THE CLIFF VILLAGES OF THE RED ROCK COUNTRY. 569 



During the fourth night after this, as agreed upon, the various bands 

 assembled at the deep gulch spring, and every man carried, besides his 

 weapons, a cedar-bark torch and a bundle of greasewood. Just before 

 dawn they moved silently up to the mesa summit, and, going directly 

 to the east side of the village, they entered the gate, which opened as 

 they approached. In one of the courts was a large kiva, and in it were 

 a number of men engaged in sorcerer's rites. The assailants at once 

 made for the kiva, and plucking up the ladder, they stood around the 

 hatchway, shooting arrows down among the entrapped occupants. In 

 the numerous cooking pits fire had been maintained through the 

 night for the preparation of food for a feast on the appointed morning, 

 and from these they lighted their torches. Great numbers of these 

 and the bundles of greasewood being set on fire were then cast down 

 the hatchway, and firewood from stacks upon the house terraces were 

 also thrown into the kiva. The red peppers for which Awatobi was 

 famous were hanging in thick clusters along the fronts of the houses, 

 and these they crushed in their hands and flung upon the blazing fire 

 in the kiva to torment their burning occupants. After this, all who 

 were capable of moving were compelled to travel or drag themselves 

 until they came to the sand hills of Micoiiinovi, and there the final 

 disposition of the prisoners was made. 



"My maternal ancestor had recognized a woman chief (Mamzrau 

 moiiwi), and saved her at the place of massacre called Maski, and now 

 he asked her whether she would be willing to initiate the woman of 

 Walpi in the rites of the Mamzrau. She complied, and thus the observ- 

 ance of the ceremonial called the Mamzrauti came to Walpi. I can not 

 tell how it came to the other villages. This Mamzrau monwi had no 

 children and hence my maternal ancestor's sister became chief, and her 

 badge of office or tiponi came to me. Some of the other Awatobi 

 women knew how to bring rain, and such of them as were willing to 

 teach their songs were spared and went to different villages. The 

 Oraibi chief saved a man who knew how to cause the peach to grow, 

 and that is why Oraibi has such an abundance of peaches now. The 

 Micoiiinovi chief saved a prisoner who knew how to make the sweet, 

 small-ear corn grow, and this is why it is more abundant there than 

 elsewhere. All the women who knew song prayers and were willing to 

 teach them were spared, and- no children were designedly killed, but 

 were divided among the villages, most of them going to Micoiiinovi. 

 The remainder of the prisoners, men and women, were again tortured 

 and dismembered and left to die on the sand hills, and there their 

 bones are, and the place is called Mastcomo or Death Mound. This is 

 the story of Awatobi told by my old people." 



One of the most definite statements of this and all variants of the 

 surviving legends of Awatobi is that many of the men were killed in 

 a kiva. It is manifestly of interest to verify the tradition by excava- 

 tions. In my limited work at the ruins in the summer of 1892, I 



