ANCIENT PUEBLOS OF UPPER GILA REGION. 



59 



and agave stems could be readily split, forming miniature boards, 

 which were used in preparing different offerings. (See figs. 218- 

 221.) Many pieces of the flowering stalk, split in halves as well as 

 whole pieces, were found in Tularosa Cave. 



Occasionally in the Tularosa Cave small bundles of basket splints 

 were found. These retain the inner bark on one side and, like those 

 of Canyon del Muerto and Mesa Verde, were stripped from slender, 

 freshl}'' cut rods of some tough fissile wood. The Tularosa splints are 

 smoothly finished on the wood side, and the marks show that they 

 were laid on a flat surface and finished with a fine-grain stone. A 

 method quite common in this region of reducing a branch to the 

 equivalent of a rope was by twisting the 

 wood until it became soft, in the manner of 

 the old English fagot gatherer, and many 

 of the twisted and looped branches from the 

 Tularosa Cave resemble fagot ties. From 

 Lower Johnson Cave, Blue River, Arizona, 

 there is in the collection a rude hook, 9 

 inches long and 4| inches wide (fig. 128), 

 made by bending a tough green branch on 

 itself to the shape of a hook and tying parts 

 together with strips of yucca. It was prob- 

 ably used for lowering or drawing up things 

 over the cliff which falls almost sheer for 

 many feet below the mouth of the cave. 

 (Cat. No. 246197, U.S.N.M.) 



Bending wood by heat was known, and 

 a number of the examples of crooks show 

 traces of fire. (See pi. 19.) Examples of 

 bent wood and a hook are shown on plate 

 12. Figure 1 is a hook showing rude work, 

 probably used as a wall hanger in the house (Cat. No. 246451, 

 U.S.N.M.) ; figure 2 is a hoop crossed with a rude netting of yucca 

 splints, probably for suspending food or perishable objects from 

 the ceiling away from rodents. (Cat. No. 2159, U.S.N.M., from a 

 cave on uiDper Eagle Creek, Arizona.) Figures 3, 4, 5, 6 are hoops 

 of yucca and branches lashed and wound with yucca. (Cat. Nos. 

 246364, 2156, 2153, and 246365, U.S.N.M.. Tularosa Cave and Eagle 

 Creek.) 



Sometimes rings of bark were removed from rods alternately, the 

 purpose seemingly being that of ornamentation. 



Gathering firewood appears to have been accomplished by breaking 

 branches from juniper trees by means of a large stone maul. On 

 several occasions these large mauls have been found in juniper groves 

 away from villages, and as the wood of this tree is very brittle, the 

 connection of this implement with wood gathering is probable. 



Fig. 128. — Hook made of bent 

 and twisted branch from 

 Blub River. 



