THE CLIFF-DWELLERS OF THE NEW MEXICAN CANONS. 639 



were different in many respects from any before examined by the members of the 

 party, and especially different in their interior ornamentation, which was quite 

 elaborate. In one of them a wide band, laid on in bright, durable colors, ran 

 entirely around the structure, resembling a Greek fret, with narrower bands above 

 and below and with the interior spaces filled with curious artistic designs, the 

 meaning of which none of the party could guess. Evidence of the long use of 

 these places for some purpose was found in the fact that some seventy or eighty 

 different thin layers of mud had been plastered upon the interior, each having 

 in its time borne its own ornamentation in colors. The roofs of the buildings 

 were gone, and the floors were covered with debris. 



It was at this village that the discovery of skeletons was made. J. Stanley 

 Brown, who accompanied Col. Stevenson, was one morning climbing over a 

 portion of the ruins which had not before been visited, and observed some small 

 round poles projecting from the face of the bluff, to which fact he called atten- 

 tion. By scraping away the debris, human skulls were reached, and further ef- 

 forts disclosed entire skeletons. A regular burial-place of the ancients had here 

 been broken into; two complete skeletons, with parts of two others, were found. 

 Great care had evidently been taken to place the bodies away in the manner best 

 calculated to insure their preservation. The place of their interment was in 

 shape like a large oval baking oven, and the desiccated remains, in sitting post- 

 ure, with knees and chin touching, had been placed within. The contents of the 

 tomb were carefully exhumed and are now on their road to the museum. Hair 

 of a brownish hue, which may, however, have been black at the time of burial, 

 is still found clinging to the skulls ; while the shriveled flesh and skin, as hard as 

 stone, remains upon some of the lower limbs. 



Another village in this canon of equal extent and similarly situated, though 

 in a more advanced stage of ruin, was visited, and some exceedingly interesting 

 discoveries were made. Among the debris of the fallen buildmg sandals, finely 

 woven, but resembling nothing with which the present occupants of this Territory 

 are familiar, were found, as also were portions of matting and of garments made 

 from the fiber of the yucca. Evidences of the great antiquity of some of these 

 ruins are mixed with those of later occupancy in a manner most confusing to the 

 archaeologist. The Indian guide, George, in reply to an inquiry upon the sub- 

 ject, said that the Navajo tradition went back twelve times the length of the 

 life of their oldest chief, now eighty years of age, and that the ruins existed unoc- 

 cupied then. This carries one back about i,ooo years, but the evidence is hard- 

 ly reliable. — N. Y. Tribune. 



