572 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



thereafter shunned as a "bechindy hogan" (haunted 

 house). Nowhere in the west is lightning more common 

 and destructive than in this region, and doubtless the 

 ancients had the same fears of it the Navajos now have. 



As for their age, who shall 

 say how old they really are. 

 Here for instance is a group of 

 houses the walls of which are 

 six or eight feet high, the debris 

 about them indicating at least 

 three stories. In the center of 

 the mass of rubbish that has en- 

 gulfed the whole village stands 

 a yellow pine tree not less than 

 three hundred years old. When 

 Coronado and his army of "Con- 

 quistadores" marched through 

 this region in the years between 

 1542 and 45 many of these ruins 

 were noted looking just as old, 

 mysterious and "ruiny" as to- 

 day. Thus far back we have 

 historic evidence of their age. 



It is easy to imagine their 

 builders were living in them 

 when Columbus set sail for the 



unknown west. Perhaps the women, who are the home 

 builders of the pueblos, were carrying the stones and 

 mortar with which to build these houses, up the long 

 ladders or steep trails at the very time when Alfred the 



Bible that it is may we not in reason believe that the 

 people who built some of the abandoned cities and 

 dwelling places were living in them the very night the 

 Shepherds saw the star in the east? Maphap from some 



THE WEIRD LOOKING "PAINTED CAVE" 



Ten miles down the canon is the "Cueros Pintada" the Painted Cave. 



high up on the canon's wall. 



Great was harrying the Danes in the North seas. 

 The Mormon people believe the ten lost tribes of 

 Israel were the progenitors of the western Indians. 

 Accepting this belief of the Mormons as plausible and 

 any Mormon missionary will soon convince you by the 



A GROUP OF CO-CHI-TI BOYS AT THE GREEN CORN DANCE 



The boys are taken into the several "clans" very early in life and take part in the ceremonies with as 

 deep reverence and dressed exactly as their elders. Of all children, those of the Pueblos are the happiest. 



of the watch towers which are located on almost every 

 prominent point along the deep canyons, and on top of 

 the highest buttes with which the whole country abounds, 

 the "lookouts" of these lost peoples also saw the star of 

 Bethlehem and wondered at its 

 beauty. 



From all the information so 

 far developed by a study of these 

 ruins and the material unearthed 

 in them, their builders were a 

 peaceful, agricultural folk, de- 

 pending for their sustenance 

 upon their fields of corn, beans, 

 melons and such products as 

 they knew in those days, while 

 for meat they had the game ani- 

 mals such as deer, antelope, 

 turkeys and rabbits which 

 abounded in the region. 



From all the signs they prob- 

 ably lived at first along the 

 streams and in the large va'.leys 

 where today their irrigation 

 ditches can be traced for miles 

 as they worked their devious 

 ways from the watercourses to 

 the often distant fields. These 

 ditches were laid out with such 

 excellent engineering ability that after centuries of 

 disuse the American settlers have, in many instances, 

 utilized them for their own irrigation purposes. After 

 living in the lower country for perhaps centuries they 

 may have been forced back by some aggressive and war- 



A huge natural amphitheater, 



