FEWKES] INTRODUCTION 85 
weakened by rains and in a few years the buildings now standing will 
fall to the ground: 
Somewhat off the main road to Casa Grande, about half a mile south 
of Adamsville, on a plateau or mesa, rises a cluster of mounds! indicat- 
ing the site of a settlement called by the Pima Tcurikvaaki (tewrik, 
“bisnaga cactus’’; vdaki, “old house’’), which is well worth visiting. 
This ruin (pl. 2) is approached from the Casa Grande highway by a 
rarely traveled road, not much more than a wagon track, branching 
from the main thoroughfare a short distance west of the town. The 
standing walls of a house? that rise considerably above the surface of 
one of the mounds resemble in structure and general appearance those 
of Casa Grande. Among the mounds in this cluster is one oval in 
shape with a central depression indicating a former tank or reservoir. 
Near by, the surrounding wall of a large compound, including a high 
mound, suggests that Tcurikviaki was formerly a place of consid- 
erable importance. From this ruin there is a road to Casa Grande 
which passes a large, conspicuous mound, the site of another ancient 
Indian settlement. This mound (pl. 3) is instructive because it shows 
sections of a wall formerly inclosing a rectangular area, suggesting 
the surrounding wall at Casa Grande. 
If the visitor follows the direct route from Adamsville to Casa 
Grande without making a detour to the Indian mounds above men- 
tioned, he can discern the roof, of corrugated iron, painted red, for 
some distance before he arrives at his destination. On each side of 
the road the traveler passes several small mounds belonging to the 
Casa Grande Group, which are situated not far from the large pyram- 
idal elevations marking Compound B. 
The high range on the north side of the Gila in full sight of the 
traveler the whole way from Florence to Casa Grande is called Super- 
stition Mountains. This range separates part of the Gila Valley from 
the valley of the Salt River; it is a very wild and broken area, ending 
precipitously on the south and the west. Concerning this region 
many Pima legends are extant, the best known of which recounts how 
a flood once covered the whole earth.’ To this place an antediluvian 
chief, named White Feather, followed by his band, once retreated, 
climbing to the top of these mountains for safety. The water is said 
to have risen in the valley to a level half-way up the mountain side, 
1 The ruins in the Gila-Salt Valley resembling Casa Grande are considered in another report, Prehistoric 
Ruins of the Gila Valley (in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, No. 1873). 
2 The writer has been informed that Dr. Carlos Montezuma was sold in this house by a Pima Indian. 
3 This is supposed to be the flood the legend of which is still related by old men of the Patki clans of 
Walpi, who say it was the cause of their ieaving Palatkwabi, the mythic southern home of this people. 
The Pima have a legend of a place in southern Arizona out of which at one time water gushed and cov- 
ered the whole earth. Here they made offerings, which are continued even to the present day. They 
call the place by. a name meaning ‘‘where women cry,” for a child was once sacrificed there to cause the 
waters to subside. 
