THE CLIFF VILLAGES OF THE EED ROCK COUNTRY. 563 



There is no evidence that these ruins had been entered in recent 

 years, and they were discovered by chance in side excursions while we 

 were camped at Honauki, a few miles to the west. When we clambered 

 into the deserted inclosures of the walls we saw basketry, stone imple- 

 ments, and fragments of cotton cloth lying in the alkaline dust, a sure 

 indication that the collector had not preceded us. But aborigines had 

 found shelter here before us, since the housebuilders disappeared, for 

 the fragments of basketry are very similar to that made by Apaches, 

 whose characteristic pictographs were represented on the walls. These 

 were the vandals, no doubt, who, in their greed for firewood, had devas. 

 tated the place, torn down the walls in places, and stripped the villages 

 of many objects of ethnologic value. 



The Red House ruius are approached by an easy trail through a 

 grove of stunted trees which cover the fallen walls and the debris from 

 the cliff. The first which was entered stands out in relief from the per- 

 pendicular face of the vertical cliff to which it is firmly cemented. The 

 front walls consist of a number of curved sections, each corresponding 

 with an inclosure, and giving greater capacity to the chambers between 

 them and the cliff. This succession of bow- window like curves is not 

 common in cliff houses, and seems to present a transition from between 

 circular and rectangular houses. It is a cliff house in name, but it 

 simply uses one side of the cliff as a wall to which the others are plas- 

 tered. In the construction of the bulging facades, the builders utilized 

 huge bowlders for parts of the foundation, so that the base of the wall 

 follows the inequalities of the ground. The masonry is constructed of 

 unhewn slabs of red sandstone, laid in adobe of the same color, and in 

 places covered with plastering. When seen from the exterior, we detect 

 evidences of three-storied rooms. The central portion of the ruin is 

 almost intact, but on either wing time has dealt roughly with it, and 

 there is little doubt that the nomadic tribes of Apaches, who replaced 

 the sedentary agriculturists of the Verde Valley, have had a hand in the 

 overthrowing of some of the fallen walls. 



Clambering into the inclosure of the middle part of the ruin through 

 an irregular opening at its base, we find ourselves iu a roomy chamber 

 inclosed by three walls 20 feet high. Halfway up the wall the holes, in 

 which were placed the beams of the floor of a second story, can be 

 easily seen, but the beams themselves have disappeared. This is but one 

 of seven such inclosures each communicating with the next or opening 

 externally by passageways a few feet square. The right-hand rooms 

 have suffered much more than those in the middle or on the opposite 

 wing. 



The disappearance of wooden rafters and beams from this and neigh- 

 boring ruins is accounted for by the fact that in the scarcity of fire- 

 wood they were dipped out of the walls for use as fuel. Under the 

 debris on the floor, hidden from sight, these logs are frequently found, 

 showing that the roof had fallen in and covered them as it fell. It 

 was noticed that the ends of these beams were literally gnawed off, 



