192 THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY [eH yy. 16 
As our knowledge of the pueblo culture increased, a gradual separa- 
tion between the old and the new took place, and weg have as an 
intermediate hypothesis many ‘Aztec ruins,” but no ‘Aztec colonies.” 
Finally, as a result of still further knowledge, the ruins and the inhab- 
ited pueblos are again brought together; several lines of investigation 
have combined to show the continuity of the old and the present cul- 
ture, and the connection may be considered well established. But there 
is still a disposition to regard the cliff ruins as a thing apart. The old 
idea of a separate race of cliff dwellers now finds little credence, but the 
cliff ruins are almost universally explained as the results of extraordi- 
nary, primitive, or unusual causes. 
The intimate relation between the savage and his physical environ- 
ment has already been alluded to. Nature, or that part of nature 
which we term physical environment, enters into aud becomes part of 
the life of the savage in a way and to an extent that we can hardly 
conceive. A change of physical environment does not produce an 
immediate change in the man or in his arts, but in time such must 
inevitably result. Twenty-five years ago the savage of the plains 
and the savage of the pueblo country were regarded as distinct races, 
“as different from each other as light is from darkness;” yet the differ- 
ences which appeared so striking at first have become fewer and fewer 
as our knowledge of the Indian tribes increased, and those which 
remain today can almost all be attributed to a difference in physical 
environment. 
Linguistic researches have shown the close connection which exists 
between the Hopi (Moki) and some of the plains (or so called * wild”) 
Indians. There is no doubt that at the time of the Spanish discovery, 
some three hundred and fifty years ago, the Hopi were quite as far 
advanced as the other pueblo tribes, and the conclusion is irresistible 
that since it may reasonably be inferred that one tribe has made the 
change from a nomadic to a sedentary life, other tribes also may have 
done so. We may go even farther than this, and assume that a nomadic 
tribe driven into the pueblo country, or drifting into it, would remain 
as before under the direct influence of its physical environment, 
although the environment would be a new one. Granting this, and 
the element of time, and we will have no difficulty with the origin of 
pueblo architecture. 
The complete adaptation of pueblo architecture to the country in 
which it is found has been commented on. Ordinarily such adaptation 
would imply two things—origin within the country, and a long period 
of time for development—but there are several factors that must be 
taken into consideration. If the architecture did not originate in the 
country whereit is found it would almost certainly bear traces of former 
conditions. Such survivals are common in all arts, and instances of it 
are so common in architecture that no examples need be cited. Only one 
of these survivals has been found in pueblo architecture, but that one 
is very instructive; it is the presence of circular chambers in groups 
of rectangular rooms, which occur in certain regions. These chambers 
