PEWKEs] FOUR-MILE RUIN 137 



In this part of the ancient villajje there were remnants of circular 

 rows of stones, wliich suggested shrines, and certain piles of refuse 

 composed in part of ashes, as though remains of fuel used in tiring 

 potterj'. The eastern quarter of the town does not api)ear to have 

 had an inclosing wall, and no signs of kivas or ceremonial chambers 

 were detected. It was the only flat place near the pueblo at all suited 

 for sacred dances, and it probably was xised for that purpose. 



The accompanying cut, figure Sij, shows the appearance of Four- 

 mile ruin from the bed of the stream, and gives a fair idea of the 

 bluff upon which the mounds are situated. The north cemetery is 

 situated at the left of the highest jjoint, and the camp of our party 

 is seen at the extreme right. 



A Room in the Ruin 



In order to study the architecture of the rooms of Four-mile ruin, 

 earth was removed from one of the best preserved and its dimensions 

 were carefully ascertained. This room had in the past been washed 

 out by torrents of water, and was on that account easy to clear. It 

 was situated on the north side of the highest moiuul, near the line of 

 separation between east and west portions of the ruin. 



The floor was found about 7 feet below the surface. It was paved 

 with large flat stones, nicely fitted to each other, and apparently set 

 in adobe. On tlie east side there was a raised banquette extending 

 across, and (corresponding in a general way with the spectator's sec- 

 tion of a Tusayan kiva. It resembled even moi-e closely the raised 

 floor which the author has elsewhere described in the cavate rooms 

 of Verde valley and the cliff-house rooms of the Red Rock country in 

 the same valley. 



About midway in the length of the raised portion, near the remain- 

 ing floor of the room, there was a small crypt or inclosure formed of 

 flat stones set on edge, and similar in form and position to those 

 found in the kivas of the cliff palace of the Mesa Verde. The author 

 has seen a like structure in San Juan puelilo on t he upjier Rio Grande. 

 In the floor itself there was a depression lined with stone slabs, which 

 niaj' have been a fireplace. The top of the banquette was made of 

 smoothly worn flat stones, and its side was plastered. Several very 

 finely drilled holes penetrated the flags covering the floor and ban- 

 quette, the arrangement of which is shown in plate LViii. These 

 were about the same size (that of a broom handle) as the symbolic 

 opening called the sipapu in the floor of a llopi kiva," and when the 

 first one was found the author was inclined to interpret it in the same 

 way. The subsequent discovery of many others left him in doubt as 

 to their proper interpretation. 



o The sipapii of a kiva is symbolic of the opening in the earth through which races, in earliest 

 times, are said to have emerged from the under world. 



