522 INDIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. Book III. 
without difficulty ; also on precipitous sides of rocks, 
which could not be reached without mechanical con- 
trivance. 
It is scarcely to be imagined that men would take the 
trouble to get at such places, and there to carry out a diffi- 
cult and laborious work, unless they had some important end 
in view ; and the more so, since rocks and masses of stone 
abound close by, where the operation might have been 
effected easily, had it been undertaken merely for amuse- 
ment. I saw at the summit of a lofty and steep mountain 
near the Gila, below the region of the lava terraces, to 
which I have above referred, the rocks covered with these 
characters. Old footpaths, in places trodden into the rock, 
occur in great numbers along the side of the mountains, all 
tending to the summit. In my opinion these footpaths 
could only have been formed during many centuries of 
constant use ; and it is impossible not to draw the conclusion 
that some important object was connected with them, and 
with the characters carved on those rocks. The locality 
gave me the impression, that only a religious motive could 
have induced such repeated and long-continued pilgrimages. 
I also remarked these characters in places where the foot- 
path passed a rock, as if such a prominent spot had been 
chosen, to impart information to the passers-by. They 
were also engraven upon isolated stones near the road, of 
one of which I have given a drawing in a former chapter of 
this Book, it having been evidently placed near the road to 
attract attention. This road, as a carriage road, is cer- 
tainly of late construction and by the white man ; but the 
roads now used by civilized travellers mostly follow Indian 
paths, the direction of which has been determined by the 
few watering-places of the country. I have given here an 
accurate copy of some of the carvings which more especially 
