NORTHWESTERN jSTEW MEXICO. 361 



can be no dcmbt that the Eocene plateau and hog-backs of the Grallinas 

 offer hills of the greatest elevation in the entire region, and it is highly 

 probable, if the account quoted be correct, that some at least of the exiled 

 Cibolians found a refuge in this region, and may have been the builders of 

 Cristone. This would place the age of the ruins described at 335 years. 

 Of course it is possible that they represent villages contemporary with and 

 tributary to the seven cities.* 



The inhabitants of the rock-houses of the Grallinas necessarily aban- 

 doned the communal type of building generally employed by their race, 

 and appear only to have considered the capacities of their dwellings for 

 defense. Yet the perils of life in Cristone due to the location alone must 

 have been considerable. Infant sports must have been restricted to within 

 doors, and cool heads were requisite in adults to avoid the fatal conse- 

 quences of a slip or fall. Intoxication must have been rare in Cristone. 

 There is no trace of metal in any of the ruins of the Gallinas, and it is 

 evident that the inhabitants were acquainted with the use of stone imple- 

 ments only. I have already alluded to their pottery. It is usually of a 

 bluish-ash color, but is occasionally black, brown, and more rarely red. It 

 is never glazed, but the more common kind is nicely smoothed so as to 

 reflect a little light. This pottery is ornamented with figures in black 

 paint, which are in lines decussating or at right angles, or closing triangu- 

 lar or square spaces. Sometimes colored and uncolored angular areas form 

 a checker-board pattern. The coarser kinds exhibit sculpture of the clay 

 instead of painting. The surface is thrown into lines of alternating projec- 

 tions and pits by the use of an obtuse stick or the finger-nail, or it is 

 thrown into imbricating layers by cutting obliquely with a sharp flint-knife. 

 Thus the patterns of the ornamentation were varied according to the taste 

 of the manufacturers, although the facilities at their disposal were few. 



•Professor Cope here considers the Chaco group of ruins as the remains of the "Seveu cities of 

 Cibola" mentioned by Coronado. In this he follows Mr. Morgan (North American Review, 1809). On 

 a preceding page Dr. Loew has included four ruined and three inhabited Zufii towns in the province of 

 Cibola, and the weight of evidence seems to be in favor of the Zufii group. Lieutenant Abert (Military 

 Reconnaissance, New Mexico, &c, 1848) identifies Acoma and six other pueblos with Cibola. For fur- 

 ther information on this point, reference is made to the authors quoted, and to the statements given by 

 Mr. Bancroft in favor of Zufii (Native Races, iv, p. G74). — F. W. P. 



