8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 68 



On the dizzy top of a cliff overlooking the canyon, near the second 

 ruin, artificial walls were observed but not visited. An Indian guide 

 claimed that they were towers ; they are certainly so situated as to 

 permit a \vide view up and down the canyon. These walls are men- 

 tioned by Dr. Prudden. 



On the walls of the canyon not far from the first ruin there is an 

 instructive group of pictographs (fig. 3) representing human beings, 

 some painted red, others white, standing in three lines. The majority 

 have triangular bodies with shoulders prolonged into arms at right 

 angles to the body ; the forearms hanging from their extremities, as is 

 common in this region. On each side of the head are lateral exten- 



FIG. 3. Pictographs near mouth of Nashlini Canyon. 



sions recalling the whorls in which Hopi maidens still dress their hair, 

 a custom that has passed out of use among the other pueblos, but is 

 still preserved in personifying supernatural beings called Katcina 

 maids. It appears to have been a universal custom of the unmarried 

 women among the cliff dwellers to dress their hair in this fashion. 

 These figures are arranged in three rows ; three individuals are 

 depicted in the upper row, four in the middle, and two in the lower 

 row painted white, unlike the others. Below the figures are rows of 

 dots and several parallel bars accompanied by a number of zigzag 

 figures like lightning symbols. On the supposition that the red 

 figures represent Indian men or women, the white figures may be 

 white men and the dots and bars an aboriginal count, the whole 

 representing participants in some past event. 



