EXCURSION TO THE BIRTH-PLACE OF MONTEZUMA. 423 
Just east of the huts last described, the ground slopes rapidly to the east and 
south, with ledges of bare rock making a kind of wall to the southward and west- 
ward. Still proceeding eastwardly we pass over some two hundred feet of bare, 
smooth rock when we come to two other groups of ruins (6), about four hundred 
feet in length, one on each side and overhanging the respective bluffs on the north 
and south sides of the plateau. There are about eighty huts in each of these 
groups on the summit, making probably about two hundred in all, when averaged 
at two stories high. They are similar to those just described, being made of stone 
cemented together with mud, and arranged in rooms of from six to ten feet 
square, those in the basement story being connected by openings underground. 
Between these groups of huts the space is nearly or quite two hundred feet wide. 
We did not find any rooms among them answering to the description given by 
several explorers of the Zs¢ufas, where the sacred fire was kept burning, unless 
the circular, stone-lined basins, within the court of the larger village, may have 
been originally covered over and used for such a purpose. 
Dr. Hammond, who accompanied Lieutenant Simpson in his United States 
military reconnoissance in New Mexico, in describing the ruins of Chaco, speaks 
of sacred Lstufas, circular in form, excavated several feet deep in the earth and 
Inclosed with circular walls. The fact that no water, except perhaps the drip- 
pings from the roofs of the upper tier of huts, could naturally find its way into 
these basins, gives probability to the suggestion that they may have been con- 
structed for Lstufas, instead of for storing water. 
On the south side of the plateau, about half-way between the first and second 
village, is a gateway in the outer wall, which in that part is six or seven feet high 
and from three to four feet thick. This gateway is about ten feet wide, and was 
apparently made to enable the inhabitants to pass out their stock to graze and to 
water in the inclosures which will be described a little later. 
Having now described nearly everything on the plateau that seems to be- 
long to the Aztec civilization, we will pass out of the gate just mentioned, on to 
the slope that descends gradually to the Pecos river, which winds its way along 
at a distance of a few hundred yards to the southwardly. 
The first thing which attracts our attention is a long stretch of ruined wall 
which extends in a south-westwardly direction from a point within about 120 feet 
from the gate to the bank of the river, 600 feet away. Just beyond the upper end 
of this wall we find an inclosure (8), walled all the way around, 390 feet by about 
120 feet, and banked up with earth at the lower part as if to retain water. Just 
at the lower corner there appears to have been an artificial outlet through the 
dam and wall for prudential purposes. Within this inclosure is a circular artifi- 
cial pond, also banked up with earth, about seventy-five feet in diameter. Just 
east of this inclosure and a little further up the slope is another (8), apparently con- 
structed for the same purpose, being nearly as large and banked up across the 
lower part in a similar manner. Within this, also, is a smaller circular pond 120 
feet across, which even at this time was muddy in the center, although it did not 
contain any water. 
