fices of 



AND FORTIFICATIOXS. 277 



posed, for the most part, of but tsvo edi 



one on each 



side of a creek, and formerly communicating 

 by a bridge. The base-story is a mass of near 

 four hundred feet long, a hundred and fifty 

 wide, and divided into numerous apartments, 

 upon which other tiers of rooms are buih, one 

 above another, drawn in by regular grades, 

 forming a pyramidal pile of fifty or sixty feet 

 high, and comprismg some six or eight stories. 

 The outer rooms only seem to be used for 

 dwelhngs, and are lighted by little windows 

 in the sides, but are entered through trap- 

 doors in the azoteas or roofs. Most of the 

 inner apartments are employed as granaries 

 and store-rooms, but a spacious hall in the 

 centre of the mass, known as the estufa, is re- 



dfor 



These two 



buildings afford habitations, as is said, tor over 

 six hundred souls. There is likewise an edi- 

 fice in the Pueblo of Picuris of the same 

 class, and some of those of 3^Ioqui are also 



said to be similar. 



Some of these villages were built upon 

 rockv eminences deemed almost inaccessible : 

 witness for instance the ruins of the ancient 

 Pueblo of San Felipe, which may be seen 

 towerino- upon the very verge of a precipice 

 several hundred feet high, whose base is 

 washed by the swift current of the llio del 

 Norte. The still existing Pueblo of Acoma 

 also stands upon an isolated mound whose 

 whole area is occupied by the \iUa^e, being 

 fringed all around by a precipitous ceja or clift. 



24 



