618 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



them as among the oldest in America. A comparison of the culture 

 of these cave men with those of Europe would be very instructive, 

 but it is manifestly impossible considering our limited knowledge of 

 the former. Here is an opportunity for the study of cave men at 

 our very door, practically within our domain, which offers a most 

 fascinating field rich with harvest to our historians, folklorists, and 

 archaeologists. 1 



A comparison of artificial caves and buildings constructed in 

 natural caverns in the Old and New Worlds is much easier to make 

 than that of the natural caves of the two hemispheres on account of 

 the abundant known material. Both America and the Old World 

 have an extensive literature of artificial caves used for habitations or 

 natural caves sheltering buildings of size. Historically speaking we 

 have little information regarding the life of man in artificial caves 

 or in buildings in natural caverns in America, but this lack may be 

 supplemented by the contributions of archaeology, and our knowledge 

 may be enriched by a study of the folklore 2 of the Pueblo Indians. 



In addition to legends capable of verification by archaeology^, the 

 Hopi also have others less definite which, although vague, are still 

 as worthy of belief as those dealing with the period of history, if 

 taken symbolically. Pueblo legends all agree that the human race 

 orginated in an underworld and climbed to the surface, where it 

 now dwells, through an opening which the Hopi call " the Sipapfi." 

 A comparative study of these stories among different pueblos reveals 

 the fact that this emergence opening does not always have the same 

 position, creating doubts as to the authenticity of the location of 

 Sipapii and raising a suspicion that geographically it is not to be 

 taken literally, but varies with the clan or larger group. Moreover, 

 the legend, greatly obscured by esoteric and symbolic interpretation, 

 may indicate a local prehistoric event. 3 It is usual to interpret " the 

 Sipapii " as the original orifice of emergence common to all members 

 of the human race, but it is worth while to consider whether it does 

 not sometimes refer to the passage from a previous culture. If we 

 interpret the underworld 4 to be a prehistoric underground habitation, 

 we can bring several facts of archeology and ethnology to its support. 



1 Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt has also called my attention to the following legend on an old 

 map by De lisle near what is now Williamsport, Pa.: " les Tionontatecaga qui hahitent 

 dans des eavernes pour se deffendre de la grande chaleur." 



' The legends of the life of some of the Hopi clans in the cliff houses of the Navaho 

 National Monument, possibly vague as to the exact site of these cliff dwellings, are as 

 vivid to them as their life in any historic ruin like Awatobi. These legends do not 

 always refer to historic times, but often indicate the individual cliff dwelling once in- 

 habited by specific clans, as those in the Chelly Canyon, which comes well into the his- 

 toric period, although not recorded in historical documents. 



3 Or the present conception of a universal Sipapu may have been a generalization from 

 a purely local historical account of the passage of culture from the caves to the open. 



4 The " pit dwelling," or as they are sometimes designated " underground habitations," 

 referred to throughout this lecture are allied to but not identical with cliff dwellings and 

 pueblos. Cliff dwelings are of two kinds : Cavate rooms or those artiflcally excavated in 



