414 ETHNOGEOCRAPHY OF THE TEWA INDIANS [ETH. axx. 29 



[28:T.t] (1) Kercsan [Cochiti;] " Kiin-a T.shat-shyu." ^ 



{'2) Span. "Chapero."- It i.s said that the name means in New 

 Mexiciin Span, 'ahnipt point of a mesa,' also 'old slouch hat.' 

 Baiidclicr says: 



I estimate the length of the ;\Iesa del Kito [28:16] at (> miles from north to 

 south; it terminates at what is called the Chapero in Spanish, and Kan-a 

 Tshal-shyu in Queres [Cochiti?]. This is an elevation of trap or basalt, rising 

 almost vertically from the banks of the Rio Grande to the surface of the mesa, 

 above which its slopt? becomes quite gentle to tlie toj), which is flat and 

 elliptical. On the west the descent is precipitous for more than a hundred 

 feet. The Chapero in former times was the scene of reckless butcheries of 

 game, termed communal hunts. The adult males of Cochiti, or sometimes those 

 of that village and of Santo Domingo combined, ffirming a wide circle, drove the 

 game to the top of the Chapero, from which it couM escape only by breaking 

 through the line of hunters. Jlountain sheep oftentimes precipitated them- 

 selves headlong from the precipice on the west. On such occasions the slaugh- 

 ter of game w.as always very great, while panthers, wolves, and coyotes, 

 though frequently enclosed in the circle, usually escaped, the hunters not car- 

 ing to impede their flight. At the foot of the Chapero, a deep, narrow gorge, 

 the Caiion del Rito [28:17?], comes in from the northwest. The Mesa del 

 Rite [28:16] bounds it on the north and northeast, and the high and narrow 

 plateau called Potrero del Alamo [28:2:1] (in Queres [Cochiti?], Uish-ka, Tit-yi 

 Han-at) on the west and .southwest.^ 



See[28:Ifi], [28:18], [28:20]. 

 [28:20] (1) I'ii'"-ty,yiv^j(>g(^ijitfiri ' high thread place canyon', referring 

 to P<iit.y,)ju)sejog.e [28 : unlocated] {;[ ij f locative and adjective-form- 

 ing postfix; tsi'i 'canyon') 



(2) Cochiti WeflcalcalJija of obscure etymology {u\'fhi unex- 

 plained; h(//i]ja 'canyon'). 

 ■ (3) Eng. Alamo Canyon. (<Span.). =Span. (-t). 



(4) Span. Canon del Alaino 'cottonwood canyon'. =Eng. (3). 

 "Caiion del Alamo".* ''Alamo".'' 



Alamo Canyon is the first large canyon south of Frijoles Can- 

 yon [28:(3]. Its mouth is at the Chapero [28:19]: 



As we look into the mouths of the Caiion del Alamo and of the Canada Honda 

 [28:21], from the little bottom [28:22] at the foot of the Chapero [28:19], they 

 open like dark clefts of great depth between the cliffs of the lofty mesas." 



The walls of Alamo Canyon are at places in its upper course a 

 hundred feet or more high. There are clitf-dwelling ruins some- 

 where in its upper course: 



In the gorges both north and south of the Potrero [28:25] are quite a num- 

 ber of artificial caves. Those on the north, in the Cafiada Honda [28:21] and 



' Bandelier, Final Report, pt. n, p. 147, 1.S92. 



2 Ibid., pp, H7, 148, 



3 Il)id., pp. 147-148. 



^ Ibid., pp. 149, 15G; Hewett (tjuuting Bandelier), Antiquitie.s, i>. 30, 19U6. 

 ^ Hewett, Comrannautes, p. 24, 1908. 

 'Bandelier, op. cit., p. 149. 



