169 



all, it is the rocky region ; rocks are strewn along the valle3's, over 

 the plains and plateaus ; the caiion walls are of naked rock ; long 

 escarpments or cliffs of rock stand athwart the country, and every- 

 Avhere are mountains of rock. It is the Rocky Mountain region." 



Almost the whole section thus described abounds in remains of 

 varied antiquity, of which the world was scarcely aware till within 

 a comparatively recent period. The Spanish explorers through the 

 region that is now comprised in New Mexico and Arizona, returned 

 with reports of numerous ruined cities, and of strange races dwell- 

 ing there; and expeditions to the same region, under the direction 

 of our own government, gave accounts of extensive ruins, and de- 

 scribed, also, curious people, semi-civilized, whom they supposed 

 to be remnants of the race that had constructed the many cities 

 they found deserted and in ruius. 



Strange to say, these reports received but little attention, and 

 aroused little desire to visit and investigate the ruined towns and 

 the remnant of the ancient people. 



The uninviting, desert nature of the country, and the notorious 

 barbarity of the Navajo and Apache tribes, whose war-trails crossed 

 every avenue of approach, offered more serious obstacles to the 

 study of this remnant of antiquity than the ordinary studenc of 

 ethnology cared to encounter. Gradually, however, journeys to 

 that region became less hazardous ; and as fresh discoveries of pre- 

 historic ruins Avere made north of the Colorado Eiver, more atten- 

 tion was drawn to the Southwest, and the interest in the almost 

 unknown race, and their probable ancestors, was strongly revived. 



These remnants, as I have called them, have been generally spoken 

 of as the Puehlo Indians, though they are quite different from the 

 tribes commonly understood by the term Indians. The seven 

 towns known as the Moquis villages, are, in all probability, at this 

 date, the most distinctly original ; for, until very recently, they were 

 even more isolated than any others, in a manner that tended to 

 preserve to the present people the customs of their forefathers. 



Most of what is now known of them has been gleaned from the 

 writings of a few visitors, Avho made only hasty <iud necessarily im- 

 perfect observations. It is quite certain, that to speak with confi- 

 dence one should have the experience of long intercourse with such 

 a peculiar people, for, naturally enough, they are suspicious of 



BUL. BUF. SOC. NAT. SCI. (32) JANUARY, 1877. 



