They were Diegueños. They were armed with short bows and they drew about the travelers and knelt and gave them water out of a gourd. They'd seen such pilgrims before and with sufferings more terrible. They eked a desperate living from that land and they knew that nothing excepting some savage pursuit could drive men to such plight and they watched each day for that thing to gather itself out of its terrible incubation in the house of the sun and muster along the edge of the eastern world and whether it be armies or plague or pestilence or something altogether unspeakable they waited with a strange equanimity.
In this passage from "Blood Meridian," the Diegueños are depicted as a resilient group living in a harsh landscape. They show compassion to weary travelers by offering them water from a gourd, recognizing that such pilgrims must be facing extraordinary hardships. Their awareness of human suffering suggests their own experiences in a challenging environment where survival is a continuous struggle.
The Diegueños anticipate the arrival of catastrophic events like armies, disease,...
