Room c is the first of a series of chambers, with external passageways, but its walls are very much broken down, and the openings thereby enlarged. The front wall is almost straight and in one place stands 30 feet, the maximum height of the standing wall of the ruins. In one corner a considerable quantity of ashes and many evidences of fire, some of which may be ascribed to Apache occupants, was detected. A wooden beam, marking the line of the floor of a second story, was seen projecting from the front wall, and there are other evidences of a floor at this level. Large beams apparently extended from the front wall to the rear of the chamber, where they rested on a ledge in the cliff, and over these smaller sticks were laid side by side and at right angles to the beams. These in turn supported either flat stones or a layer of mud or clay. The method of construction of one of these roofs is typical of a Tusayan kiva, where ancient architectural forms are adhered to and best preserved.
The entrance to room d is very much enlarged by the disintegration of the wall, and apparently there was at this point a difference in level of the front wall, for there is evidence of rooms in advance of those connected with the chambers described, as shown by a line of masonry, still standing, parallel to the front face of inclosures c and d.
Room e communicates by a doorway with the chamber marked f, and there is a small window in the same partition. This room had a raised banquette on the side toward the cliff, recalling an arrangement of the floor similar to that in the cavate dwellings opposite Squaw mountain which I have described. This platform is raised about three feet above the remainder of the floor of f, and, like it, is strewn with large slabs of stone, which have fallen from the overhanging roof. In the main floor, at one corner, near the platform, there is a rectangular box-like structure made of thin slabs of stone set on edge, suggesting the grinding bins of the Pueblos. Room f communicates with g by a passageway which has a stone lintel. The holes in the walls, in which beams were once inserted, are seen in several places at different levels above the floor. The ends of several beams, one extremity of which is invariably charred, were found set in the masonry, and others were dug from the débris in the floor.
As a result of the curve in the front wall of the ruin at that point, the shape of room f is roughly quadrate, with banquettes on two sides. There are six large beam holes in the walls, and the position of the first floor is well shown on the face of the partition, separating f from g. The passageway from one of these rooms to the other is slightly arched.
Room g is elongated, without an external entrance, and communicates with f by a small opening, through which it is very difficult to crawl. Its longest dimension is almost at right angles to the front face of the remaining rooms, and it is raised above them by its foundation on an elevated rock like that of a, b, and c. There is a small, square, external opening which may have served as the position of a former beam or log. The upper level of the front wall is more or less broken down in places, and formerly may have been much higher. Beyond g a spur of masonry is built at right angles to the cliff, inclosing a rectangular chamber at the end of the ruin which could not be entered. Possibly in former times it was accessible by means of a ladder from the roof, whence communication with other portions of the structure was also had.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIV
APPROACH TO MAIN PART OF HONANKI
A short distance beyond the westernmost rooms of Honanki, almost covered with bushes and adjoining the base of the cliff, there is a large ash heap in which are many fragments of pottery and the bones of various animals. It is probable that excavation in this quarter would reveal many interesting objects. In the cliffs above this ash heap, far beyond reach, there is a walled niche which has never been disturbed. This structure is similar to those near the cavate dwellings, and when opened will probably be found to contain buried mortuary objects of interesting character. I did not disturb this inclosure, inasmuch as I had no ladders or ropes with which to approach it.
It is very difficult to properly estimate, from the number of rooms in a cliff house, the former population, and as a general thing the tendency is rather to overstate than to fall short of the true total. In a pueblo like Hano, on the first or east mesa of Tusayan, for instance, there are many uninhabited rooms, and others serve as storage chambers, while in places the pueblo has so far fallen into ruin as to be uninhabitable. If a pueblo is very much concentrated the population varies at different seasons of the year. In summer it is sparsely inhabited; in winter it is rather densely populated. While Palatki and Honanki together had rooms sufficient to house 500 people, I doubt whether their aggregate population, ever exceeded 200. This estimate, of course, is based on the supposition that these villages were contemporaneously inhabited.