646 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 [ETH ANN. 17 
The mural plastering was especially well done in rooms g and h, a sec- 
tion thereof showing many successive thin strata of soot and clay, 
implying long occupancy. No chimneys were found, the smoke, as is 
the case with that from kiva fires today, doubtless finding an exit 
through the hatchway in the roof. 
MODERN GARDENS 
The whole surface of the ancient plaza of Sikyatki is oceupied by 
rectangular gardens outlined by rows of stones. These are of modern 
construction and are cultivated by an enterprising Hopi who, as 
previously mentioned, has erected a habitable dwelling on one of the 
western mounds from the stones of the old ruin. These gardens are 
planted yearly with melons and squashes, and stones forming the out- 
lines serve as wind-breaks to protect the growing plants from drift- 
ing sand. The plotting of the plan of these gardens was made in 1891, 
when a somewhat larger part of the plaza was under cultivation than 
in 1895! 
There is a grove of dwarf peach trees in the sands between the 
northern side of the ruin and the mesa along the run through which 
sometimes trickles a little stream from the spring. These trees belong 
to an inhabitant of Sichomoyi named Teino, who, it is claimed, is a 
descendant of the ancient Sikyatkians. The trees were of course 
planted there since the fall of the village, on land claimed by the Kokop 
phratry by virtue of their descent from the same phratral organization 
of the ancient pueblo.? The spring shows no evidence of having been 
walled up, but apparently has been filled in by drifting sand since the 
time that it formed the sole water supply of the neighboring pueblo. 
Tt still preserves the yellow color mentioned in traditions of the place. 
THE CEMETERIES 
3y far the largest number of objects found at Sikyatki were gath- 
ered from the cemeteries outside the ruin, and were therefore mortuary 
in character. It would seem that the people buried their dead a short 
distance beyond the walls, at the three cardinal points. The first of 
these cemeteries was found in the dune between the ruin and the 
peach trees below the spring, and from its relative position from the 
pueblo has been designated the northern cemetery. The cemetery 
proper lies on the edge of the sandy tract, and was first detected by 
the finding of the loug-bones of a human skeleton projecting from the 
soil. The position of individual graves was indicated usually by small, 
oblong piles of stones; but, as this was not an invariable sign, it was 
the Hemenway Expedition. It was prepared with a few simple instruments, and is not claimed to 
be accurate in all particulars. 
2The existence of these peach trees near Sikyatki suggests, of course, an abandonment of the neigh- 
boring pueblo in historic times, but I hardly think it outweighs other stronger proofs of antiquity. 
