424 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
Still proceeding eastwardly, there are traces of walls and apparent foundations of 
buildings all along the slope, and on a little eminence about 200 yards southeast- 
wardly of the inclosure last described are the remains of two walls (10) inclosing 
spaces respectively 100 feet square and 125 x 140. 
On the opposite side of the Pecos river, between it and a small stream which 
empties into it, and 345 feet southeast of the water inclosure first above de- 
scribed is a kind of pentagonal inclosure 240 feet in diameter (9) and crossed by 
another wall which divides it into one large and one very narrow compartment. Just 
beyond and southeast of this are the remains of what has apparently been a forti- 
fication, situated just at the confluence of the two streams. 
This completes the description of the outside works. We will now return to 
the plateau. Passing from the groups of Aztec huts last described, we proceed 
eastwardly 180 feet and find ourselves face to face with the old Pecos church 
itself. Before describing this old building (7), we will refer to the history of the 
discovery of the village, which had its origin long before the Spanish invasion, 
and which is held by the Aztecs to have been the birth-place of Montezuma him- 
self. 
There seems to be no doubt that the Aztecs migrated from some more north- 
ern region, into Mexico, and the traditions of the present Pueblos, who are 
believed to be descendants of the original Aztecs, teach that this very spot was the 
birth-place of Montezuma. But Short, in his ‘‘ North Americans of Antiquity,” 
claims that this is a different civilization and that the culture-God Montezuma of 
the Pueblos and the Aztec monarch, Montezuma, are not to be confounded. Dr. 
Foster, in his ‘‘ Prehistoric Races of America,” does not speak of any such dis- 
tinction. At all events, all writers agree that Pecos is one of the most impor- 
tant of all the ancient ruins of this region, and that it was one of the sacred cities 
of the Pueblos. Here the everlasting fire, dedicated to their god Montezuma, was 
kept burning from time immemorial down to the abandonment of the town, which 
occurred, according to Short, some time during the second quarter of the present 
century. Other authorities fix the year at 1837. 
One tradition is that Montezuma was born at Acoma, and subsequently re- 
moved to Pecos, where he taught the people the arts of civilization, and that 
when he removed to the South he told them to keep the sacred fire burning until 
his return. But he never came. Warriors watched the fires and remained on 
duty by turns, until through decimation from one cause and another, the tribe be- 
came too much reduced in numbers to keep up the watch any longer. Then three 
warriors took the remains of the fire and carried it into the mountains, where 
Montezuma himself appeared and received it Thus relieved, they abandoned 
their village and joined their brothers west of the Rio Grande. 
‘¢ For generations,” as Short eloquently says, ‘‘ these strange architects and 
faithful priests waited for the return of their God—looked for him to come with 
the sun, and descend by the column of smoke which rose from the sacred fire. 
As of old the Israelitish watcher upon Mt. Seir replied to the inquiry: ‘‘ What of 
