For a graphic and memorable report of the contours of any country, see always the aboriginal account of its making. That will give you the lie of the land as no geographer could sketch it forth for you. California was made by Padahoon the Sparrow-Hawk and the Little Duck, who brooded on the face of the waters in the Beginning of Things. There is no knowing where the tale comes from, for Winnenap the Medicine-Man who told it to me, was eclectic in his faiths as in his practice. Winnenap was...

THE first time of my hearing of her was at Temblor. We had come all one day between blunt whitish bluffs rising from mirage water, with a thick pale wake of dust billowing from the wheels, all the dead wall of the foothills sliding and shimmering with heat, to learn that the Walking Woman had passed us somewhere in the dizzying dimness, going down to the Tulares on her own feet. We heard of her again in the Carrisal, and again at Adobe Station, where she had passed a week before the sheari...

The horses creaked forward in the harness, the dust puffed up from under the wheels and drowned the smell of the wilding rose, it fell thick on the petals and a little on Peter's spirit, too, as he followed Ellen back to the house, though it never occurred to him to think any more of it than that he had been working too long in the hot sun and was very tired. It did not, however, prevent his eating his share of the picnic dainties as he sat with his mother and Ellen on the veranda. Then as...

The trail begins at the Broken Tree with the hawk’s nest. As often as we have talked of it since, Herman and I, and that is as often as the ceanothus blooms untimely for a sign of rains delayed, or there is a low moon and a following star, or a wind out of the south with the smell of wild honey in it, we have agreed together that the trail begins at Broken Tree. There were some other landmarks I was quite as sure of at the time, but the creek makes so many turns here I could never find the...

The homesteader's cabin stood in a moon-shaped hollow between the hills and the high mesa; and the land before it stretched away golden and dusky green, and was lost in a blue haze about where the river settlements began. The hills had a flowing outline and melted softly into each other and higher hills behind, until the range broke in a ragged crest of thin peaks white with snow. A clean, wide sky bent over that country, and the air that moved in it was warm and sweet. The homesteader's s...

The greatest difficulty to be met in the writing of an Indian play is the extensive misinformation about Indians. Any real aboriginal of my acquaintance resembles his prototype in the public mind about as much as he does the high-nosed, wooden sign of a tobacco store, the fact being that, among the fifty-eight linguistic groups of American aboriginals, customs, traits, and beliefs differ as greatly as among Slavs and Sicilians. Their very speech appears not to be derived from any common st...

In the region stretching from the High Sierras south of Yosemite to the Mojave Desert, water is scarce and empty riverbeds hint at a lush landscape that has long since vanished. But the desert is far from lifeless. For those who know where to look, the "land of little rain" is awash in wonders. In this exquisite meditation on the people, flora, and fauna of the American desert, Mary Austin introduces readers to the secret treasures of the landscape she loved above all others.

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This file includes The Land of Little Rain, The Bsket Woman, The Arrow-Maker, A Woman of Genius, The Lovely Lady, and The Trail Book. According to Wikipedia: "Mary Hunter Austin (September 9, 1868 – August 13, 1934) was an American writer. One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her classic The Land of Little Rain (1903) describes the fauna, flora and people – as well as evoking the mysticism and spirituality – of the region between the High Sierra and the Mojave Desert ...

I confess to a great liking for the Indian fashion of name-giving: every man known by that phrase which best expresses him to whoso names him. Thus he may be Mighty-Hunter, or Man-Afraid-of-a-Bear, according as he is called by friend or enemy, and Scar-Face to those who knew him by the eye's grasp only. No other fashion, I think, sets so well with the various natures that inhabit in us, and if you agree with me you will understand why so few names are written here as they appear in the geo...

The Land of Little Rain (1903) is a collection of essays and short stories by Mary Hunter Austin. Originally published with photographs taken by acclaimed American photographer Ansel Adams, The Land of Little Rain is a classic work of nature writing. Austin is now recognized as an early feminist and conservationist who understood the intricacy and fragility of ecosystems as well as the extent to which human civilization threatens their continued existence.In a ser...

In "The Land of Little Rain," Mary Hunter Austin captivates readers with a lyrical exploration of the arid landscapes of the American Southwest. This collection of interconnected essays exudes a keen sense of place, immersing the audience in the stark beauty and vibrant life of regions such as the Mojave Desert and the Sierra Nevada. Austin employs a rich, impressionistic literary style that reflects her deep appreciation for nature, presenting her observations with both poetic elegance an...