I882.J Mexican ( 'arcs ivith Human Remains. 309 



least furniture. Beds, blankets, belts, shoes, baskets, crockery, 

 hand-looms, and metates or stone mills with which they prepare 

 their seeds and grain for food are still used,- and the present in- 

 habitants use many native plants and seeds for food that were 

 used by the cave dead, while cotton and wool have taken the 

 place of the agave and yucca fiber for clothing, and leather is sub- 

 stituted for plant fibers and leaves for shoes ; it is only change of 

 materials, not of mode of manufacture or superiority of workman- 

 ship that make a difference. The fiber of the agave though not 

 now in use for clothing, is yet used to make ropes, mats, &c, 

 the mode of preparing the fiber is handed down by cave people, 

 and the knife now used, for the cutting up of the agave plant for 

 domestic uses though of iron, is fashioned after the stone knife 

 found with the dead in the caves. As one sees the people in their 

 domestic relations, in their daily avocations, when engaged in 

 their dances, in their desire for idleness, taking into consideration 

 all the above mentioned traits, one comes to the conclusion that 

 they are the descendants of the cave people. The influence 

 of the Catholic church has caused them to bury their dead in the 

 ground. The present race not of Spanish origin is Indian. 



Glancing over the physical geography and the natural produc- 

 tions of the country about the caves, the question may be asked, 

 how high in the scale of advancement did the former inhabitants 

 of this section rise? The clothing and utensils found with the dead 

 answers the question. A race of Indians, without commerce, de- 

 pendent upon the natural productions of a desert country to 

 supply their daily want ; long practice in the use of their simple 

 arts had created that perfection, which has given rise to the belief 

 that only a superior race could produce like results. A people 

 in nature, in a climate with nine months drouth, without domestic 

 animals and modern civilization could not become rich or civi- 

 lized according to modern views. Studying closely this section 

 with the evidences found with the cave dead, and comparing other 

 lands with a similar production, and one finds there a like race 

 with corresponding manners and customs. Take for instance 

 ancient Peru and its people ; the Territories of Arizona, New 

 Mexico and Southern California with their inhabitants as found 

 at the Spanish Conquest, and compare them with that portion of 

 Mexico formerly inhabited by the race whose remains are found 

 in the caves, and one will find not only a resemblance of produc- 



