568 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



cliffs above and lights up the canyon. A coyote sends 

 his long shrill cry from above to be answered by its 

 mate in the canyon below. The camp fire burns low, 

 the river gossips and gurgles over its stony bed and 

 snuggled down in our blankets we dream the valley is 

 once again teeming with those people of the long ago, 

 the women 

 pass back and 

 forth from the 

 stream carry- 

 ing on their 

 heads the ollas 

 full of water, 

 dim bing the 

 long ladders 

 without touch- 

 ing their hands 

 to them or 

 spilling a drop 

 of their con- 

 tents. The men 

 tend the corn 

 fields or gather 

 fire wood from 

 the mesa above, 

 while every- 

 where the chil- 

 dren romp and 

 p'.ay as only the 

 pueblo children 

 can, for of all 

 children those 

 of the pueblos 

 in this region 

 are the hap- 

 piest. 



In our dreams 

 we hear the 

 voice of the 

 village crier 

 calling the peo- 

 ple to their 

 daily tasks ex- 

 actly as he 

 does each 

 morning at 

 'i'aos, W a 1 p i 

 and other in- 

 habited pueblos 

 and wake to 

 find- the first 

 grey signs of 

 approaching day tinging the tips of the canyon walls. 

 The crier we heard was the camp cook. 



By ten o'clock we are packed up and climbing out on 

 the far side of the canyon up a more reasonable trail than 

 that we used coming down on the other side, bound for 

 the place where rest the sacred "Lions of Cochiti," two 

 remarkable carved figures of whose origin or the true 



TOWARD THE HEAD OF THE VALLEY IS A WONDERFUL CEREMONIAL CAVE LOCATED I.N 

 A LARGE NATURAL AMPHITHEATER 



For years this cave lay undiscovered until located from across the canon. In its center is the "Kiva." 

 Note the ladders placed for reaching the cave. 



purpose for which they were carved no one really knows 

 beyond the mere assumption that they were used in 

 some of the olden time cermonies by the forefathers of 

 the present inhabitants of the nearby pueblo of Cochiti 

 (Co-cht-tee) . Through a wonderfully beautiful stretch 

 of yellow pine timber open and clear of underbrush as 



some city park, 

 we ride for 

 several miles 

 then drop into 

 a deep canyon 

 only to climb 

 out again and 

 into another 

 still deeper. 



More climb- 

 ing and we are 

 at the place 

 where rest the 

 .=tone lions. 

 Here amid 

 cedar, p i n o n 

 and scattered 

 pines through 

 which are doz- 

 ens of ruins 

 both large and 

 small, these re- 

 markable ob- 

 jects rest in the 

 center of a cir- 

 cle of huge 

 stones set up 

 on end as if 

 for a fence, a 

 narrow lane 

 leading out 

 from it also 

 fenced with 

 stones. This 

 lane or en- 

 trance is about 

 fifteen feet 

 long and three 

 wide and faces 

 towards the 

 south. Unfor- 

 tunately some 

 vandal hands 

 have destroyed 

 parts of the 

 lions, but there 

 is still enough of them left to show their general form 

 and shape. They lie side by side carved from huge 

 boulders lying deep in the ground, two great mountain 

 lions, their heads upon their fore legs spread before 

 them, their long tails lying straight out behind, as if 

 posed for a spring at some enemy. From all that can be 

 learned from the Cochiti Indians, whose village lies 



