THE ANCIENT PEOPLES. 23 



in its valley which seem to mark the western limit of 

 this prehistoric culture. 



Little Colorado. There remains another large tribu- 

 tary of the Colorado which flows through the heart of 

 the Southwest, the Little Colorado. On it are many 

 prehistoric ruins, villages with old Spanish churches 

 deserted in historic times, and the still inhabited 

 villages of the Hopi and Zuni. 



While there is no valid reason for making a distinc- 

 tion between the ancient villages that were deserted 

 and those which remained occupied until the coming of 

 the Spanish, it is convenient to treat them separately 

 since in the one case all our information is derived from 

 the ruins themselves and their contents, and in the 

 other we have descriptions left by the Spanish and 

 observations made in our own time. 



Buildings. 



Sites. The building sites chosen by the prehistoric 

 people seem to have depended in part upon the topog- 

 raphy of the particular locality and in part upon the 

 needs of defence in a given area. Few available caves 

 seem to have been overlooked. The overhanging cliffs 

 protected the building from rains and most such situa- 

 tions were easily defended. The size of the buildings 

 was of course limited by the extent of the cave. Many 

 of the pueblos were built on the valley floors or in open 

 plains, little thought being given to the ease with which 



