Chapter VII: The Ancient Pueblos and Cliff-Dwellers (2)

Here the labors of Mr. Jackson’s party ended for the year 1874, but the work was again resumed in July of the following year with even richer results. Two parties were put in the field by the Government Surveying Corps, one headed by Mr. Jackson and the other by Mr. W. H. Holmes, geologists of the San Juan division of the survey for 1875. I am indebted to Prof. Hayden, United States geologist-in-charge, for the memoirs prepared by these gentlemen, with the accompanying illustrations.[478] The reader has already become acquainted with the general character of the remains of the cliff-dwellers, and it will not be necessary to repeat the descriptions of buildings or ruins similar to those already described in these pages. We shall therefore cite only the more remarkable ruins discovered by the above-named explorers. Mr. Jackson was accompanied on his second tour, by Mr. E. A. Barber, naturalist and correspondent of the _New York Herald_, with Harry Lee as guide and interpreter. The party resumed their labors in the arid, waterless region around the Hovenweep, and in fact the same barren characteristics are peculiar to the whole basin of the San Juan. The whole region is rapidly drying up and fast becoming a desert. Down the cañon from the pueblo of the Hovenweep, broken towers and rock shelters were passed in rapid succession. Seven miles distant from their starting-point, they found on the western side of the valley three elevated benches ranging one above another in the face of a jutting promontory, each of which contained houses (see illustration, page 307). The first bench was reached by climbing over a sloping mass of débris to a height of one hundred feet from the base of the cliff, while the upper benches were only accessible by means of a niche stairway similar to the one shown in the figure.

Ruins and masses of charcoal were found at the base of the rock. Numerous adobe foundations, probably of wooden buildings, always circular in form and ranging from fifteen to twenty-five feet in diameter, were met with a short distance down the cañon. Near the junction of the Hovenweep and McElmo cañons an inscription covers sixty feet of the face of a large rock. The figures are those of men, goats, lizards, and hieroglyphic signs. As the party proceeded in the cañon they met rock shelters and enclosures, the latter on the top of the mesa in which slabs of stone three by five feet in size were set on end. Mr. Jackson reports that a party connected with the survey corps discovered near the head of the Hovenweep, on a ledge three hundred feet long by fifty feet wide, one-third of the distance from the top of the cañon, some forty houses crowded along the shelf all in a row. On the San Juan west of the mouth of the Montezuma Cañon, upon a bench fifty feet high, Mr. Jackson found a quadrangular structure of peculiar design, as shown in the cut on page 308.

“We see that it is arranged very nearly at right angles to the river, its greatest depth on the left, where it runs back one hundred and twenty feet; the front sweeps back in a diagonal line, so that the right-hand side is only thirty-two feet in depth. The back wall is one hundred and fifty-eight feet long, and at right angles to the two sides. In the centre of the building, looking out upon the river, is an open space seventy-five feet wide, and averaging forty feet in depth, its depressed centre divided nearly equally by a ridge running through it at right angles to the river. We judged it to have been an open court, because there was not the least vestige of a wall in front, or on the ridge through the centre, while upon the other three sides they were perfectly distinct; although it is difficult to explain why it should have been hollowed out in the manner shown in the plan. Back of this court is a series of seven apartments of equal size, springing in a perfect arch from the heavy wall facing the court, leaving a semicircular space in the centre, forty-five feet across its greatest diameter. Each one is fifteen feet in length, and the same in width across its centre, the walls somewhat irregular in thickness, but averaging twenty inches, compact, and well laid. On the left are three rooms extending across the whole width of the building, each averaging forty-five by forty feet square; on the right only one was discernible. Back of the circle, our impression was that the walls diverged in the manner shown in the plan, although there is so much confusion resulting from the heaping up of the débris that much must be left to conjecture. There is also a slight shadow of doubt in regard to the wall facing the river on the right; it is barely possible that it extended somewhat farther out, although there is here a steep inclination to the brink of the bluff, and that it has become entirely obliterated by its foundations giving way. The remains of the wall above, however, led us to believe that it had been originally built in the way it is shown in the plan. Extreme massiveness is indicated throughout the whole structure by the amount of débris about the line of the walls, forming long rounded mounds four to five feet high, with the stone-work cropping out, twenty to twenty-four inches in thickness.”

In the face of the bluff immediately under this ruin and upon a recessed bench three hundred feet long was a row of little rock-shelters, with just enough room on the ledge in front of them to admit of a promenade the entire length of the shelf. All down the valley of the San Juan, rock shelters and dwellings similar to the group shown in the cut, were met with.

In this instance the houses were situated sixty feet above the trail without any visible means of access. If ladders were used, they were made of timber taller than any of the trees now growing in the valley. Twelve miles below the Montezuma the party discovered really one of the most picturesque and wonderful of all the cliff-dwellings. On the opposite side of the river, where the bluff was two hundred feet high, near the top of the cliff, they observed a deeply receding cave with an opening nearly circular “two hundred feet in diameter, divided equally between the two kinds of rocks, reaching, within a few feet, the top of the bluff above and the level of the valley below. It runs back in a semicircular sweep to a depth of one hundred feet; the top is a perfect half dome, and the lower half only less so from the accumulation of débris and the thick brushy foliage, the cool dampness of its shadowed interior, where the sun never touches, favoring a luxuriant growth. A stratum of harder rock across the central line of the cave has left a bench running around its entire half circle, upon which is built the row of buildings which caught our attention half a mile away.”

HORIZONTAL SECTION
of the
GREAT ECHO CAVE
on the
RIO SAN JUAN]

“It will be seen that the houses occupy the left-hand or eastern half of the cave, for the reason, probably, that the ledge was wider on that side, and the wall back of it receded in such a manner as to give considerable additional room for the second floor, or for the upper part of the one-story rooms. It is about fifty feet from the outer edge in to the first building, a small structure sixteen feet long, three feet wide at the outer end, and four at the opposite end; the walls, standing only four feet on the highest remaining corner, were nearly all tumbled in. Then came an open space eleven feet wide and nine deep, that served probably as a sort of workshop. Four holes were drilled into the smooth rock floor, about six feet equidistantly apart, each from six to ten inches deep and five in diameter, as perfectly round as though drilled by machinery. We can reasonably assume that these people were familiar with the art of weaving, and that it was here they worked at the loom, the drilled holes supporting its posts. At _b_, in this open space, are a number of grooves worn into the rock in various places, caused by the artificers of the little town in shaping and polishing their stone implements. The main building comes next, occupying the widest portion of the ledge, which gives an average width of ten feet inside; it is forty-eight feet long outside, and twelve high, divided inside into three rooms, the first two thirteen and a half feet each in length, and the third sixteen feet, divided into two stories, the lower and upper five feet in height. The joist holes did not penetrate through the walls, being inserted about six inches, half the thickness. The beams rested upon the sloping back-wall, which receded far enough to make the upper rooms about square. Window-like apertures afforded communication between each room, all through the second story, excepting that which opened out to the back of the cave. There was also one window in each lower room, about twelve inches square, looking out toward the open country, and in the upper rooms several small apertures not more than three inches wide were pierced through the wall, hardly more than peep-holes. The walls of the large building continued back in an unbroken line one hundred and thirty feet farther, with an average height of eight feet, and divided into eleven apartments, with communicating apertures through all. The first room was nine and a half feet wide, the others dwindling down gradually to only four feet in width at the other extremity. The rooms were of unequal length, the following being their inside measurements, commencing from the outer end, viz.: 12½, 9½, 8, 7½, 9, 10, 8, 7, 7, 8, 31 feet; the ledge then runs along, gradually narrowing, fifty feet farther, where another wall occurs across it, after which it soon merges into the smooth wall of the cave. The first of these rooms had an aperture leading outward large enough to crawl through; the wall around it had been broken away so that its exact size could not be determined; all the others, of which there were about two to each room, were mere peep-holes, about three inches in diameter, and generally pierced through the wall at a downward angle.” The apartments were well plastered, and in one or two places even the delicate lines on the thumbs and fingers of the plasterers had been plainly retained. At one point an entire hand had left its impress in the cement.

All these marks indicated that the hands of these people were much smaller than those of the explorers, and it is supposed that they were those of women and children. A circular hollow place, all begrimed and blackened by smoke, seemed to indicate the locality of a common kitchen. The surroundings of this little community of that ancient people indicated that they were well-to-do, and were probably the lords of the neighboring country. From their home in this elevated gallery, under nature’s arching roof of rock, they were in a position to give defiance to their enemies and enjoy the pursuit of their pastoral occupations. This unique residence was named by the explorers the Casa del Eco. Over the plateau westward, the remains of this ancient people were numerous and of the same general character as already described. The party after reaching the Cañon of the Chelly (the stream flowing, as already stated, into the San Juan from the south) found several circular caves averaging about one hundred feet in diameter and containing the ruins of old houses.

About five miles southward from the San Juan, and in a valley of the Chelly, a cave-village of considerable extent was discovered, perched upon a recessed bench about seventy feet above the valley, and overhung by a solid wall of massive sandstone, extending up over two hundred feet farther. Mr. Jackson describes it in detail as follows: “The left-hand side of the bench supporting the buildings sweeps back in a sharp curve about eighty feet under the bluff, and then gradually comes to the front again until, on the extreme right hand, the buildings are built upon a mass of débris, but partially protected overhead. The total length over the solidly built portion of the town is five hundred and forty-five feet, with a greater width in no place of more than forty feet. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy-five rooms upon the ground-plan, with some uncertainty existing as to many of the subdivisions on the right; but in the cave-built portion every apartment was distinctly marked. Midway in the town is a circular room of heavily and solidly built masonry, that was probably meant for an estufa or council-hall; that is, if we can reasonably assume any similarity in the methods of building or worship to those of the pueblos of New Mexico. Starting from this estufa is a narrow passage running back of the line of houses on the left to a two-story group, where it ends abruptly, further access being had through the back row of rooms, or over the roofs of the lower front row, probably the latter, for it is likely that these roofs served as a platform from which to enter the rooms back of it. At the extreme end a still higher ledge occurs, with the overhanging wall coming down close over it, its outer edge enclosed by a wall, and a little store-room in its farther corner; it was reserved, probably, as an out-door working-room. All the buildings of this half are of one story, with the exception of one group, the residence probably of the chief or of some other important family in the community. The rooms just back of it are the store-rooms of the family, where the corn and squashes were put away for the winter’s consumption. Near these store-rooms, there are two half-round enclosures of stone-work, that are very likely the remains of small reservoirs or springs. The rock back of them is dug out beneath, and had, even in the dry season, when we were there, a damp appearance, as though water was not far removed, and might easily be coaxed to the surface. The front line of wall of this left side of the town is built upon a steep angle of smooth rock, with the interior of the apartments filled up with earth so as to make their floors level, bringing them a little below the passage-way. In two or three instances the front wall has given way, precipitating all but the back wall to the bottom of the cliffs. Holes have been drilled into the rock in a few places beneath the walls, evidently to assist in retaining them in their places. The whole front of this portion of the town is without an aperture, save very small windows, and is perfectly inaccessible, both from the solidity of the wall and the precipitous nature of the foundation-rock beneath it. Admittance was probably gained from near the circular building in the centre, by ladders or any other well-guarded approach over the rocks.”

Two miles down the Cañon of the Chelly, below the mouth of the fertile Cañon Bonito Chiquito, the house figured on page 306 was found with its niched stairway cut in the face of the rock. The house is two-storied, twenty feet in height, the lower story of which is eighteen by ten feet square, divided into two rooms. A natural reservoir of water was found in the rock only twenty rods distant. Eight miles up the Chelly they came to the cave Pueblo, seen by Simpson and mentioned on page 293. From this point it was but forty miles to the inhabited Moquis town Tegua. The explorers after visiting that interesting place returned northward again to the San Juan, reaching Epsom Creek, a tributary of the same from the north, a short distance from the mouth of the Chelly Cañon. Among a number of remains found in the Cañon of Epsom Creek, one in particular is of interest; this was the remnant of a square tower, of most perfect masonry, built upon a point of rock entirely inaccessible to the explorers.

A few miles farther up the Epsom Valley, the ruins of quite a town were discovered. “It lay upon both sides of a small, dry ravine, some twenty or thirty rods back from the bed of the creek, and consisted of a main rectangular mass sixty by one hundred feet, occupying quite an elevation, dominating all the others. Just below it and close upon the edge of the ravine, was a round tower, twenty-five feet in diameter; and seventy-five below that, and also close to the ravine, was a square building, twenty-feet across, nearly obscured by a thicket of piñon-trees, growing about it. On the opposite bank were two small round towers, each fifteen feet in diameter, with two oblong structures between, twelve by fifteen feet square; at right angles to these four, which were arranged in a straight line, another square building occurred, the same size as the one just opposite on the other bank.” The surroundings of this ancient village are described as truly picturesque and the valley fertile, contrasting considerably with the Chelly Cañon. The exploring party followed the Epsom to a point thirty miles above the San Juan, and in the head cañons between it and the Montezuma found themselves in the midst of ruins which mark the former presence of a dense population. No ruins were found near the Sierra Abajo nor in the great basin lying between it and the Sierra La Sal. In the deep cañon of the Montezuma (fifteen hundred feet deep), cliff-dwellings and other remains were found in great numbers. Cave-shelters, with the orifice of the oval and circular crevices in the rocks walled up with neat masonry and accessible by means of niche-steps for the hands and feet, leading up the perpendicular cliff to the little nest-like houses above, were especially numerous. In one of these a skeleton was found, but examination proved it to be that of a Navajo, and quite certainly not that of one of the ancient residents. At different points midway down the cañon, narrow promontories jut out into the valley a hundred yards or more, ranging from twenty to one hundred feet in height. Within a distance of sixteen miles, eighteen of these were observed, covered with ruins of massive stone-built structures. They were rectangular in form, ranging from one hundred by two hundred feet, down to thirty by forty feet in size. We cannot devote further attention to the vast number of ruins found by Mr. Jackson and party in the Montezuma Valley, except to note the curious little house shown in the cut.

Among a colony of these cave-dwellings, occurring at the first bend of the West Montezuma, a dozen miles above its junction with the east fork, this one commands attention as much for the neatness and perfection of its masonry as for the snug little cave in which its architect lodged it. A block of sandstone resting on the edge of the mesa bench fifty feet above the valley, had a deep oval hole worn in it by the winds and sands. This was occupied by the little house, ten feet long, six feet high and five feet deep; a space, however, was reserved at one end to serve as a platform from which to enter.

In addition to the explorations of Mr. Jackson and party, Mr. W. H. Holmes of the Geological and Geographical Survey, was also assigned the duty of examining ancient remains in the valley of the Upper San Juan, during the summer of 1875.[479] Mr. Holmes and party examined an area of nearly six thousand square miles, chiefly in Colorado on the San Juan and its tributaries. Most of the ruins met with were of the same general character and description as those examined by Mr. Jackson, and to repeat in detail the majority of descriptions contained in Mr. Holmes’ memoir, would be to weary the reader with repetitions without affording additional advantage. However, a few remarkable ruins described by Mr. Holmes command our attention. The first of these which may be pronounced unique in this section of the country, and quite unlike anything met with thus far in the exploration, is situated on the Rio La Plata, about twenty-five miles above its junction with the San Juan. The remains of an extensive village with structures of various forms, are scattered upon a terrace some twenty feet above the river-bed. The distribution of the works viewed in connection with plans upon which they were constructed are suggestive of the remains of the mound-builders of the Ohio valley. The forms are chiefly rectangular and circular, one or two seem to have been elliptical while a number have consisted of irregular groups of apartments. All now lie in ruins with their outlines marked by ridges of débris composed of earth, water-worn pebbles, and small fragments of sandstone. The walls of the main structure are still prominently defined, while those of a circular enclosure, used probably as an estufa, are standing to the height of four feet. Three hundred feet directly north of this enclosure is a truncated rectangular mound nine feet high, measuring fifty by eighty feet. In one of the angles of the east end are the remains of what may have been a tower rising above the platform of the mound. One hundred feet north of this mound is a rectangular enclosure measuring sixty by one hundred feet. Its wall ranges from four to six feet in height. The ruins of a wall extending between the mound and the enclosure, indicate that they were once connected. A system of works joined these to a range of low hills, lying to the north. Southward from the large central circle are earthworks and ruins covering an area of fifteen thousand square feet. A large number of small circles and mounds occupy the southern extremity of the terrace. It is impossible to account for the sudden change in the plan of works so contiguous to those of a well-marked pueblo origin. On the San Juan River, thirty-five miles below the mouth of the La Plata and ten miles above the Mancos, Mr. Holmes observed an interesting combination of cave-shelters and towers united in a system for giving signals upon the approach of the enemy. In the face of a vertical bluff thirty-five feet high and about half way from the trail below, caves had been quarried or weathered in considerable numbers in the shales which constitute one of the strata in the bluff. A hard platform of rock formed the floor, and afforded sufficient protection for a narrow platform in front of these openings. Immediately above these caves upon the summit of the bluffs, a system of ruined circular towers, enclosed by semicircular walls with the open side of the semicircle facing the precipice, was observed. The caves were accessible from the valley below only by means of ladders, and the towers in turn only by ladders from the caves through the open side of their semicircular enclosures. The walls of these enclosures presented no openings to the plateau above, and it is inferred that the towers which they enclosed served as outlooks from which the sentinel could signal the people who were engaged in tilling the valley below to flee to their cave-shelters at the approach of the enemy, and when too closely pressed by an enemy upon the plateau the sentinel himself could make his retreat by means of his ladder to the caves beneath.

The most remarkable cliff-dwellings, discovered by Mr. Holmes, are shown in the cut.

These extraordinary fortresses, lodged in caves eight hundred feet above the level of the valley, are situated in the cañon of the Mancos, a few miles from its mouth. The first five hundred feet of the ascent from the level of the stream, is over a rough cliff-broken slope, the remainder of massive sandstone, full of niches and caves. The upper house is situated in a deep cavern with overhanging roof about one hundred feet from the cliff’s top. The front wall of the house is built upon the very edge of the giddy precipice. The larger house is lodged in a niche or cave thirty feet below. The lower house was easily accessible. The wall was built flush with the precipice and remained standing to a height of fourteen feet at the highest point, though other portions had crumbled away considerably. The house occupied the entire floor of the niche, which measures sixty feet long by fifteen feet wide. Mr. Holmes described these structures as follows; of the first he says:

“The arrangement of the apartments is quite complicated and curious, and will be more readily understood by a reference to the ground-plan (figure 1). The precipice line or front edge of the niche-floor, extends from _a_ to _b_. From this the broken cliffs and slopes reach down to the trail and river, as shown in the accompanying profile (figure 3). The line _b c d_ represents the deepest part of the recess, against which the walls are built. To the right of _b_, the shelf ceases, and the vertical face of rock is unbroken. At the left, beyond _a_, the edge is not so abrupt, and the cliffs below are so broken that one can ascend with ease. Above, the roof comes forward and curves upward, as seen in the profile.

“The most striking feature of this structure is the _round-room_, which occurs about the middle of the ruin and inside of a large rectangular apartment. * * * Its walls are not high and not entirely regular, and the inside is curiously fashioned with offsets and box-like projections. It is plastered smoothly, and bears considerable evidence of having been used, although I observed no traces of fire. The entrance to this chamber is rather extraordinary, and further attests the peculiar importance attached to it by the builders, and their evident desire to secure it from all possibility of intrusion. A walled and covered passage-way, _f_, _f_, of solid masonry, ten feet of which is still intact, leads from an outer chamber through the small intervening apartments into the circular one. It is possible that this originally extended to the outer wall, and was entered from the outside. If so, the person desiring to visit the estufa would have to enter an aperture about twenty-two inches high by thirty wide, and crawl, in the most abject manner possible, through a tube-like passage-way nearly twenty-feet in length. My first impression was that this peculiarly-constructed doorway was a precaution against enemies, and that it was probably the only means of entrance to the interior of the house; but I am now inclined to think this hardly probable, and conclude that it was rather designed to render a sacred chamber as free as possible from profane intrusion. The apartments _l_, _k_, _m_, _n_, do not require any especial description, as they are quite plain and almost empty. The partition walls have never been built up to the ceiling of the niche, and the inmates, in passing from one apartment to another, have climbed over. The row of apertures indicated in the main front wall are about five feet from the floor, and were doubtless entered for the insertion of beams, although there is no evidence that a second floor has at any time existed. In that part of the ruin about the covered passage-way, the walls are complicated, and the plan can hardly be made out, while the curved wall enclosing the apartment _e_ is totally overthrown. * * * * The rock-face between this ruin and the one above is smooth and vertical, but by passing along the ledge a few yards to the left a sloping face was found, up which a stairway of small niches had been cut; by means of these, an active person, unincumbered, could ascend with safety. On reaching the top, one finds himself in the very doorway of the upper house (_a_, figure 2) without standing-room outside of the wall, and one can imagine that an enemy would stand but little chance of reaching and entering such a fortress if defended, even by women and children alone. The position of this ruin is one of unparalleled security, both from enemies and from the elements. The almost vertical cliff descends abruptly from the front wall, and the immense arched roof of solid stone projects forward fifteen or twenty feet beyond the house (see section, figure 3). At the right the ledge ceases, and at the left stops short against a massive vertical wall. The niche-stairway affords the only possible means of approach.

“The house occupies the entire floor of the niche, which is about one hundred and twenty feet long by ten in depth at the deepest part. The front wall to the right and left of the doorway is quite low, portions having doubtless fallen off. The higher wall _f g_ is about thirty feet long, and from ten to twelve feet high, while a very low rude wall extends along the more inaccessible part of the ledge, and terminates at the extreme right in a small enclosure, as seen in the plan at _c_.

“In the first apartment entered, there were evidences of fire, the walls and ceiling being blackened with smoke. In the second, a member of the party, by digging in the rubbish, obtained a quantity of beans, and in the third a number of grains of corn; hence the names given. There are two small windows in the front wall, and doorways communicate between rooms separated by high partitions.

“The walls of these houses are built in the usual manner, and average about a foot in thickness.

“The upper house seems to be in a rather unfinished state, looking as if stone and mortar had run short. And when one considers that these materials must have been brought from far below by means of ropes, or carried in small quantities up the dangerous stairway, the only wonder is that it was ever brought to its present degree of finish.”

The ruins of a triple-walled tower with fourteen sectional apartments between the outer and second walls were examined near the McElmo. One of these sectional apartments was still standing to the height of twelve feet.

We have already referred to the group of ruins at Aztec Springs near the divide between the McElmo and the lower Mancos tributaries. “These ruins,” says Mr. Holmes, “form the most imposing pile of masonry yet found in Colorado. The whole group covers an area of about four hundred and eighty thousand square feet, and has an average depth of from three to four feet.” The accompanying plan, with the measurements and dimensions indicated upon it, precludes the necessity of a detailed description.

The walls are twenty-six inches thick, and in some cases are built double. The whole resembles in plan one of the ruined pueblos of the Chaco, with the addition that it was designed to be an impregnable fortress.

The plate from Mr. Jackson’s memoir shows specimens of pottery collected during his explorations among the cliff-dwellings. The pieces _a_ and _b_ are of modern make, and were obtained among the Moquis of Tegua. The ware and finish of both these vessels are far inferior as compared with the ancient fragments.

We have quoted on a previous page Mr. Ingersoll’s rendering of the romantic legend which tells in few words the sad history of the ancient architects of these aërial abodes. We have observed that, according to this account, the remnant of this people who escaped the destruction visited upon the cliff-dwellers by the warlike Utes fled to the South—to the deserts of Arizona—and built the present Moqui towns. We have already stated that Mr. Jackson’s party found it necessary to travel forty miles due southward from the ruins of the Chaco Cañon in order to reach Tegua, the nearest of the Moqui settlements.

It may be a matter of some interest to the reader, after having studied the cliff architecture, to be introduced into one of the habitations now occupied by the descendants of that remarkable people. Lieutenant Ives, who visited the Moqui towns in 1858, has furnished an interesting account of their general characteristics, from which we take condensed extracts: “As the sun went down,” says Lieutenant Ives, “and the confused glare and mirage disappeared, I discovered with the spy-glass two of the Moqui towns eight or ten miles distant, upon the edge of a high bluff overhanging the opposite side of the valley. They were built close to the edge of the precipice. The outlines of the closely-packed structures looked in the distance like the towers and battlements of a castle, and their commanding position enhanced the picturesque effect.” “The face of the bluff, on the summit of which the town was perched, was cut up and irregular. We were led through a passage that wound among some low hillocks of sand and rock that extended half-way to the top. It did not seem possible, while ascending through the sand-hills, that a spring could be found in such a dry-looking place; but presently a crowd was seen collecting upon a mound before a small plateau, in the centre of which was a circular reservoir fifty feet in diameter, lined with masonry and filled with pure cold water. The basin was fed by a pipe connecting with some source of supply upon the summit of the mesa. Continuing to ascend, we came to another reservoir, smaller, but of more elaborate construction and finish. From this the guide said they got their drinking water, the other reservoir being intended for animals. Between the two the face of the bluff had been ingeniously converted into terraces. These were faced with neat masonry, and contained gardens, each surrounded with a raised edge so as to retain water upon the surface. Pipes from the reservoir permitted them at any time to be irrigated. Peach trees were growing upon the terraces and in the hollow below. A long flight of stone steps with sharp turns that could be easily defended was built into the face of the precipice, and led from the upper reservoir to the foot of the town. The scene, rendered animated by the throngs of Indians in their gayly-colored dresses, was one of the most remarkable I had ever witnessed.” “Without giving us time to admire the scene, the Indians led us to a ladder planted against the centre of the front face of the pueblo. The town is nearly square and surrounded by a stone wall fifteen feet high, the top of which forms a landing extending around the whole. Flights of stone steps led from the first to a second landing, upon which the doors of the houses open. Mounting the stairway opposite to the ladder, the chief crossed to the nearest door and ushered us into a low apartment, from which two or three others opened towards the interior of the dwelling.” “The room was fifteen feet by ten; the walls were made of adobes; the partitions of substantial beams, the floor laid with clay. In one corner were a fireplace and a chimney. Everything was clean and tidy. Skins, bows and arrows, quivers, antlers, blankets, articles of clothing and ornament, were hanging from the walls or arranged upon shelves. Vases, flat dishes, and gourds filled with meal or water, were standing along on one side of the room. At the other end was a trough divided into compartments, in each of which was a sloping stone slab two or three feet square, for grinding corn upon. In a recess of an inner room was piled a goodly store of corn in the ear. I noticed, among other things, a reed musical instrument with a bell-shaped end like a clarionet and a pair of painted drum-sticks tipped with gaudy feathers.”

“We learned that there were seven towns; that the name of that which we were visiting was Mooshahneh. A second smaller town was half a mile distant; two miles distant was a third. * * * Five or six miles to the north-east a bluff was pointed out as the location of three others; and we were informed that the last of the seven, Oraybe, was still further distant on the trail towards the great river.”

(From a photo taken by the U. S. exploring party in 1875.)]

“Each pueblo is built around a rectangular court, in which we suppose are the springs that furnish the supply to the reservoirs. The exterior walls, which are of stone, have no openings, and would have to be scaled or battered down before access could be gained to the interior. The successive stories are set back one behind the other. The lower ones are reached through trap-doors from the first landing. The houses are three rooms deep, and open upon the interior court. The arrangement is as strong and compact as well could be devised, but as the court is common and the landings are separated by no partitions, it involves a certain community of residence.”

In describing the gardens of Oraybe, distant eight or nine miles, he remarks:

“At the foot [of the bluff] was a reservoir and a broad road
winding up the steep ascent. On either side the bluffs were cut
into terraces, and laid out into gardens similar to those seen at
Mooshahneh, and like them irrigated from an upper reservoir. The
whole reflected great credit upon Moqui ingenuity and skill in the
department of engineering. The walls of the terraces and reservoirs
were of partly-dressed stone, well and strongly built, and the
irrigating pipes conveniently arranged. The little gardens were
neatly laid out. * * * The walls of the terraces and the gardens
themselves are kept in good order and preservation. The stone and
earth for construction and repairs they carry in blankets upon
their shoulders from the valley below.”[480]

Mr. Bancroft has furnished the reader descriptions of several of the New Mexican group of pueblos, which he has extracted from the reports of various travelers. We do not consider it necessary to repeat accounts so generally accessible.[481] The New Mexican group, situated on the Rio Grande del Norte and its tributaries, is the most numerous in inhabited pueblos, but as they differ little if at all from those of the Moquis, further treatment of them is unnecessary. The pueblos which are and have been inhabited during the nineteenth century number about twenty, some of which are well known to have been occupied by the ancestors of their present inhabitants when first visited by the Spaniards. The best specimen of inhabited pueblos is that of Taos, situated on one of the northern forks of the river which gives it its name. There are two large houses, each between three and four hundred feet long by one hundred and fifty wide, situated on opposite sides of a small creek, and tradition states that formerly they were connected by a bridge. They are five and six stories high.

Besides the inhabited towns there are a number now unoccupied and fast going to decay. The names of these are given with slight variations by different writers; the following, however, are generally agreed upon: Pecos, Quivira, Valverda, San Lázaro, San Marcos, San Cristóbal, Socorro, Senacu, Abó, Quarra, Rita, Poblazon, old San Filipe, and old Zuñi.[482] The most important of all these ruins is Pecos, one of the sacred cities of the pueblos. Here the everlasting fire dedicated to their god Montezuma was kept burning from time immemorial down to the abandonment of the town, which occurred some time during the second quarter of the present century. The reader will remember, however, that the culture-god of the Pueblos and the Aztec monarch are in no sense to be associated with each other, since it is quite certain that they were not confounded in the mythology of the worshippers of the deity. Whether the Pueblos, Cliff-dwellers, etc., were ever in any way related to the Aztecs or any Nahua people is difficult to determine. Certainly there is no architectural nor traditional evidence that they were. When the Spaniards under Coronado traversed the region in 1540 A. D., no reports of inter-communication between the two peoples seem to have been current. Father Escalante, who in 1776 visited many of the pueblos, and mentions many ruins not since located, as well as many inhabited towns now in ruins, found nothing to really substantiate the “Aztec theory.”[483] On the contrary, substantial arguments can be presented for the intimate relationship of the Nahuas and some of the Pueblos.

In the tenth chapter of this work will be found the basis of linguistic affinities between the Nahua and Moqui languages, though none is claimed between the Nahua and New Mexican Pueblos. Mr. Becker, in his memoir addressed to the _Congrès des Américanistes_ at Luxembourg, refers to Camergo’s account of the migration of the Teo-Chichimecs, the allies of the Toltecs, and to his statement that they came from _Amaquetepic_ (“the mountains of the Amaques”), and expresses the belief that the words Amaques and Moquis are identical. Mr. Becker considers the “A” prefix of the former to be an abbreviation of the Nahua “atl” water, and Amaqui would mean the Maqui or Moqui living by the water, just as Acolhuas means Culhuas near the water and Anahuac, the Nahua land on the water. The tradition of the Moquis distinctly states that they formerly lived on the river at the north-east of their present home. The reader will remember that the Quichés called the Nahuas _Yaqui_, the name of a river of Sinaloa and Sonora where marked traces of the Nahua language are found, and the supposed locality of the first Toltec station. Is it not possible that _Yaqui_ is a dialectic modification of Maqui or Moqui? It has been observed in the pages of this chapter that in more than one instance ruined pueblos were composed of either red adobe or had been painted, a circumstance which had won for them such a designation as “Red-house” or “Pueblo-pintado,” etc. Furthermore, the red glare of the desert north of the Moqui settlements has received the name of the “Painted desert.” The fact that Hue hue Tlapalan signifies “old red land” is suggestive that this locality may have been the mysterious rendezvous of the Toltecs. The Moquis like the Nahuas are sun-worshippers, though the ceremonial of both people differ considerably.

Besides the mound-works observed on the upper San Juan by Mr. Holmes associated with the work of the Cliff-dwellers, recent exploration has shown that combinations of mound and pueblo features of architecture exist in Utah. Dr. C. C. Parry found in a mound on the St. Clara River in Southern Utah very fine specimens of Pueblo pottery, and other articles which clearly identify its architects with the people of the cliffs or with the village builders at the South.[484] The recent exploration of several mounds in southern Utah by Dr. Edward Palmer fully confirms this conclusion. In Kane County, Utah, the same explorer discovered among a number of articles of apparent Moqui make in a cave-shelter, a shovel of horn having a blade fourteen inches long by five inches wide. Among the articles was a pair of shoes made of the fibre of the _Yucca_, which in style, shape, manner of braiding, etc., closely resemble shoes made of the leaves of the _Typa_ found by Prof. F. W. Putnam in a cave in Kentucky.[485]

The mound examined by Mr. Barrand on the west fork of the Little Sioux of Dakota, and found to contain a large interior circular chamber, probably was the work of the ancestors of this western branch of the mound-building people.[486] The circular chamber was much like an estufa.

The many-sided culture-hero of the Pueblos, Montezuma, is the centre of a group of the most poetic myths found in Ancient American Mythology. The Pueblos believed in a supreme being, a good spirit, so exalted and worthy of reverence that his name was considered too sacred to mention, as, with the ancient Hebrews, Jehovah’s was the “unmentionable name.” Nevertheless Montezuma was the equal of this great spirit, and was often considered identical with the sun. The variety of aspects in which Montezuma is presented to us is due to the fact that each tribe of Pueblos had its particular legends concerning his birth and achievements. Many places in New Mexico claim the honor of his nativity at a period long before those village builders were acquainted with the arts of architecture, which have since given them their distinguishing name. In fact, this culture-god was none other than the genius who introduced the knowledge of building among them.[487] Some traditions, however, make him the ancestor and even the creator of the race; others, its prophet, leader and lawgiver. Mr. Bancroft says, “Under restrictions, we may fairly regard him as the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the Messiah of these Pueblo-desert wanderers from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his people how to build cities with tall houses, to construct _Estufas_, or semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire.” It has been aptly remarked by Mr. Tyler, that Montezuma was the great “somebody” of the tribe to whom the qualities and achievements of every other were attributed.

Fremont gives an account of the birth of the hero, in which his mother is declared to have been a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought for by all men. She was the recipient of rich presents of corn and skins from her admirers, yet she refused the hands of all her suitors. A famine soon occurred, and great distress followed. Now the fastidious beauty showed herself to be a lady of charitable spirit and tender heart. She opened her granaries, in which all her presents had been stored, and out of their abundance relieved the wants of the poor. The offerings of love were made to perform their mission a second time. At last, when the pure and plenteous rains again brought fertility to the earth, the summer shower fell upon the Pueblo goddess, and she gave birth to a son, the immortal Montezuma. The intelligent chief of the Papagoes, whose people occupy the territory between the Santa Cruz River and the Gulf of California, related a legend of the origin and offices of Montezuma, which, while it surprises the reader with its close resemblances to some leading points in the Hebrew and Chaldean genesis and deluge accounts, still is conspicuous for its inconsistencies, and in its closing statements for the absence of any knowledge of time or order.[488]

In substance it is as follows: The Great Spirit, having made all things—sky, earth, and the living creatures which inhabit it—descended into the earth for the purpose of creating man also. Digging in the earth, he found clay, such as a potter uses; this he carried back with him to his celestial abode, and dropped it again from the sky into the pit from which he had dug it. Instantly Montezuma, the genius of life, sprang from the pit, and became a partner in the creation of other men. The Apaches were the next formed, and were so wild that they severally ran away as fast as created. Those were golden days which followed the birth of the race; the sun was very much nearer the earth than now, and his grateful presence rendered clothing useless. A common language between all men, shared even by beasts, was one of the strongest possible bonds of peace.

But at last this paradisiacal age was ended by a great deluge in which all men and living creatures perished. Only Montezuma and his friend, the coyote—a prairie-wolf—escaped. This wonderful animal, with semi-divine attributes, plays a remarkable part in the religion of many of the Pacific tribes, and furnishes us a parallel in our Occidental mythology with the half-human, half-brute combinations of Greco-Roman mythology. The coyote, gifted with prophetic powers, had foretold the approach of this great calamity, and Montezuma, heeding the warning, had built him a boat, which he kept in readiness on the summit of Santa Rosa. His sagacious friend, the coyote, also escaped in an ark made from a gigantic cane which grew by a river’s side; having gnawed it down and crawled into it, he stopped up the ends with gum, and escaped. When the waters subsided, the two met again on dry ground. Montezuma then employed the coyote on several wearisome excursions in order to discover the extent of the land, which developed the fact that upon the east and south and west the water yet remained. Only on the north was there land.

The Great Spirit and Montezuma again created men and animals, and the former committed to his partner in the work the duties of governing the new race. These were, however, neglected by Montezuma, who became puffed up with pride, and permitted all manner of wickedness to prevail. The Great Spirit remonstrated with him, even descending to the earth for the purpose of moving his faithless and haughty vicegerent to restore order, but with no avail. Then, returning to his abode in heaven, he pushed the sun back to a remote part of the sky as a punishment on the race. At this, Montezuma became enraged, collected the tribes around him, and set about the construction of a house which should reach heaven. The builders had already completed several apartments, lined with gold and silver and precious stones, and progressed to a point which encouraged all to believe that their defiant purpose would be accomplished, when the Great Spirit smote it to the earth amid the crash of his thunder. Here the account becomes very confused—a great leap is made from Montezuma the culture-hero to Montezuma the emperor, and the two become confounded.

The legend states that upon the defeat of his rebellious scheme, Montezuma still hardened his heart, and caused the sacred images to be dragged through the streets for the derision of the villagers; the temples were desecrated, and defiance to the Supreme declared. As a punishment, the Great Spirit caused an insect to fly toward the east to an unknown land, to bring the Spaniards, who utterly destroyed him.

The post-diluvian part of this story presents the hero in quite another light than that generally accepted by most of the Pueblo tribes, in which he is represented as having been the very model of goodness and beneficence—the founder of their cities, of which Acoma was the first and Pecos the second. Before taking his departure from his people, he prophesied that they should suffer from drought and from the oppressions of a strange nation, but promised them to return as their deliverer. He then planted a tree upside down, and bade them preserve the sacred fire notwithstanding their misfortunes, until the tree fell, at which time he would return with a white race, who would destroy all their enemies and bring back the fertile showers.

It is said that this tree fell from its place as the American army entered Santa Fé, in 1846. In the cramped, subterranean estufa, the Pueblo fed the sacred fire burning in the basin of a small altar. It was a warrior’s vigil, for by turns their heroes descended into its suffocating atmosphere, thick with smoke, and charged with carbonic acid, to wait often for two successive days and nights without refreshment, often even until death relieved the guard.[489]

For generations these strange architects and faithful priests have waited for the return of their god—looked for him to come with the sun, and descend by the column of smoke which rose from the sacred fire. As of old the Israelitish watcher upon Mount Seir replied to the inquiry, “What of the night?” “The morning cometh,” so the Pueblo sentinel mounts the house-top at Pecos, and gazes wistfully into the east for the golden appearance, for the rapturous vision of his redeemer, for Montezuma’s return; and, though no ray of light meets his watching eye, his never-failing faith, with cruel deception, replies, “The morning cometh.”[490]

• • • • •

EXPLORATIONS AMONG THE PUEBLOS.—In the summer of 1879 the
Smithsonian Institution undertook a thorough and extensive
examination of the Pueblo civilization of New Mexico and Arizona.
Major Powell sent an expedition to New Mexico in charge of Mr.
James Stevenson, and a large collection illustrative of the
manners and customs of the Pueblos was made. Mr. F. H. Cushing was
especially fortunate in obtaining minute information concerning
their traditions, rites, and ceremonies. The work of investigation
is still in progress, and at this writing (September, 1881) an
expedition is in the field. A full report will ultimately be
published. During the latter half of the year 1880 Mr. Baudelier,
the eminent Mexican scholar, visited Taos, and prepared a paper
on that interesting locality for the Archæological Institute of
America, under whose patronage his exploration was conducted.
During a residence of two months in the Pueblo of Cochití, occupied
by a branch of the Queres tribe, Mr. Baudelier made a thorough
study of the institutions of that interesting people. See Second
_Ann. Report of Arch. Inst. of Amer._