CLIFF DWELLERS 



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CLIFF DWELLERS 



illustration). They are long, slender, horny- 

 skinned, brownish- or yellowish-white. They 

 live on seeds and roots and do much damage. 

 Where they appear in large numbers, plowing 

 in August and cross-plowing in September will 

 kill a large proportion of them. In gardens, 

 clover or weeds poisoned with Paris green and 

 placed in the spring season where the beetle 

 finds shelter will destroy the pest. Some of 

 the tropical click beetles are luminous, and one 

 species carries two glowing spots on each side 

 of its thorax. In Cuba the dead bodies of 

 these beetles are sometimes worn as ornaments. 

 CLIFF DWELLERS, an early American race 

 whose history can be gathered only from the 

 ruins of their strange dwellings built in canyon 

 cliffs and rocks. Nobody knows when they 

 lived, or exactly what great page of human 



metal objects discovered were small charms 

 made of copper. The weapons were of polished 

 stone; many implements, of bone or flint. 

 Hampers found were no doubt used to carry 

 burdens, and there were brushes made of fibers. 

 Clothing was probably scarce, and much of it, 

 like the sandals, was made of milk-weed fiber. 

 Beads, feathers and bits of buckskin were also 

 found. The great variety of pottery un- 

 earthed was always tastefully decorated. 



It has been decided that these were an 

 agricultural race who raised maize, beans, 

 watermelons, tobacco and perhaps cotton. Irri- 

 gation ditches show their skill and industry. 

 They domesticated the turkey and probably 

 the rabbit and a species of llama. 



Their Houses. The peculiar dwellings they 

 built have given to the people their name. 



TYPE OP HOMES OF THE CLIFF DWELLERS 

 A cliff palace. Cave dwellings of a great "Sun House." 



history they filled. They were gone long before 

 the white man first saw America, and of them 

 the Indians knew nothing more than their ruins 

 disclose to-day. From all evidence that can 

 be gathered it is believed the Pueblo Indians 

 descended from them, but this is not certain. 

 Reading their story from unearthed bodies, 

 from bits of pottery, articles of wearing apparel 

 and implements obtained from those almost 

 inaccessible fortress-homes, there is unfolded 

 a tale of absorbing interest. In the corners 

 of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, 

 which meet beyond the southern Rocky Moun- 

 tains, lived this race of people, peace-loving 

 but forced by warring tribes to live in the 

 inaccessible cliffs, where their dwellings were 

 strong as fortresses. 



From excavations in one place in Arizona 

 were recovered about 300 skeletons, some com- 

 pletely dressed, showing that the cliff dwellers 

 were small in stature, black-haired, and had 

 heads flattened perhaps by papoose boards. 

 Side by side with the bodies were found 

 weapons, utensils and ornaments. The only 



Most of them were on the tops of plateaus or 

 high in cliffs and could be reached only by 

 winding, roundabout paths. Sometimes, too, 

 steps were cut in the cliffs. Often these houses 

 were built as high as 800 feet above the level 

 of a river or valley floor. Constructed either 

 of assorted stones held together with moistened 

 clay, or of sun-dried bricks, these dwellings 

 were usually built two or three stories high, 

 each story set back from the one below, leaving 

 flat, open roofs or courts. The lower story 

 had no windows, and entrance was obtained 

 by means of ropes or ladders which led up on 

 the outside to a hole in the roof. A ladder on 

 the inside was then let down, and the outer 

 ladder could be drawn up, thus guaranteeing 

 safety from enemies. The rooms were gen- 

 erally very small, but there were many of them. 

 Some rooms had fireplaces, and always there 

 was one room half underground which the 

 Spaniards called estufa, which, it is said meant 

 council chamber, where the principal men of 

 the tribe assembled. In some of these estufas 

 crude pictures are found painted on the walls 



