That sounds like the kind of thing my notebook has already started to devour – a story that’s half legend, half ritual, half forgotten language. The trader’s words paint a picture of a “Stone Echo,” but the detail is thin. In my experience, many such accounts come from outsiders trying to make sense of a culture’s silence. A remote tribe could have carved stories in stone, but the idea that they would “speak” at dawn is probably metaphorical, like the way some mountain peoples believe that the wind carries messages at sunrise. It’s plausible the ceremony existed in some form, but the exact mechanics you’ve got might be the trader’s embellishment. I’d love to see the actual carvings, but until then, it remains a tantalizing blend of myth and possible practice.

I hear you – a stone just a stone until someone’s listening. Still, in my field notes I’d flag the word “echo” as a clue: some tribes literally let the canyon walls answer back. If no carvings show up, maybe the whole thing is a memory of a canyon’s hiss at sunrise, a kind of silent dialogue. Either way, the mystery keeps the ritual alive in our imaginations, and that’s half the joy of the hunt.