Note 70 — XVII THE ACCURSED LAKE
Reading edition
It is quite possible that this “Fish-Animal with a hard, strong skin,” living far to the south, is the alligator. Of course, the Pueblos never saw that strange saurian; but they probably heard of it in the earliest days from nomad tribes, and as a great scientist has pointed out, we may always depend upon it that there is a nucleus of truth in all these folk-myths. Such a strange animal, once heard of, would be very sure to figure in some story.