216 MAJOR JOHN F. LAC£Y 



ically fierce group of these pictured natives, on the wall 

 by the stairway at the Tschrege, Dr. Hewett christened 

 the "Reception Committee." At Cochiti there is a little 

 old church that has been decorated with elk, buffalo, 

 birds, horses, and other character sketches but with con- 

 siderable artistic skill. The present inhabitants of Co- 

 chiti have a tradition that their ancestors once inhabited 

 the Rito and it is highly probable that this is true. As 

 their need of defense grew less they would naturally turn 

 to the more fertile and wider valley of the Rio Grande. 



The painted cave and the stone lions are among the 

 most interesting of the remains. The pictures in the 

 cave are in black and red and the human figures are im- 

 probable and the birds impossible. Some antiquaries 

 have classed one of the animals as a mammoth, but it 

 looks more like a wolf. A man on horseback, with a 

 bridle on the horse, is evidently junior to the Spanish 

 occupancy, but the decorations may have been accumu- 

 lated though a long period ahead. 



The stone lions are reached by a very rugged and well- 

 nigh impossible trail. These mountain lions, carved from 

 a single boulder, lie crouched with their long tails extend- 

 ed and their heads between their forefeet. 



Mexican sheep herders are charged with the vandalism 

 which has mutilated the heads of these lions. Prof. Starr 

 has made plaster casts of these interesting figures and 

 the original casts were placed in the Walker Museum of 

 the Chicago University. From the little stone-walled en- 

 closure where these lions lie is one of the grandest and 

 wildest views in Mexico. 



They are still held in superstitious reverence and it is 

 difficult to get an Indian to show these lions to a stranger. 

 They show the painted cave and then wish to return 

 without the hard climb to the ancient statuary. A party 

 of the school visited the lions, and killing a rattlesnake 



