668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



Kio San Juan and its tributaries, seems to have been a center of popu- 

 lation. In this country, over a large area, the villages are quite near 

 together, showing that it was comparatively densely peopled. Their 

 remains consist of buildings in various stages of decay and dilapida- 

 tion — cemeteries, pottery, most of it in a fine state of division, arrow- 

 heads, a little wicker-work, stone tools of various sorts, partially car- 

 bonized grain, corn-cobs, etc., and a few specimens of human remains. 



The ruined buildings are, as was stated briefly above, of two gen- 

 eral classes, representing two different periods in this ancient history, 

 that of peaceful occupation, and that of invasion by a foreign power 

 and of final expulsion of this people from their homes. All of these 

 structures are of stone, dressed with more or less care, or chosen with 

 reference to size and shape. There is little or no rough rubble-work. 

 In all, the stones are set in adobe mortar, which has great cohesive 

 power, as is shown in several examples. 



The first class of structures is found on the fertile bottom-lands, 

 close to water, and they are not arranged wdth the least regard to de- 

 fense or security. They were the homes of an agricultural people, and 

 were doubtless surrounded by fields of waving maize and orchards of 

 peach-trees, while herds of goats pastured on the lower slopes of the 

 mesa. The men labored in the fields, and took care of the herds ; the 

 women assumed the household duties, wove blankets, and molded pot- 

 tery. But these happy days came to an end : the invader descended from 

 the north and sought to drive them from their country. Long and 

 deadly was the fray. They were driven from the fertile bottom-lands, 

 and were forced to build houses, like the swallows, in cracks and cran- 

 nies of the cliffs, wellnigh inaccessible from above or below ; or they 

 built strong fortifications on the mesas. But all was of no avail. One 

 by one their warriors fell ; step by step they were driven southward, 

 until at last, totally discouraged and disheartened, and with ranks ter- 

 ribly thinned, they abandoned the homes of their fathers, and wandered 

 southward, some to build on almost inaccessible heights — the Moquis 

 towns of the present day — some to wander to the site of Zuni, others to 

 the Rio Grande, where their descendants are found to-day : but, as is 

 so often the case with a people forcibly transplanted from their native 

 soil, they have deteriorated from their former state of civilization. 



The buildings most frequently met with are rectangular or circu- 

 lar. The commonest form for dwelling-houses is the rectangle. In 

 all cases where possible the dwellings are semi-communistic — that is, 

 each of the houses is very large, intended to contain a number of fam- 

 ilies, but is divided into many rooms. In some cases, these dwell- 

 ings, especially in agricultural towns, are from one to two hundred 

 feet in length. At Aztec Spring, a few miles north of the San Juan, 

 is a very large town, built in one mass, and covering 480,000 square 

 feet. In the midst of this, one building, standing by itself, seems to 

 be the principal house of the town, judging by its dimensions, thick- 



