492 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
approach of an enemy could be seen, and steps be taken to defend the inmates- 
Opening out of this court are many small rooms, used for shutting people up in, 
or hiding in, or some such purpose. One of them is now used as a prison- 
Then on one side of this placita is the church proper. It is built, like all other 
buildings, of adobe, nearly three feet thick. It has every appearance of great 
age. There are a few old pictures in it, the Virgin Mary, etc. At one end is a. 
gallery, and the stone steps leading to it are worn nearly out from long usage. 
At one corner of the church is a tower in which is an old bell, which is rung on> 
the death of any one, and also when the Catholic priest comes from a neighbor- 
ing village, which is about once a month. 
The only water used on the rock is rain-water, which is gathered in a natural: 
cistern from the rain which falls in the rainy season. This natural cistern, as I 
have called it, is a tank formed by the surrounding rocks. It is about 140 feet 
long and an average of say fifty feet wide. In the rainy season this fills to the 
depth of about twenty-five feet. The steps leading down into it are full of holes- 
just the shape of the human feet, where for hundreds of years the women have 
gone after water, always stepping in the same place from necessity. It is nearl)r 
or quite a half mile from the dwellings to the cistern, and one-half of that distance 
over a bed of sand. The water is all carried on the head in a vessel made of clay 
and holding about a gallon and perhaps more. 
The wealth of the tribe consists in its flocks. They own in common about 
20,000 sheep, 5,000 to 6,000 head of cattle, 600 to 800 burros and a large num- 
ber of horses. They are herded on the plain below. They raise a good deal of 
corn. It is of a blue variety; also considerable wheat. They keep hens, turkeys 
and pigs on the rock, and eggs are sold to the merchant, Beppo, at fifteen cents 
a dozen. While I saw the forked stick plows, I did not see any in use. The 
corn was planted in an old corn field, without re-plowing. Some of the corn is- 
up and looks well. In other parts of the field corn was being planted by simply 
makmg a hole in the ground with a short stick, dropping the corn in it, and 
covering it with the foot. 
There is a tradition that the first priest that ever ventured upon the rock was 
thrown from a high one, but instead of falling to the ground, as the law of gravi- 
tion provides, he went up to heaven. The point of rock off which he was thrown 
was shown me. It seems to me, however, that I have heard a similar story. I 
am aware that this is a very imperfect description of the place. To have given a 
fuller account I should have stayed another day. I wanted more to call atten- 
tion to the fact that there is such a place, than to give an accurate description of 
It. It will be but a few years at most that such places can be found. It is not 
probable that this tribe of Indians will live another score of years in such a deso- 
late place. — Commonwealth. 
