CAVE DWELLINGS FEWKES. 631 



inferred, however, that, aside from the site occupied, the architectural 

 features of the two are unlike although characteristic. The cliff 

 temples in the Shansi are thoroughly Chinese, the Colorado cliff 

 dwellings are aboriginal American, a diversity pointing to an in- 

 fluence to which the cave is secondary, to some power which is 

 stronger than the external influence in its effect on the forms of cliff 

 dwellings. While this power exerts itself strongly on the highest, 

 it is not as potent on the lowest. The excavated caves of lower cul- 

 tures in regions widely separated show closer resemblances than 

 those made by more civilized men. The simpler the cultural life the 

 closer its resemblance in different regions of the globe where environ- 

 ment is identical. 



Another secondary use for caves which connects them with habi- 

 tations and is found on both continents dating back to early times 

 is their adoption for mortuary purposes. The cave originally built 

 for a habitation in course of time is deserted by the living and 

 becomes a burial place just as the subterranean cavern becomes a 

 catacomb. This secondary use is connected with its adoption as 

 a resort for priests, who would withdraw from the world for cere- 

 monial or other reasons. The custom of burial in caves once estab- 

 lished led to the construction of caves de novo for tombs and cave 

 shrines, possibly temples, which latter are made difficult of access 

 and isolated to add to their mysterious character. Ancestor worship 

 and fear of the dead intensifies a feeling of awe, and other men are 

 unwilling to enter caves which were once inhabited and now contain 

 the dead. 



Of many subjects connected with a comparative study of cave 

 dwellings in the Old and New Worlds a comparison of burial places 

 and tombs of the two continents parallel with that of habitations 

 is one of the most instructive, but a consideration of this subject 

 would manifestly enlarge my address to undue proportions. 



Although examples of prehistoric tunneling occur in several lo- 

 calities in the New World none of these can compare in extent with 

 the subterranean passages of Syracuse in Sicily. 



As in the Old World, so in the New, the cave is a resort for the 

 priest who remains there to intercede with supernatural beings. As 

 a place of burial it is sacred and in it at times are kept the sacred 

 images and paraphernalia of worship. A fear of the cave due to 

 superstition is not wholly confined to the Old World but is also 

 found in the New. Neither Navaho nor Ute, successors of the cliff- 

 house people, would enter the cliff dwellings in early times before 

 white men took the lead. Such an act woufd, they believed, bring 

 direful ills, as blindness or even death, to anyone who ventured 

 within these old habitations. 



