THE ENCHANTED MESA 279 



(the Indians stayed below) holding the ladder as rigidly as pos- 

 sible ; yet it swayed and creaked and bent like a reed until the 

 top was reached, and it required no little care to step from an 

 upper rung to the dizzy sloping ledge without forcing the ladder 

 from its insecure bearing. The shelf was gained in safety, how- 

 ever ; the rope was tied to a rung and made fttst around a large 

 block of stone on the terrace to the left. The others ascended, 

 one by one, each witli the rope tied around liis chest and drawn 

 about the rock by the leader as a measure of precaution. Then 

 the equipage, wrapped in blankets, was fastened to the end of a 

 rope throwai to the two Indians below and drawn up, piece by 

 piece. The remainder of the ascent was made without difficulty. 

 The time consumed by the entire climb was somewhat over two 

 hours. 



If the view from the valley at Acoma is beautiful, that from 

 the summit of Katzimo is sublime. Mesa Prieta was sullen 

 still, and the pink mesas, haughty in their grandeur from the 

 plain, now seemed to realize their insignificance in the light of 

 the glories beyond. Placid little pools, born of the storm the 

 day before, lay glinting like diamonds on an emerald field, while 

 old Mount Taylor tried in vain to lift his lofty head above the 

 clouds that festooned the northern horizon. 



The summit of Encantada has been swept and carved and 

 swept again by the winds and rains of centuries since the ances- 

 tors of the simple Acomas climbed the ladder-trail of which we 

 found the traces. The pinnacled floor has not always appeared 

 as it is today, for it was once thickly mantled by the sherd-strewn 

 soil that now forms a goodly part of the great talus heaps below. 

 The walls of the dwellings, undoubtedly of the sun-baked mud- 

 balls that Castaheda describes, must have been erected on this 

 soil stratum, for the native finds in earth, when he has it, a bet- 

 ter footing for his walls than he does on bare rock, and one may 

 readily see that the film of soil that still remains occurs in places 

 that would have afforded the best sites for dwellings. (PI. 34.) 



The day before was a day of storm ; it even rained hard 

 enough to drive an Indian from his religion, and yet not a cup- 

 ful of water found a resting place on the entire mesa surface save 

 in a few " potholes " eroded in the sandstone. The water had 

 poured over the brink in a hundred cataracts, each contributing 

 of the summit's substance to the detritus round about the base 

 as in every storm for untold ages. 



There is little wonder, then, that I despaired of finding even 



