Vision Quest

When I was a little boy, I took a trip to Avikwame Mountain and slept at its base. I felt of my body with my two hands, but found it was not there. It took me four days and nights to go there. Later I became able to approach even the top of the mountain. At last I reached the willow-shade in front of the dark house there. Kumastamho was within, It was so dark that I could hardly see him. He was naked and very large. Only a few great doctors were in there with him, but a crowd of men stood under the shade before the house.

—"Visit to Kumastamho," Yuma shaman's tale, from Handbook of the Indians of California by Alfred Kroever, Washington, DC; U.S. Gov't Printing Office 1926

Ⓒ The Susan Eleanor Boulet Trust (illustration)
Ⓒ Text copyright Michael Babcock