The houses of Laguna are "built of stone, roughly laid in mortar, and, on account of the color of the mortar, with which they are also faced, they present a dirty yellowish clay aspect. They have windows in the basement as well as upper stories; selenite, as usual, answers the purpose of window-lights."[XI-55]
"High on a lofty rock of sandstone ... sits the city of Acoma. On the northern side of the rock, the rude boreas blasts have heaped up the sand, so as to form a practical ascent for some distance; the rest of the way is through solid rock. At one place a singular opening, or narrow way, is formed between a huge square tower of rock and the perpendicular face of the cliff. Then the road winds round like a spiral stair way, and the Indians have, in some way, fixed logs of wood in the rock, radiating from a vertical axis, like steps.... At last we reached the top of the rock, which was nearly level, and contains about sixty acres. Here we saw a large church, and several continuous blocks of buildings, containing sixty or seventy houses in each block, (the wall at the side that faced outwards was unbroken, and had no windows until near the top: the houses were three stories high). In front each story retreated back as it ascended, so as to leave a platform along the whole front of the story: these platforms are guarded by parapet walls about three feet high." Ladders are used for first and second stories but there are steps in the wall to reach the roof.[XI-56] Mr Gregg tells us that San Felipe is on "the very verge of a precipice several hundred feet high," but Simpson states that "neither it nor Sandia is as purely Indian in the style of its buildings as the other pueblos."[XI-57]
Santo Domingo "is laid out in streets running perpendicularly to the Rio Grande. The houses are constructed of adobes, (blocks of mud, of greater or less dimensions, sun-dried;) are two stories in height, the upper one set retreatingly on the lower, so as to make the superior covering of the lower answer for a terrace or platform for the upper; and have roofs which are nearly flat. These roofs are made first of transverse logs which pitch very slightly outward, and are sustained at their ends by the side walls of the building; on these, a layer of slabs or brush is laid; a layer of bark or straw is then laid on these; and covering the whole is a layer of mud of six or more inches in thickness. The height of the stories is about eight or nine feet."[XI-58]
"On my visit to the pueblo of Tesuque we entered a large square, around which the dwellings are erected close together, so as to present outwardly an unbroken line of wall to the height of three stories. Viewed from the inner square it presents the appearance of a succession of terraces with doors and windows opening upon them.... This general description is applicable to all the Pueblo villages, however they may differ in size, position, and nature of the ground—some being on bluffs, some on mesas, and most of those in the valley of the Rio Grande on level ground."[XI-59]
Zuñi, "like Santo Domingo, is built terrace-shaped—each story, of which there are generally three, being smaller, laterally, so that one story answers in part for the platform of the one above it. It, however, is far more compact than Santo Domingo—its streets being narrow, and in places presenting the appearance of tunnels, or covered ways, on account of the houses extending at these places over them. The houses are generally built of stone, plastered with mud,"—has an adobe Catholic church.[XI-60]
THE MOQUI TOWNS.
The seven Moqui towns in Arizona, situated in an isolated mountainous region about midway between the Colorado Chiquito and the Chelly cañon, in latitude 35° 50´, and longitude 110° 30´, are very similar to the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande. They were probably visited by the earliest Spanish explorers, and have a claim to as great an antiquity as any in the whole region. Lieut. Ives visited the Moquis in 1858, and his description is the best extant; from it I quote as follows: "I discovered with a spy-glass two of the Moqui towns, eight or ten miles distant, upon the summit of a high bluff overhanging the opposite side of the valley. They were built close to the edge of the precipice.... The outlines of the closely-packed structures looked in the distance like the towers and battlements of a castle." "The face of the bluff, upon the summit of which the town was perched, was cut up and irregular. We were led through a passage that wound among some low hillocks of sand and rock that extended half-way to the top.... A small plateau, in the centre of which was a circular reservoir, fifty feet in diameter, lined with masonry, and filled with pure cold water. The basin was fed from a pipe connecting with some source of supply upon the summit of the mesa.... Continuing to ascend we came to another reservoir, smaller, but of more elaborate construction and finish.... Between the two the face of the bluff had been ingeniously converted into terraces. These were faced with neat masonry, and contained gardens, each surrounded with a raised edge so as to retain water upon the surface. Pipes from the reservoirs permitted them at any time to be irrigated. Peach trees were growing upon the terraces and in the hollows below. A long flight of stone steps, with sharp turns that could easily be defended, was built into the face of the precipice, and led from the upper reservoir to the foot of the town." "The town is nearly square, and surrounded by a stone wall fifteen feet high, the top of which forms a landing extending around the whole. Flights of stone steps led from the first to a second landing, upon which the doors of the house open." "The room was fifteen feet by ten; the walls were made of adobes; the partitions of substantial beams; the floor laid with clay. In one corner were a fireplace and chimney. Everything was clean and tidy. Skins, bows and arrows, quivers, antlers, blankets, articles of clothing and ornament, were hanging from the walls or arranged upon shelves. Vases, flat dishes, and gourds filled with meal or water were standing along one side of the room. At the other end was a trough divided into compartments, in each of which was a sloping stone slab two or three feet square for grinding corn upon. In a recess of an inner room was piled a goodly store of corn in the ear."
"We learned that there were seven towns; that the name of that which we were visiting was Mooshahneh. A second smaller town was half a mile distant; two miles westward was a third.... Five or six miles to the north-east a bluff was pointed out as the location of three others, and we were informed that the last of the seven, Oraybe, was still further distant, on the trail towards the great river." "Each pueblo is built around a rectangular court, in which we suppose are the springs that furnish the supply to the reservoirs. The exterior walls, which are of stone, have no openings, and would have to be scaled or battered down before access could be gained to the interior. The successive stories are set back, one behind the other. The lower rooms are reached through trap-doors from the first landing. The houses are three rooms deep, and open upon the interior court." "He led the way to the east of the bluff on which Oraybe stands. Eight or nine miles brought the train to an angle formed by two faces of the precipice. At the foot was a reservoir, and a broad road winding up the steep ascent. On either side the bluffs were cut into terraces, and laid out into gardens similar to those seen at Mooshahneh, and, like them, irrigated from an upper reservoir. The whole reflected great credit upon Moquis ingenuity and skill in the department of engineering. The walls of the terraces and reservoirs were of partially dressed stone, well and strongly built, and the irrigating pipes conveniently arranged. The little gardens were neatly laid out."[XI-61]
Thus we see that a universal peculiarity of the Pueblo towns is that the lower stories are entered by ladders by way of the roof. Their location varies from the low valley to the elevated mesa and precipitous cliff; their height from one to seven stories, two stories and one terrace being a common form. Most of them recede in successive terraces at each story from the outside, but Tesuque, and perhaps a few others, are terraced from the interior court. The building material is sometimes adobe, but generally stone plastered with mud. The exact construction of the walls is nowhere stated, but they are presumably built of roughly squared blocks of the stone most accessible, laid in mud. With each town is connected an estufa, or public council-chamber and place of worship. This is in some cases partly subterranean, and its walls are covered with rude paintings in bright colors.[XI-62]
PUEBLO OF PECOS.