for good. On a frosty November morning, we loaded our pack animals and headed back toward the volcanic cone.
It was a trip that seemed much shorter now that we knew the way. Since it was winter we had no fear of being attacked by the rattlesnakes.
Returning to the ruins that I had discovered, we retraced our steps to the bottom of the cliff. There we tied a rope to our packs after securing the animals and climbed to the ruin shelf to find a cozy room out of the wind to sleep.
Pulling up our packs, we soon found ourselves huddled around a small fire while coffee boiled, steaks with potatoes fried, and anticipation peaked. What would tomorrow bring? Could we find a way to either get rid of or make peace with the snakes? That evening there was another light snow and we slept deeply. We knew that nothing could reach us where we slept, which is why the ruins were there in the first place. Even a rattlesnake cannot climb a sheer wall.
The next morning we lowered our packs and sleep
ing gear to the frosty ground at the bottom of the bluff, gathered it all up, and headed out to the main canyon to feed and load the horses. When we got to the place the horses had been tied, however, nothing remained except tracks!
“Two men,” Hidalgo said, “And they led the horses away with them.” Without hesitation they stashed their heaviest gear and started after the men and horses.
Hidalgo still had his trusty 30-06 with him, and Corey had a 357 magnum pistol that he had carried ever since that first shot landed above his head when he and I first encountered the pottery hunters. He also had used it on night patrols looking for rattlesnakes. Still, without the pack animals and horses, it would be a long walk back to the ranch. We desperately had to find where our animals were being taken.
We were angry. Hidalgo and Corey were not about to allow someone to take advantage of us like that. They suspected that the culprits were the same people that took the pot-shot at Corey and me on our previous trip. Even I was furious. We were bound and determined to have a confrontation with the pottery hunters, the only other people we had ever run into in Serpientes except for the thousands of ghosts.
Fernandez and Garcia
We took off on a long hike following the tracks left behind in the thin layer of snow through the main canyon in the area. Many hours later, with burning feet and red faces, we caught sight of a small whiff of smoke coming up over the curve of the canyon in front of us. Creeping over rocks and through the small cedars that lined the canyon, we soon discovered horses tied up to some salt cedars. Behind the brush that was lining the tiny seep stream was a cavernous hole in the rock, where two men were busy cooking a meal. I looked over at Hidalgo and whispered, “What are we going to do?”
Hidalgo said, “That’s easy,” and whispered his quick plan. Corey took off in one direction and Hidalgo the other. I held my ground.
As soon as everyone was in place I called out to the two men. “Hey, you guys, I want my horses back!”
The two men, not expecting two young kids to put up any fight, were taken aback. Profanities in Spanish echoed off the curved rocks of the campsite, along with a fast flurry of activity. With guns in hand they jumped to their feet and defiantly stood their ground. Peering toward the direction my voice had come from, the one I would later discover was known as Jose Garcia yelled out to me, “Come in and get your stuff, we might even party a little bit.”
I yelled back, “Sounds like fun, only I would need a real man to party with!” At that, the one named Garcia let a round go with his old 30-06 rifle. “Do you really want to mess with us?”
The noise echoed up and down the canyon walls. The other one, Don Fernandez, stepped toward my voice with a big grin on his face and said, “Cover me and I’ll get us something for dessert!” Thinking that the girl was alone or that the boy was with her but unarmed and hiding, Fernandez felt brave and reckless. They had never dreamed that the girl and boy would actually pursue them, much less challenge them; besides they were armed, and they assumed that Corey and I were alone and defenseless.
As soon as Fernandez took a step forward, Corey stepped out of the rocks beside him with his pistol aimed directly at the Mexican’s chest. His friend Garcia turned to fire at Corey, but Hidalgo aimed and shot at his knee. The knee appeared to explode, with blood and bone pieces flying everywhere.
The battle was instantly over; with one shot Hidalgo had evened the score and won the upper ground. Immediately the men started pleading for their freedom. Garcia was carried to a horse and unceremoniously slid into the saddle, while the other one turned to get the bundles of loot they had stored there. “Leave it,” Hidalgo yelled in a commanding voice. In utter frustration, his companion pleading for help, Fernandez grabbed the horse’s reins and headed out of the canyon. They would need to find a doctor immediately, or the situation would get far worse for the one named Garcia. He would spend the next few days in absolute agony as the horse carried him back to civilization. He would spend the remainder of his life with a distinct limp.
At the campsite, Corey, Hidalgo and I found crates and sacks full of Indian relics pilfered from the ruins. Several of the sacks contained priceless relics, even jewel-encrusted ornaments. Hidalgo took particular interest in a small sack full of green jewels.
“Do you know what these are?” he asked. Corey examined the jewels and exclaimed, “Emeralds! Where could they have come from?”
Hidalgo was mystified. “I wonder how they found these stones. Most Indians in this area valued turquoise; it has a religious meaning to the people. But I don’t understand how they could have acquired these.” Pocketing the small bag of emeralds, the three of us pondered what to do with the loot that the pot looters had left there. One bag contained items that they recognized as belongings of a local rancher.
“These are mean people,” says Hidalgo, “we will have trouble with them again.” We looked through the plunder, took out the most portable articles, and decided to hide all the rest in a small rock cave with a doorway that would have been unnoticed from only a few feet away.
Small Sticks
That night, we camped under the rattlesnake ruin that I had originally discovered. Now we knew what had happened to the local men who had disappeared; they had been murdered. Perhaps they too had wandered into the canyon looking for something and had stumbled into the pottery hunters. How many people had the pot-hunters disposed of? We could only guess as we went down a list of people that we knew had disappeared, and that was the ones that we knew of. How many more were there?
“I should have just killed them both right there,” Hidalgo said, looking toward the site of their earlier battle. Thinking that we were indeed very lucky not to have been killed ourselves, we pondered our next move. After eating my portion of stew, I began to re-explore the cliff ruins that we had named rattlesnake ruins. I started walking from room to room, but then I decided to walk out onto the narrow cliff of rock formed near the edge of the ruins. There I pondered a sight that before now we had all ignored.
“Hey, you guys!” I yelled. As Hidalgo and Cory walked over I pointed to the narrow floor and asked a simple question. “What are all these small sticks used for?”
Hidalgo and Corey bent over to examine the sticks, which were all rotted over time with very few clues as to what they were used for. They were as mystified as I was. So I started digging into the fragile remains. “What a minute,” I said, “Look at those tiny skeletons.” Buried inside of the pile of rubble, we found a number of small skeletons, some of a rat like creature and some of birds.
Hidalgo was mystified. “In all my years, I have never seen anything like that. Why would people living in a cliff house cage small animals that would be useless as food?”
We returned to the tiny fire we had built by bringing up scraps of wood from the canyon floor below us. Sitting around the fire, we looked at each other for any sign of inspiration.
Finally I said, “What if they were not raising the animals for food? What if they were raising the animals for someone, or something else? What animal eats rats?”
All three of us looked at each other in the flickering firelight and said, Rattlesnakes!
Blood Sacrifices
Hidalgo pulled out the bag of emeralds, which would be worth many thousands of dollars, and said, “I don’t understand it. Early people respected the rattlesnake, but they left them alone. Even if they were providing them with food, why would the rattlesnakes care? Rattlesnakes are not very smart creatures!”
“That’s true;” said Corey, “but these are not typical rattlesnakes. Why would they only attack the human settlements, and not simply eat wild prey like regular rattlesnakes do?”
Hidalgo said, “At least I believe I understand now why the pot hunters didn’t have to deal with the rattlesnakes.”
Corey and Penny looked at him in confusion. Corey asked, “How did they avoid running into them?”
Hidalgo answered, “They only hunted pots in the wintertime. In the summer there ar
e usually a few people who wander into these canyons chasing cows or sheep or just to explore. The pottery hunters didn’t want to get caught. Not only that, most of those fellows have other jobs they do in the summer. My guess is, with the rattlesnakes causing problems, some of the local ranchers wandered off into these canyons looking for answers. Obviously they died for their efforts.”
Corey said thoughtfully, “That still doesn’t explain why the Indians raised small animals or how they lived in peace with the rattlesnakes.”
Hidalgo said, “It also doesn’t explain how the ancient ones accumulated so many jewels.”
In this moment I had an inspiration and I said, “Sure it does. It’s just a hypothesis, but what if the oldest Indians made peace with the rattlesnakes? What if they achieved peace through some kind of trade? The rattlesnakes and the ancient race needed each other; the rattlesnakes provided protection from other human tribes, and of course a snake can go to many places underground. What if, somehow, the rattlesnakes provided the underground wealth and the humans provided small animals for the rattlesnakes to eat? What if, from the rattlesnake’s perspective, the humans were making blood sacrifices to them?”
Corey responded with, “I don’t know. First of all, why are the rattlesnakes just recently becoming a problem around Serpiente?”
Hidalgo smiled and stood up, throwing his hand out in front of him. “I know, don’t you two get it?”
Corey and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.
Hidalgo said, “Think about it. What animal in nature eats rattlesnakes?” He answered his own question, “Coyotes! They are the only animals out here that will naturally attack and eat a rattlesnake, but during the last twenty years or so they have been hunted nearly to extinction.”
The Family at Serpiente Page 10
