THE HOPI INDIANS OF ARIZONA. 737 



the trail for fifty or more feet is simply a path along and up the 

 base of a rocky precipice, its steps worn deep by the never-ending 

 line of Indians passing to and fro. Once upon the summit we have 

 an unobstructed view over the dry, arid, sun-parched valleys for 

 many miles a view which, in spite of its desolation, is extremely 

 fascinating. 



We often speak of this or of that town as the oldest on the 

 continent. But here we are in the streets of a town which ante- 

 dates all other cities of the United States a pueblo which occu- 

 pied this very spot when, in 1540, Coronado halted in Cibola and 

 sent Don Pedro de Tobar on to the west to explore the then un- 

 known desert. Imagine seven rather irregularly parallel streets 

 about two hundred yards long, with here and there a more open 

 spot or plaza, lined on each side with mud-plastered, rough-laid 

 stone houses, and you have Oraibi. The houses rise in the form of 

 terraces to a height of two or three stories. As a rule there is no 

 opening to the ground-floor dwellings save through a small, square 

 hatch in the roof. Leading up to this roof are rude ladders, which 

 in a few rare instances are simply steps cut in a solid log, differing 

 in nowise from those found leading into the chambers of the old 

 cliff ruins of southern Colorado. The roof of the first row or ter- 

 race of houses forms a kind of balcony or porch for the second ter- 

 race, and so the roof of the second-story houses serves a similar 

 useful purpose for the third-story houses. 



Two things impress one on entering a Hopi home for the first 

 time the small size of the rooms, with their low ceilings, and the 

 cleanness of the floors. Both floors and walls are kept fresh and 

 bright by oft-renewed coats of thin plaster, which is always done 

 by the woman, for she owns the house and all within it; she builds 

 it and keeps it in repair. The ceiling is of thatch held up by 

 poles, which in turn rest on larger rafters. Apart from the meal- 

 ing bins and the piki stones, to be described later, there is no furni- 

 ture no table, no chairs, no stools, simply a shelf or two with 

 trays of meal or bread, and near the wall a long pole for clothing, 

 suspended by buckskin thongs from the rafters. Their bed is a 

 sheepskin rug and one or two Navajo blankets spread on the floor 

 wherever there may be a vacant space. In one corner may be a 

 pile of corn stacked up like cordwood, and in another corner melons 

 or squashes and a few sacks of dried peaches or beans. Between 

 the thatch and rafters you will find bows and arrows, spindles, hair- 

 pins, digging-sticks, and boomerangs, and from the wall may hang 

 a doll or two, children's playthings. Such is an Oraibi home; but 

 it always seems a happy home, and the traveler is always welcome. 



A prominent feature of almost every pueblo plaza is a squar- 



VOL. LV. 51 



