142 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
the chief crossed to the nearest door and ushered us into a low apartment, 
from which two or three others opened towards the interior of the dwelling. 
Our host courteously asked us to be seated upon some skins spread along 
the floor against the wall, and presently his wife brought ina vase of water 
and a tray filled with a singular substance (tortillas), that looked more like 
a sheet of thin blue wrapping paper than anything else I had ever seen. I 
learned afterwards that it was made from corn meal, ground very fine, made 
into a gruel, and poured over a heated stone to be baked. When dry it 
has a surface slightly polished, like paper. The sheets are folded and 
rolled together, and form the staple article of food of the Moki Indians. 
As the dish was intended for our entertainment, and looked clean, we all 
partook of it. It has a delicate fresh-bread flavor, and was not at all un- 
palatable, particularly when eaten with salt. * * * The room was 
fifteen feet by ten; the walls were made of adobes; the partitions of sub- 
stantial beams; the floors laid with clay. In one corner were a fire-place 
and chimney. Everything was clean and tidy. Skins, bows and arrows, 
quivers, antlers, blankets, articles of clothing and ornament were hanging 
upon the walls or arranged upon the shelves. At the other end was a 
trough divided into compartments, in each of which was a sloping stone 
slab, two or three feet square, for grinding corn upon. In a recess of an 
iuner room was piled a goodly store of corn in the ear. * * * Another 
inner room appeared to be a sleeping apartment, but this being occupied by 
females we did not enter, thgugh the Indians seemed to be pleased rather 
than otherwise at the curiosity evinced during the close inspection of their 
dwelling and furniture. * * * Then we went out upon the landing, 
and by another flight of steps ascended to the roof, where we beheld a mag- 
nificent panorama. * * * We learned that there were seven towns. 
* * * ach pueblo is built around a rectangular court, in which we 
suppose are the springs that furnish the supply to the reservoirs. The 
exterior walls, which are of stone, have no openings, and would have to be 
scaled or battered down before access could be gained to the interior. The 
successive stories are set back, one behind the other. The lower rooms are 
reached through trap-doors from the first landing. The houses are three 
rooms deep, and open upon the interior court. The arrangement is as 
