FEWKES] ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES OF HONANKI 563 
masonry, the front of room a, and he soon passes abreast of the main 
portion of the ruin of Honanki. This section is built in a huge cavern, 
the overhanging roof of which is formed by natural rock, arching far 
above the tops of the highest walls of the pueblo and suggesting the 
surroundings of the “Cliff Palace” of Mesa Verde, so well described 
by the late Baron G. Nordenskiéld in his valuable monograph on the 
ruins of that section of southern Colorado. The main ruin of Honanki 
is one of the largest and best preserved architectural monuments of the 
former people of Verde valley that has yet been described. Although 
somewhat resembling its rival, the well-known “Casa Montezuma” of 
Beaver creek, its architecture is dissimilar on account of the difference 
in the form of the cavern in which it is built and the geological charac- 
ter of the surrounding cliffs. Other Verde ruins may have accom- 
modated more people, when inhabited, but none of its type south of 
Canyon de Chelly have yet been described which excel it in size and 
condition of preservation. I soon found that our party were not the 
first whites who had seen this lonely village, as the names scribbled on 
its walls attested; but so far as I know it had not previously been 
visited by archeologists. 
In the main portion of Honanki we found that the two ends of the 
crescentic row of united rooms which compose it are built on rocky ele- 
vations, with foundations considerably, higher than those of the rooms 
in the middle portion of the ruins. The line of the front wall is, there- 
fore, not exactly crescentic, but irregularly curved (figure 249), conform- 
ing to the rear of the cavern in which the houses are situated. About 
midway in the curve of the front walls two walls indicative of former 
rooms extend at an angle of about 25° to the main front wall. All the 
component rooms of the main part of Honanki can be entered, some by 
external passageways, others by doorways communicating with adjacent 
chambers. None of the inclosures have roofs or upper floors, although 
indications of the former existence of both these structural features 
may readily be seen in several places. Although wooden beams are 
invariably wanting, fragments of these still project from the walls, 
almost always showing on their free ends, inside the rooms, the effect 
of fire. I sueceeded in adding to the collection a portion of one of 
these beams, the extremity of which had been battered off, evidently 
with a stone implement. In the alkaline dust which covered the floor 
several similar specimens were seen. 
The stones which form the masonry of the wall (figure 250) were not, 
as a rule, dressed or squared before they were laid with adobe mortar, 
but were generally set in place in the rough condition in which they 
may still be obtained anywhere under the cliff. 
All the mortar used was of adobe or the tenacious clay which serves 
so many purposes among the Pueblos. The walls of the rooms were 
plastered with a thick layer of the same material. The rear wall of 
each room is the natural rock of the cliff, which rises vertically and 
