It is, however, necessary to be very cautious in judging population by the number of ancient ruins. Prehistoric people were naturally of a roving disposition. The multitude of ruins in Western New York is not regarded as evidence of dense population, but they were occasioned by the known customs of the Indians in changing the sites of their villages “every ten, fifteen, or thirty years; or, in fact, whenever the scarcity of firewood, the exhaustion of their fields, or the prevalence of an epidemic made such a step desirable.”33 Doubtless a similar remark may explain the difference of opinion as to the numbers of the Mound Builders.34 And, finally, Mr. Bandelier concludes that the great number of ruins scattered through New Mexico and its neighboring territories is by no means evidence of a large population. The evidence of tradition is to the effect that a large number of villages were successively, and not simultaneously, occupied by the same people.35
We have about completed our survey of the Pueblo country. We might state that the large communal houses, known as pueblos, are found as far south on the Rio Grande as Valverde. Clusters of separate houses occur as far south as Dona Ana. A range of low mountains lies to the west of the Rio Grande; between it and the headwaters of the Gila evidences of ancient habitations were observed on the small streams. Though these occur sometimes in little groups, the court-yards are not connected so as to form a defensive village. Small inclosed surfaces, with no evidence that a house ever was connected with them, were also observed. Mr. Bandelier could only surmise that these were garden-plots, something like the ancient terrace garden-plots in Peru.
Take it all in all, this is, indeed, a singular region, and the Pueblo tribes were a singular people. Their architecture shows us a people in the Middle Status of Barbarism. That they practised agriculture is shown by the presence of old irrigating ditches. Corn and corn-cobs are found in the rubbish-heaps of old settlements. Mr. Morgan thinks that the valley of the San Juan and its numerous tributaries was the place where the Indian race first rose to the dignity of cultivators of the soil.36 Cotton cloth has been found in the ruins on the Salado River. “At the time of the Spanish conquests the Pueblo Indians along the Rio Grande used cotton mantles.”37
As we have devoted considerable time to the pottery of the Mound Builders, we must see how it compares with the pottery of this region. Fragments of pottery are very numerous all over the field of ruins. All explorers mention their abundance. Mr. Holmes on one occasion counted the pieces of pottery that by their shape evidently belonged to different vessels that he found in an area ten feet square. They numbered fifty-five, and we are led to believe they were not more numerous here than in other localities.
We recall that the ornamentations on the vessels of clay made by Mound Builders were either incised lines or indentations on the surface of the vessels. And, still further, the clay vessels themselves were frequently molded in the shape of animals or heads of animals. In this plate we have fragments of indented and corrugated ware, from the San Juan valley. This ware is only found under such circumstances indented and that we are justified in considering it very ancient. The ware made at the time of the conquest was always painted.
At Zuñi and some of the other pueblos, at the present day, they make vessels in the form of various animals and other natural objects. This is, however, a recent thing. Only one vessel is known that was found under such circumstances that we are justified in thinking it very old. That was molded into a shape resembling some kind of an animal. This was found on the Rio Gila, in New Mexico; and even that has some peculiarities about it that renders its age uncertain. Mr. Bandelier says: “No vessel of ancient date, of human or animal shape, has ever been found.” This is a most important point for us to consider, when we recall how numerous were animal-shaped vessels among the Mound Builders.
