572 THE CLIFF VILLAGES OF THE RED ROCK COUNTRY. 



next century there had been added the eastern part of the pueblo, 

 the Mission of San Bernardino, erected at the edge of the cliff and 

 connected with the spur on the north side by a lofty wall in which was 

 a wide gateway, remnants of the buttresses of which can still be. 

 traced. Through this gate the hostiles poured on that fatal night, 

 almost two centuries ago, admitted to the doomed village by a treach- 

 erous chief, and in the southeast corner of the court, in front of the 

 church, transpired one of the most brutal tragedies of the times. That 

 many persons were massacred a few feet from the church is shown by 

 the many skeletons which have been found there, evidently thrown 

 promiscuously in a heap, without pious regard or the sympathetic 

 offering of food in mortuary vessels. 



It was evident from my excavations that the fury of the assailants 

 was especially directed against the eastern quarter where the mission 

 was situated, which is easily explained on the ground that the dwell- 

 ings of the party favorable to Christianity would naturally be in that 

 section. The evidences of a great conflagration, which appeared every- 

 where in this part, showed in several houses where granaries of corn had 

 formerly been. A hostile band would not have thus destroyed food 

 material unless its rage had been great or the conflagration beyond its 

 control. It was not apparently the purpose of the hostiles to sack Awa- 

 tobi, but to effectually root out its sorcery — the dreaded innovations in 

 pagan belief which the zeal of the padres was making in its midst. 



For prehistoric customs of the aboriginal life, unmodified by the 

 Spaniards, we must look to the western section. The excavations in 

 different regions of this part brought to light a strange mortuary prac- 

 tice. It has long been known that the prehistoric villagers of our 

 Southwest buried persons of distinction in or on the floors of their 

 dwelling rooms. Instances of intramural burials have been reported 

 from the Gila and Salado Valley ruins and the ancient ruins of Cibola 

 called Halona (Zuili) and Heshotau'hla, but up to the present no case 

 of Tusayan house burial has been found. My studies of Awatobi, how- 

 ever, show the existence of this custom in that town. 



One of the best of these house burials was found in a chamber on 

 the south side of the western mounds, near the edge of the cliff. On 

 opening a room at that point we found unmistakable evidences that it 

 was a burial chamber, for resting on the floor a skeleton was discovered 

 stretched at full length, the head slightly turned to the northeast. 

 Around this skeleton had been placed as mortuary offerings or symbols 

 of rank, a collection of objects of such a nature as to indicate that it 

 was that of a chief, and Kopeli, a competent authority, declared that 

 the evidence showed this to be the remains of a warrior priest. Eight 

 pieces of pottery lay near the bones of the head and breast of the dead 

 chieftain. Four of these vessels were small, globular paint bowls, 

 made of black and white ware, and placed inside a beautiful vase of 

 red color. These small receptacles contained the warrior's paint, red 



