ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 213 



dians from San Ildefonso were engaged in removing the 

 debris and uncovering the walls to the view of the modern 

 American. 



In the north side walls of the canon, facing the sun- 

 shine, are many caves which were probably the first homes 

 of the early settlers of the Pajarito region. 



The falling of the rock has buried many houses built 

 against the rocky walls, and the excavation there has laid 

 these ruins bare, where their presence had been unsus- 

 pected. 



No graveyard has been discovered, but a few skeletons 

 have been found interred in this talus, and the body of one 

 woman buried in the dust of one of the caves. 



She was clad in woven fabric and was buried in em- 

 bryonic form, with her face down. These people had the 

 superstition that they could go most luckily into the other 

 world in the same form in which they were born into this. 



Corn husks and cobs, buried in the dust of some of the 

 caves, give evidence of the food upon which these people 

 lived ; and some old turkey corrals containinng deep de- 

 posits of guano show that when Augustus was feeding on 

 peacocks these cave dwellers enjoyed the much more 

 toothsome turkey — the king of all table birds. They are 

 still numerous in New Mexico. I always appreciated Dr. 

 Franklin's suggestion of making the turkey our national 

 bird instead of the blood-thirsty eagle. 



The wild life of this region is not numerous. In the 

 woods are occasional deer, and the flying squirrels are 

 able to give lessons to the best modern aviators. 



The water courses in the canons of Puye and Tschrege 

 are dry, and an old pine two hundred years old, growing 

 in the middle of an ancient irrigating ditch at Puye 

 showed that water had been rare in that region for many 

 a year, and gave some hints of the reason why the dense- 



