DISCOVERIES AT THE AZTEC RUIN 



175 



What appear to have been snow- 

 shoes consist of an oval frame of wil- 

 low laced across with yucca, and stuffed 

 with husks and grass. They were 

 found in pairs, some of them large, 

 others evidently fashioned for the feet 

 of children. 



Numerous ornaments and perhaps 

 ceremonial objects were mingled with 

 the sweepings. There are disc-shaped 

 beads of black, white, gray, and red 

 stone, some of them only one sixteenth 

 of an inch in diameter; a number of 

 quartz crystals, one of them bound to 

 a cotton cord with sinew; beaver tusks 

 pierced and strung upon cords, and 

 held in place by a backing of pitch; 

 and more than three hundred sets of 

 turquoise, shell, and coral-colored stone 



which had been inlaid in gum upon the 

 surface of some object. 



Although these descriptions are brief 

 and fragmentar}^, they indicate the 

 variety and richness of the material 

 which may be expected to reward the 

 continued excavation of the Aztec ruin. 

 When the work has been finished, the 

 features of the ruin itself and the 

 wealth of specimens from it should 

 make possible an accurate and compre- 

 hensive reconstruction of the material 

 culture, as well as an instructive in- 

 sight into the thoughts, beliefs, and 

 customs of the people, evidences of 

 whose handiwork caused the imagina- 

 tive Spaniards to name the river which 

 flows past their village Eio de las Ani- 

 mas Perditas — the River of Lost Souls. 



These corrugated cooking vessels are found, the larger ones sitting about where they were aban- 

 doned, sometimes in the ashes of extinguished fires ; the smaller ones in the graves where they were 

 placed to contain food for the dead. Why those who dwelt in the Aztec ruin should have used only 

 vessels with rough exteriors for culinary purposes, is a question that is still unanswered 



