HUMAN CLTPP-DWELLEES. 89 



neighboring tribes and depending upon hunting wild 

 animals for food, they cultivated great tracts of 

 country, and raised mai^e and beans and other crops, 

 upon which they chiefly lived. They wove cloth, and 

 made baskets and excellent pottery, beautifully col- 

 ored and decorated. Their houses, in time of peace, 

 were in the bottom lands. They consisted of pueblas 

 — that is, as has been explained in the introduction of 

 this little book, towns consisting, as do those of the 

 white ant and other insects, of a single structure, 

 just as large apart- 

 ment houses con- J"^ P"^ 

 tain many distinct I ^^^ I ^^^ 

 habitations. These I I I I 

 great buildings I ^"Tl I ^"1 

 have ground plans ^J l^J | 



of various shapes, Puebl a ornament. 



the most usual be- 

 ing an oblong quadrangle, three sides of which are 

 occupied by the building, and the fourth, one of 

 the longer sides, is inclosed by a wall or a row of 

 single rooms. Sometimes the front wall is curved 

 outward, and there is one case in which the whole 

 structure is in the shape of an ellipse. 



The general structure of these buildings is unlike 

 any found in the Eastern hemisphere. It is, indeed, so 

 characteristic of the aboriginal inhabitants of Amer- 

 ica that it is perpetuated in an ornament peculiar to 

 the native writers of this country, called the puebla 

 ornament, consisting, as is here shown, of a succes- 

 sion of steps, which is a very good plan of a sec- 



