ruwkgs] CASA GRANDE MOUNDS WAL} 
At one end of this reservoir may still be seen a trail along which 
the women toiled with water jars from their dwellings near by. 
The shapes of the water jars and certain head-rests that have been 
found indicate that the vessels were carried on the head, as at Zuni, 
rather than on the back as at the Hopi pueblos. There is strong 
evidence that the people of Casa Grande were well supplied with 
water by means of reservoirs and irrigation ditches. This need was 
not so pressing as in northern Arizona. It does not appear from 
symbolism on the pottery or from other evidences, which it must 
be confessed are scanty, that rain ceremonies occupied the prom- 
inent place in the worship of the inhabitants that they do among 
the present Pueblos. The people depended for water less on rain 
than on the Gila; the river was typified by the plumed serpent, which 
was worshipped. 
There are indications of small mounds in the neighborhood of these 
reservoirs, a fact from which it would seem that every reservoir had 
a cluster of habitations around it and that houses were built along 
the courses of the irrigation ditches. Nothing now remains to mark 
these houses except the mounds upon which are found fragments of 
pottery and broken stone implements, including now and then a 
well-worn metate. Excavation of one of these mounds revealed a 
hardened floor surrounded by holes in which are found decayed 
stumps of the posts that formerly supported the walls. The resem- 
blance of these houses to those now built by the Pima and Papago 
Indians is striking. They resemble also the remains of rooms of the 
ancient people in the various compounds of Casa Grande. 
IRRIGATION DiTcHES 
The evidences of prehistoric irrigation in the neighborhood of 
Casa Grande are many, but it is difficult to trace any ditch very far. 
The main canal which supplied the fields with water extended along 
the left bank of the river, from a point 3 miles higher up; this was 
probably provided with lateral ditches along its entire length. It 
approached Casa Grande about midway between Compound B and 
the river, on the north side of the compound, and, extending west- 
ward, turned to the south, sending off smaller branches toward the 
east and west. Although the main ditch can not be traced through- 
out its entire course, traces of it appear at intervals; in some places 
it is clearly marked by walls of earth containing small stones simi- 
lar to those found in stretches of its bed nearer the river. In places 
the canal is 20 feet wide, adequate for carrying a great amount of 
water. 
The construction of the Casa Grande ditch was not difficult, as the 
earth is not hard to dig and no considerable elevation was encoun- 
20903°—28 ETH—12——8 
