HUMAN SWALLOWS' NESTS IN THE CLIFF 



This term seems the best description for those small, rounded rooms, made by human hands long ago 

 in the volcanic tufa of the cliff. They formed the homes of the Pueblo Indians in such places as Puye and 

 the Rito de los Frijoles (see page 110). One needs almost to have wings to gain access to some of them, for 

 long, shaky ladders (like that in the center of this picture) are far from reassuring. In past times when 

 wooden shelters, long since fallen to decay, were reared on beams projecting from the smaU holes about the 

 openings of the cliff rooms, the Indian women, gaily dressed like their sisters of today, and less like swal- 

 lows than tropical birds, darted in and out of doorways or climbed the ladders with jars of painted pot- 

 tery on their heads 



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