Friday, June 17, 2011

Skippy Question


Skippy said:
Ernie, this is an aside to the philosopherings here.

I'd be curious to know from you and your readers, what's the most interesting thing you've ever discovered or found? You've discussed treasure, the Shelter Cove and King's Peak stories, the Brother Jonathan, fossils and arrowheads, but surely you-- or readers-- have your own interesting finds? Here's some examples.

I remember an out-of-work father restoring old pianos on the side so his family could get by. He found $2,000 inside one of his player pianos: 1930 era bills in a brown paper bag stashed underneath the hood. That came in handy.

Years ago, a Eureka watch and clock repair business, The Oldtimer, showed me his unusual find of the day: an 1848 Scottish will, elaborately written on a sheepskin parchment with a wax seal stamping, found behind the old grandfather clock he was tinkering on. "That's not unusual, clocks were a common place that everyone hid their stuff in," he said, "as well as in Prince Albert cans on strings lowered in walls behind the light sockets, down gas tanks of junked cars, or behind a removable stone of an outside wall. Usually the hiding place is where the keeper can keep an eye on it from the master bedroom," he said.

A friend dug up a rotting leather pouch holding silver coins from the early 1900s on his California Street property, encased in rhododendron roots. Another found two silver dollars at Sequoia Park using his metal detector. Our local thrift stores have their own stories of money rolls and jewelry 'left forgotten in the pockets of donated clothing all the time.' While not truly treasure, another friend found a large, handmade brass ring hanging to a rotting fence post of an Arcata pasture. "It was used in oxen's noses," he said, that being the most likely and interesting of all answers to believe. An acquaintance restoring an old oak desk bought from a hotel discovered-- to his horror-- a long-lost suicide note stuck inside giving him both the willies and the heebie-jeebies. Of course, Petrolia residents still remember marijuana bales washing up onto the beach one day in the mid 70s.

Beyond the normal clay marbles, glass bottles, and an occasional rusty object like railroad nails and horseshoes, has yours truly discovered anything interesting? One day was a spectacular one in memory, Ernie. While digging a garden, I hit something hard, solid, and deep with the shovel. Whatever it was, it wouldn't budge and nearly crimped the shovel. A careful excavation revealed a seriously large and heavy ingot buried several feet in the ground. Brought to the surface, it was shiny and silver colored, encrusted with dirt, shaped like a brick with curved edges, and weighing several pounds. Yahoo! I couldn't believe it. Skippy hit the mother lode: a silver ingot! Skip's heart stopped knowing his ship had finally come in.

But those visions of sugarplum fairies soon faded. Cleaned off and examined more closely, it certainlywas an ingot all right... but it was a lead ingot. A wiser and older gentleman explained these things were commonly used for the soldering of plumbing pipes; apparently workmen discarded it after finishing their building project long ago. Sigh. So close and yet so far. Skippy kept his day job.

Ernie, perhaps you, readers, Charlie 2 crows, Oregon, olmanriver-- even Suzy Blah Blah!--have their own treasure story or discovery to tell? I bet so. Just a thought for some future summertime musings.

(sorry so long and off-topic here; my e-mail isn't working to send this to you otherwise.)
Skippy, It sounds like a lot of fun, but I can't help but think that you are not going to find too many valuable finds out there. The most "treasures" that I have found have been things like old horseshoes or a hand forged gate hinge. I used to work for a guy that had a second-hand goods store. He went to the auction yard every week thinking that he was going to run across some undiscovered treasure. Sometimes he would find something a little bit unique, something that he could maybe make some money on, but in most all cases he ended up paying too much for the item, and then his wife would fall in love with it and take it home. He mostly lost his butt. 
You might believe this if you knew me better, but my biggest treasure is a well told history tale. It doesn't have to be a true story, because the legends that rise out of stories handed down from generation to generation are going to have a direction of their own, and soon get bigger than life itself. Some of the stories that I treasure the most are stories that I can only pass on to my family or a very trusted friend. I know stories about family history that explains why some families don't exactly look like the rest of the family. Stories that the family itself doesn't know. I know stories about historical happenings that the descendants don't want to be known, nor do I blame them, the descendants of the perceived miscreants are not treated very well even though they are not to blame themselves. People can be vicious. Somehow they feel that it is fair to judge people by today's standards. 
The really good stories are the ones that have many different versions. I always like a good story, and I very much encourage people to tell me their stories. I prefer to talk to the teller of the story, just between the two of us, because in my experience anybody else will always interrupt with an opinion or their version of the "truth". I hate that! Sometimes the version that I'm hearing the latest has a better ring of truth than the twice told tale. I've learned a lot being a good listener. sometimes when I'm being sceptical inside, some piece of the tale will come around with a ring of truth that I would have never gotten if I had interrupted. Even when I know that the story that I'm hearing can't be true, they can be darn fine stories.

So, if anybody's willing, they can tell us about the best treasure that they have ever found. In lieu of that tell me your best tall tale... But remember, the truth doesn't have to count, unless you want it to.

Found in creek by an Ernie's Place commenter


28 comments:

Ernie Branscomb said...

Isn't it strange how things happen? I was just explaining how finding, or hearing, a good history story was like finding a treasure. Well I just stumbled across some great stories by the grandson of Elsie Allen, a very famous Pomo basket maker.

If you read the stories carefully, about how Indians were accepted or rejected as members of tribes, you will find why many of them would "spoof" about their ancestry.

Eric Enriquez

Johnathan Wilson said...

Ever since I could remember I remember digging through the dirt around the few different homestead sites on the family ranch. Besides finding a few bottles I never really found anything.

My dad and I also go out to Nevada every now and then to look at ghost towns, we found more bottles, square head nails, blah blah.

Despite my bad luck in finding the mother lode my great aunt on my moms side did hit the mother lode. Before Bodie Nevada was became a state park she went in there to dig out old bricks out of a chimney, while doing this she found a hidden hole with a sack of silver dollars.

For me the bottles and the memories are good enough to be called 'treasure'.

charlie two crows said...

Ernie, This story was told to me by a man that said he was a basterd child of the Russ family. The story goes like this. When the Russ family arrived to the Bear river area. They found a. Loop hole in the homestead laws. The statute said if you could row a boat around the land (Island) the entire plot could be filed on. The May flour and Mazeppa Ranch's were acquired by rowing a boat down the coast, up bear river,then in a wagon down to centerville. There not the only ones to use this technique. Welsh cape ranch was acquired the same way,so the story says.

Kym said...

Once I stuck my hand in a coat passed on from a friend and discovered a $1000. I returned it but I still felt vaguely wealthy for a day or two.

Joel Mielke said...

An old friend who used to rummage through old piles of original comic book art was once going through a bunch of old Archie pages and hit a vein of Peterson (Hot Rod) Publications comics. He found a four page story by the legendary psychedelic poster artist Rick Griffin, and an eight-page original by Terry Gilliam (Monty Python animator and film Director). $5 per page.

charlie two crows said...

In 1994 I found an unopened Rubber Soul Album in mint condition at a SLC Utah record wear house. Paid $14 then a hippy girl friend took it to texas. Sure wish I still had the hippy girl friend.

Ben said...

Ahem.... Well... Aside from the greatest treasure of my life, my Wife, needless to say, my second greatest treasure is on a CD from a place called the American Philosophical Society. It consists of thousands of pages of the handwritten notes of the anthropologist Pliny Earl Goddard. A great number of the notes were made in Southern Humboldt from 1903 to 1908. They include language notes, notes on village locations, native life and craft and many stories.
For me, finding these notes has been like finding the Grail. A thrilling and unexpected experience. I am very grateful and especially to the Grail Queen, a gal named Kitty.

Anonymous said...

Kym, I would have not offered to return the coat.

Oregon

Fred Mangels said...

The main reason I bought the house we live in now is it was old- built in 1880- and I like historical stuff, especially anything to do with the Old West.

After we'd moved in I went about looking for any lost treasures, figuring back in the day people often stashed their wealth. I took a metal detector and found a few silver dimes around the yard. I also found a whole bunch of pennies scattered in the ground below the second story window that faced the street. I'm guessing that was something some kid did back then (no real old pennies, tho).

I kept looking and, as work was being done, always kept an eye out for a secret compartment or hideaway.

I was doing something in the closet between what is now our bedroom and the living room when I noticed an odd piece of woodwork. It looked like a seat at the back of the closet. Looking closer, I found the top of it was removable. If figured, "I FOUND IT!", or so I thought.

Except it was empty. There was what seemed to be a secret compartment there maybe 2'x4'x2'. It seemed like a hideaway, anyway, but nothing was there now.

A few years later I was talking to a lady over the next door fence who, it turned out, was one of the past owners of the home. Both that house and ours had been in her family for years until they sold ours.

She said, "Did you find the stash (or was it cache?) in the dressing room?". I wasn't sure of what she meant until she described it and I told her I had. It was the secret compartment I found in the closet. She told me that's where "they" used to hide bootleg liquor during prohibition.

Not what I was hoping for but still kind of cool. Strange that they'd call that closet a "dressing room".

Phantom(s) of the Goldmine said...

For four plus years all of my ample spare time was spent at a gold mine in the Sierras finding treasure beyond measure, if rock-hounding is your thing.
Fifty years previous a miner had blasted three or four tunnels into different levels of a gold bearing quartz vein on a steep hillside. The debris was simply dumped down the hill, and it was very rich in quartz crystals with three kinds of phantom* inclusions of other minerals. It was tailing pile heaven, and many parched, dusty days were spent perched in the loose scree, slowly pecking away at a collapsing hillside for little treasures, then wrapping them carefully for transport. I found that hunters ammo vests with all the little spaces for bullets was the perfect crystal miner garb.
It was a magical thing to do. At the end of many a dirty day, a brief oblation in the cold waters of the emerald pools of the Yuba River was the perfect restorative for the drive home.

I could tell many a story about this mine, but I have gone off already. And that's just one kind of treasure this earth has shared with me.

Liked y'alls stories.



* these Phantom crystals have tiny little cubes of pyrites deposited in internal layers that parallel the external faces of the crystal. They sparkle in the sunlight.

Anonymous said...

When one of my neighbors was moving away she pulled out a drawer in here antique desk and saw that there was a little secret drawer on the back side. Her excitement crashed when she found the drawer nearly full of.... Friskies catfood. The neighborhood mice had brought them from my place fifty feet away. Ok, it's not a real "treasure story".

Ernie Branscomb said...

I know a painter that was painting a ladies pantry drawers. When he removed the drawers to stand them on end for easier painting he found a large envelope stapled to the bottom of one of them. He went and got the lady to ask if she knew anything about it. Indeed she didn't. Upon opening the envelope they found ten thousand dollars in cash.

Apparently her long dead husband had squirreled away some mad money without telling her. No, she didn’t offer the painter a reward for his find. I guess she thought that he was making enough on the paint-job and didn’t need any bonuses.

skippy said...

Ernie, my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be. I thought you said panty drawers. That was one heck of a good story.

Fred Mangels said...

Upon opening the envelope they found ten thousand dollars in cash.

Now that's the kind of treasure I was hoping for in my house, but a simple jug of bootleg liquor in the stash I found would have sufficed.

Ernie Branscomb said...

I have another friend who is a "survivalist". I know that he has guns, medicine, food and Gold hid all over the place. He hides things in way-remote places so he can get to them clandestinely if he has to. If anything happened to him it would just be lost, because he won't trust anybody to know where his stashes are.

There must be hundreds of people just like him, if not thousands. Paper money doesn't fool him. He only hides things of intrinsic value. His gold in his cans have been a better investment than his money in the bank. He laughs about that. He has his gold working for him. it keeps going up in value while paper is folding. (pun)

When asking him about what is going to happen if he dies, he just replies that he won't need the stuff anyway.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I think bullets will be worth more than gold if we have to go into a survival mode.

Oregon

beachcomber said...

Our house on K Street in Eureka was built somewhere between 1905 and 1910...can't really pinpoint exactly. In the 30's, it was a rug-cleaning business run by the Gray's (Steven & Elda?). When we bought the house and I started digging in the yard for a garden, I began finding shards of china, some as small as a dime, others closer to half-dollar size, in a variety of patterns. I also dug up a cache of bottles, some still containing what I'm sure is a cleaning solution of some sort, including an old nail polish bottle. We've been in the house 16 years and I'm STILL digging pieces of china while puttering in the dirt. I'm sure it was fill from somewhere but....why all the broken china? With so many patterns, it doesn't seem as if they were broken dishes that Elda threw at her husband or even tossed in a privy hole. Odd house, funny mystery.

Anonymous said...

Beachcomber, I figure they only threw out the broken china. Best guess.

Oregon

Anonymous said...

My cousin John and I collected several
old hand blown bottles from the old Hughes cabin above grandma Ruby's ranch. One looked like a flask.
One interesting item I did run across at this old cowboys shack in Plumas county was a full set of hand made ox shoes.
I collected a sack full of square nails from an old bridge that crossed Bear gulch Creek. The old bridge was almost directly under the last old bridge. I believe that wood bridge was built before highway 101 went through the area.
I found several double rimfire .45 case's at Hopkins Camp in the North Yolla Bolly country.
And I found some old brass 12 ga. shotgun shells in the loft of Ted Jewett's barn in Harris.
All the stuff I found that is worth a fortune is a secret that I will take to my grave.

Oregon

Ernie Branscomb said...

On the bottom of the post, I added a picture of a paper plate full of black sand and some other yellow stuff from a guy that says he finds just laying around.

Oregon said; "All the stuff I found that is worth a fortune is a secret that I will take to my grave."
The Pinkertons are still looking for you too...

skippy said...

One of the Roscoe clan, pioneering family of the Bear River and Mattole area, related believing the Kings Peak treasure exists from listening to his family lore.

He told me his great-grandfather running the Petrolia store met an Indian woman (was her name Sally Bell?) who asked how much food she could buy. She layed down a Spanish gold doubloon-- or two. When asked about these gold coins she said members of her tribe had gathered them from a cave long ago after being carried ashore from a Spanish shipwreck. They were handed down to her parents over time. She kept them long after they-- and her tribe-- passed away; now she needed food to buy with them. Mr. Roscoe said these coins may still be in the family's possession. I can't remember.

Many residents believe the old Kings Peak legend has merit; others clearly discount it. The story continues that the cave was buried in a massive landslide following an earthquake. A few folks today claim to know it's location. Stories abound of other Spanish relics from the 1700's such as glass bottles, beads, and metal objects being found in the surrounding area and held in local residents' collections today.

Chuck, from Capitol Coins in Fortuna, related a similar but more recent story. A bedraggled stranger trotted into his coin shop with a golden Spanish piece of eight, asking how much it was worth. Chuck, being very surprised, raised an eyebrow-- or two. These rare gold pieces don't come in often, if ever. Not around here. When asked where it came from, the fellow claimed 'finding it on the beach at the South Jetty.' When Chuck asked more questions, the guy skedaddled.

Could this rare 'coin of the realm' be related to the Kings Peak treasure, I asked? Chuck, a good judge of motive and character, didn't think so. "I think he stole it," he said.

Treasure stories often consist more of romantic lore, high hopes, and golden dreams than bearing any resemblance to physical reality. One story is different. In the early to mid 1980s, a teen found what he thought was a twisted brass bar lodged in shallow rocks of the Trinity River near Willow Creek. Not thinking too much of it, he kept the 4 pound bar in the back of his Volkswagen for awhile, gave it to a friend, used it as a doorstop. After many months and some deliberate encouraging by another, he had it checked out. Yes, it was gold. A gold ingot bar. Worth on either side of $14,000. Yours truly remembers the story well.

It was reported in the Times-Standard with an accompanying picture of the teen-- and of the gold bar itself. Our teacher cut out the article and posted it on the bulletin board where it remained for over a year. Some may remember it.

olmanriver said...

Thanks Skippy for that Sally Bell story! I collect stories about her like Ernie collects all the Fox Burns accounts. There is also an account of Sally having shared her memory of having played with gold coins as a child. This came from a family with a lot of history at Shelter Cove.

spyrock said...

the older my dad got, the more material he would keep and the less he would throw away. he had a junk yard off the main street in town his entire life. he said it was grandfathered in and the city couldn't do anything about it. it didn't stop them from trying to cite him so my mom had me build a fence in front of it. it got so bad other old people would bring him their junk to keep and the local scrap metal yard thought he was in competition with them. finally one day during his 97th year, I had to rescue him from the dumpster as he had fallen in head first with his feet sticking up in the air trying to retrieve some treasure i had foolishly thrown away. just before he died, he knew he was going home so he always had a fanny pack around his waist full of important papers including junk mail $10 off smog coupons. i guess he thought there might be smog in heaven by now. the moral is. one man's junk is another man's treasure.

skippy said...

Your Own Treasure Hunt?

Thank you, Ernie, olmanriver, Kym, Joel, Fred, Ben Spyrock, Beachcomber, Oregon, Jonathon, charlie two crows, Anonymous, and all of you posting your interesting discoveries. They were fascinating. May I offer an appreciation in return?

Here's an easy Internet-Treasure-Hunting Adventure to have fun with-- for you, Ernie's readers, making it down this treasure thread so far.

It's called California's Unclaimed Property Fund. You might have heard of it. Think of it as a 'Lost and Found' for money gone awry due to mistakes, moving, wrong addresses... you name it. It's billions of dollars covering nearly 20% of our California residents. Fairly good odds, better than the lottery and easier than a metal detector. The search is easy, fast, and fun. Try it, I think you'll like it.

But first, may I offer a few caveats and tips? I would kindly suggest reading this through, first, for your success and realistic expectations:

1. More often than most you won't find yourself listed; but you will find family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and businesses that you know, listed.

2. Most of the amounts are small and insignificant; but 5-10% of the listings are very worthwhile to pursue.

3. Put only a last name in the name box of the link below, if you can. Leave the rest blank. I suggest only using a last name-- and leaving the other fields blank-- to broaden the search field. If it's a common last name, try using a first initial or first name narrowing down the prospects below the 500 entries possible.

4. For additional searching fun, put in only a single letter as the last name and the town or city. For example, "A", and the town-- say, "Phillipsville,"-- and you'll bring up everyone listed in the locale starting with an A. You can roll through the entire alphabet seeing who you might know.

5. If you come across a 'hit', click on the blue property ID numbers to the right of the listing. If the amount is worthwhile, follow the instructions for claiming it.

6. If you come across someone you know and like-- and the amount is worthwhile to pursue-- please let them know. It's a courtesy, kindness, and a Santa Claus sort of thing. They don't know it exists; that's why their listing made it into the State's Lost and Found in the first place. They'll be appreciative.

Good. Thank you for your patience. Now you're ready. Here's your Unclaimed Property link to begin with:

http://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP/Default.aspx

Don't forget to search business names, too. Yours truly found $6k for his wife's place; $7k for the vet; more for others. Some were under different spellings, addresses, name variations, or other errors. Other were there as plain as day.

Oh, and while Mr. Schwarzenegger only has his listing for a mere 15 cents... he may want to claim it and removing his personal address from view.

...skippy has helped 150 folks find $350,000 so far. They've been very surprised, pleased, and satisfied overall.

You, your friends, and Ernie's readers are next. Give this treasure hunt a try. It's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. You might find hours of enjoyment searching. Feel free to pass this on to others-- and send them to Ernie's Place here for the link, won't you? Let us know if this pans out for you like the gold in Ernie's photograph.

--Happy hunting, good luck, and wishing you more adventure, fun, and discovery for you and yours this Humboldt summer.

skippy

skippy said...

This HTML link here will be quicker for you to use:

California's Unclaimed Property: the Lost and Found site

...thank you for your patience and happy trails to you.

Anonymous said...

Skippy said "Happy Trails to you".
According the Ernie that has to be close to buttermilk.

Oregon

skippy said...

Your Own Treasure Hunt?

Thank you, Ernie, olmanriver, Kym, Joel, Fred, Ben, Spyrock, Beachcomber, Oregon, Jonathon, charlie two crows, Anonymous, and all of you posting interesting discoveries. They were fascinating. May I offer an appreciation in return? Here's an easy Internet-Treasure-Hunting Adventure to have fun with-- for you, Ernie's readers, making it down this treasure thread so far.

It's called California's Unclaimed Property Fund. You might have heard of it. Think of it as a 'Lost and Found' for money gone awry due to mistakes, moving, wrong addresses... you name it. It's billions of dollars covering nearly 20% of our California residents. Fairly good odds, better than the lottery and easier than a metal detector. Searching is easy, fast, and fun. Try it, I think you'll like it.

But first, may I offer a few caveats and tips? I would kindly suggest reading this through, first, for your success and for some realistic expectations:

1. More often than most you won't find yourself listed; but you will find family, friends, neighbors, businesses, and acquaintances that you know listed.

2. Most of the amounts are small and insignificant; but 5-10% of them are very worthwhile for to pursue.

3. Put only a last name in the name box of the link, below, if you can. Leave the rest blank. I suggest only using a last name-- and leaving the other fields blank-- to broaden the search field. If it's a common last name try using a first initial, or a first name, and narrowing down the prospects below the 500 entries possible.

4. For additional searching fun, put in only a single letter as the last name, and the city. For example, "A", and the city-- say, "Phillipsville"-- and you'll bring up everyone listed in the locale starting with A; you can roll through the alphabet seeing who you might know.

5. If you come across a 'hit', click on the blue property ID numbers to the right of the listing. If the amount is worthwhile to claim, follow the instructions.

6. If you come across someone you know and like-- and the amount is worthwhile to pursue-- please let them know. It's a courtesy, a kindness, and a Santa Claus sort of thing. They usually don't know it exists; that's why their listings made it to the State's Lost and Found in the first place. If you don't let them know, chances are no one will. They'll usually be appreciative and thankful.

Good. You're set to go. Thank you for your patience so far. Here's the State's Unclaimed Property link to begin your search:

California State Controller's Site for Unclaimed Property

Don't forget to search business names, too. Yours truly found $6k for his wife's place; $7k for the vet; more for others. Some under different spellings, addresses, name variations or other errors. Others, in plain view. Oh, and while Mr. Schwarzenegger only has a listing for 15 cents... he may want to claim it to remove his personal address from view.

...skippy has helped 150 folks find $350,000 so far. They've been very surprised, pleased, and satisfied overall. There are far too many listings for yours truly to possibly even begin to locate. Maybe you can help?

You, your friends, and Ernie's readers are next. Give it a try. It's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. You might find hours of enjoyment searching. Feel free to pass this on to others-- and send them to Ernie's Place here for the link, won't you? Let us know if this pans out for you-- like the gold in Ernie's photograph.

--Happy hunting, good luck, and wishing you more adventure and fun for you and yours this Humboldt summer.

skippy

spyrock said...

Lucy’s Story, in Her Own Words
My grandpa, before white people came, had a dream. He was so old he was all doubled up. Knees to chin, and eyes like indigo. Grown son carry him in great basket on his back, every place.

My grandpa say: “White Rabbit” – he mean white people – “gonta devour our grass, our seed, our living. We won’t have nothing more, this world. Big elk with straight horn come when white man bring it.” I think he meant cattle. “Nother animal, bigger than deer, but round feet, got hair on neck.” This one, horse, I guess.
My aunt say: “Oh father, you out of your head, don’t say that way.”

He say: “Now daughter, I not crazy. You young people gonta see this.”

People come long way, listen to him dream. He dream, then say this way, every morning.

They leave li’l children play by him. He watch good. Have big stick, wavbe round, scare snake away. He had good teeth. All old people had good teeth.

One time they travel, they come to big pile of brush. My grandpa stop and look at it. He say: “This, good wood. When I die, burn my body to ashes on top of ground. Here gonta be big canoe, run around, carry white people’s things. Those White Rabbit got lotsa everything.”

How canoe gonta run around on dry ground all round here?” We ask him.

“Don’t know.” he say, “just run that way.” He mean wagon, I guess.

I never grow much. They call me “Li’l Shorty”, T’Tcet’Tsa, but I know pretty near everything that time. My grandpa put his head on my head, smooth my hair and hold his hand there.

“Long time you gonta live, my child,” he say. “You live long time in this world.”

Well, I live long enough, I guess. ‘Bout ninety-five next summer, if I living til then.

My grandpa never live to see white people, just dreaming every night ’bout them. People come long way, listen to him dream.

My grandpa move down by big spring. One day he couldn’t get up. He say: “I gonta leave you today. I used to be a good hunter. Kill bear, elk, deer, feed my children. Can’t feed my children no more. Like old root, just ready for growing now.” Pretty soon dead. Speak no more.

All seem like a dream to me. Long, long ago. Night time, he die and in morning, all tied up in deerskin with grass rope. Sit up knees to chin. They tie him up too soon. He roll over and come back. Scare everybody. He ask for water and ask for backstrap to basket always carry him in. He ask for little basket he always use for cup. He drink lots.

“I starve for water and want my strap,” he say, “that’s why I come back.

“Then he die. Our people dig big hole, put stick across. Put brush. Put body in. Put more brush. Burn all to ashes. They put basket and strap, too, with him, when he go where people go at last.