NO. 6 



SMITIlSdXlAX EXn. ORATIONS. I92O 



^5 



sonry (fig. 108). the hight\-t products of tlit mason's craft in pre- 

 historic North America. This evolution may have occurred on the 

 area now reserved as a national park, but was not limited to it. 



After the abandonment of Fire Temple and the desertion of build- 

 ings of the culminating epoch that followed, people of like culture 

 may have still inhabited the great pueblos at Aztec and in the Chaco. 

 But these in time also succumbed and were deserted before the arrival 

 of the white man. Their descendants were amalgamated with nomadic 

 or non-pueblo peoples and their survivors still inhabit the modern 



Fig. 102. — Bins for grinding corn in upper cave ul I-irc Teniplc 

 House. Photograph by J. A. Jeancon. 



pueblos along the Rio Grande. Both blood and culture suffered 

 changes in this mixture, and architcctm-al features remain to espe- 

 cially indicate the modifications. The llopi, Zuni, and modern Rio 

 Grande puebkts have no sfK-cialized buildings like Sun Temple nor 

 I'^ire 'icmple f(jr sun or fire cults, although they have ceniiioiiial rooms 

 where they formerly kindled the new fire aiuniall\ . They no longer 

 conserve the fire in this room, but there are legends that they did so 

 in former times, jjointing to a remote cultur.al cdinuctioii between the 

 cliff flwellers and their mo(lcrn sur\ivors, the I'ueblos. 



