MINDELEFF] BURIAL CISTS 169 
men of the tribe were often brought to the canyon for interment in the 
ruins. Such burials are still made, both in the ruins themselves and in 
cists on similar sites. 
As a whole the Navaho burial cists are much more difficult of access 
than the ruins, and some of them appear to be now really inaccessible, 
astatement which can be made of but fewruins. Some of them appear 
to have been reached from above. The agility and dexterity of the 
Navaho in climbing the cliffs is remarkable, and possibly some of the 
sites now apparently inaccessible are not so considered by them. As 
before stated, there are a number of Navaho foot trails out of the can- 
yon, where shallow pits or holes have been pecked in the rock as an 
aid in the more difficult places, and similar aids were often employed 
to afford access to storage and burial cists. Plate Lyrt shows a 
ee 

Fic. 68—Cist composed of upright slabs. 
site in the lower part of the canyon where such means have been 
employed. The pits in the rock are so much worn by atmospheric ero- 
sion that the ascent now is very dangerous. The cove or ledge to which 
they lead is about halfway up the cliff, and on it are a number of cists, 
one of them still intact, with a doorway. ‘The masonry consists of large 
slabs of sandstone set on edge, sometimes irregularly one above another, 
the whole being roughly plastered inside and out. About 200 yards 
farther up the cove, on the same side, there is a series of foot holes 
leading to a small cave about halfway up, and thence upward and 
probably out of the canyon. They are probably of Navaho origin. 
The use of stone on edge is apparently confined to these cists. Figure 
68 shows a structure which occurs a little above the ruin marked 57 
on the map. The walls consist of thin slabs of stone set upright and 
