The palpable sense of mystery in the desert air breeds fables, chiefly of lost treasure. ... It is a question whether it is not better to be bitten by the little horned snake of the desert that goes sidewise and strikes without coiling, than by the tradition of a lost mine.
Mary Hunter Austin, Marjorie Pryse (1987). “Stories from the Country of Lost Borders”, p.16, Rutgers University Press
