X.—THE CLIFF-DWELLERS OF NORTH AMERICA.
ne of the tribes which at a very early date sought refuge in cliff caverns is supposed to have been that of the Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde in Colorado, whose descendants, though not cave-dwellers, are still found in New Mexico. From the proofs of partial civilisation found in their deserted homes, we may believe them to have been more refined and gentler than the savage Apaches and similar fighting tribes who overcame them, and drove them out to find fresh abiding-places.
Their caves are generally built in with masonry, and had queer-shaped windows here and there; the floors were smoothed and covered with red clay beaten hard, whilst occasionally the walls received coats of fine red and yellow plaster, with stripes of darker colours. The larger caves were divided into several rooms, and in many there was an 'Estufa,' or specially warm, dry apartment. The 'Estufa' was always round in form, and is supposed to have been used for religious purposes. It was probably a sort of private chapel for one or more families, and the round shape was most likely a survival of the old round huts or wigwams wherein their ancestors had dwelt in the old days. Most of these cave-houses are of rough workmanship, but here and there, especially in one known as the Cliff Palace, the blocks of stone have been carefully hewn and put together.
The condition of early races may be largely judged by the pottery they used, and the Pueblo Indians have left really beautiful specimens of this ancient craft. The bowls are often of a fine red, with white patterns outside, and black and red designs inside. The lamps found are of a curious boat-shaped form, and hold quite a lot of oil. Mummies have been discovered perfectly preserved in their rock places of burial, each wrapped in cloth made entirely of feathers.
Cliff-dwelling, New Mexico, and Cave-pottery (British Museum).
Besides their cliff homes, the Pueblos, though probably much later, had another form of settlement, building huge villages on the top of a steep rock, surrounded with precipices all but inaccessible. The walls of the houses were sometimes of stone, sometimes of bricks dried in the sun, or more often of 'adobe,' or in common English, 'mud.' The Indians were careful to choose a rock on which a spring of water rose, round which the dwellings clustered. Here, safe in their fortress homes, with a plentiful supply of provisions, the Pueblos might defy their enemies below.
Many, both of these rock and cave dwellings, were 'Community houses,' in which a number of families lived, each owning one or more rooms, very much after the fashion in which people now-a-days occupy flats in London and New York. Probably the finest of these combinations of rock and masonry is that near Beaver Creek in New Mexico, known as Montezuma's Castle. The foundations of masonry let into the solid rock begin eighty feet above the valley, and the building is about fifty feet high. It is in the form of a crescent, and parts of it have five stories, though the top one cannot be seen from below, as it is close under the roof of the cavern.
The owners of these top rooms would have had a dull time but for the projecting roof of number four story, which served them for a balcony and general look-out. The building has twenty-five rooms of masonry, besides many rock chambers at the sides and below the castle. The timber of the houses is still sound, and the rafters which project outside the walls have the ends burnt off instead of sawn, whilst many of the roofs, both of mud and thatch, are still perfect.
The building overhangs the canyon, and to reach it ladders were placed from one shelf of rock to another, all sloping outwards—just the wrong way for safety; and yet up these giddy stairways not only all supplies of food, but the solid materials for building this immense structure, had to be carried.
Helena Heath.
AFLOAT ON THE DOGGER BANK.
A Story of Adventure on the North Sea and in China.