In describing the gardens of Oraybe, distant eight or nine miles, he remarks:
“At the foot [of the bluff] 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 Moqui ingenuity and skill in the department of engineering. The walls of the terraces and reservoirs were of partly-dressed stone, well and strongly built, and the irrigating pipes conveniently arranged. The little gardens were neatly laid out. * * * The walls of the terraces and the gardens themselves are kept in good order and preservation. The stone and earth for construction and repairs they carry in blankets upon their shoulders from the valley below.”[480]
Mr. Bancroft has furnished the reader descriptions of several of the New Mexican group of pueblos, which he has extracted from the reports of various travelers. We do not consider it necessary to repeat accounts so generally accessible.[481] The New Mexican group, situated on the Rio Grande del Norte and its tributaries, is the most numerous in inhabited pueblos, but as they differ little if at all from those of the Moquis, further treatment of them is unnecessary. The pueblos which are and have been inhabited during the nineteenth century number about twenty, some of which are well known to have been occupied by the ancestors of their present inhabitants when first visited by the Spaniards. The best specimen of inhabited pueblos is that of Taos, situated on one of the northern forks of the river which gives it its name. There are two large houses, each between three and four hundred feet long by one hundred and fifty wide, situated on opposite sides of a small creek, and tradition states that formerly they were connected by a bridge. They are five and six stories high.
Besides the inhabited towns there are a number now unoccupied and fast going to decay. The names of these are given with slight variations by different writers; the following, however, are generally agreed upon: Pecos, Quivira, Valverda, San Lázaro, San Marcos, San Cristóbal, Socorro, Senacu, Abó, Quarra, Rita, Poblazon, old San Filipe, and old Zuñi.[482] The most important of all these ruins is Pecos, one of the sacred cities of the pueblos. Here the everlasting fire dedicated to their god Montezuma was kept burning from time immemorial down to the abandonment of the town, which occurred some time during the second quarter of the present century. The reader will remember, however, that the culture-god of the Pueblos and the Aztec monarch are in no sense to be associated with each other, since it is quite certain that they were not confounded in the mythology of the worshippers of the deity. Whether the Pueblos, Cliff-dwellers, etc., were ever in any way related to the Aztecs or any Nahua people is difficult to determine. Certainly there is no architectural nor traditional evidence that they were. When the Spaniards under Coronado traversed the region in 1540 A. D., no reports of inter-communication between the two peoples seem to have been current. Father Escalante, who in 1776 visited many of the pueblos, and mentions many ruins not since located, as well as many inhabited towns now in ruins, found nothing to really substantiate the “Aztec theory.”[483] On the contrary, substantial arguments can be presented for the intimate relationship of the Nahuas and some of the Pueblos.
In the tenth chapter of this work will be found the basis of linguistic affinities between the Nahua and Moqui languages, though none is claimed between the Nahua and New Mexican Pueblos. Mr. Becker, in his memoir addressed to the Congrès des Américanistes at Luxembourg, refers to Camergo’s account of the migration of the Teo-Chichimecs, the allies of the Toltecs, and to his statement that they came from Amaquetepic (“the mountains of the Amaques”), and expresses the belief that the words Amaques and Moquis are identical. Mr. Becker considers the “A” prefix of the former to be an abbreviation of the Nahua “atl” water, and Amaqui would mean the Maqui or Moqui living by the water, just as Acolhuas means Culhuas near the water and Anahuac, the Nahua land on the water. The tradition of the Moquis distinctly states that they formerly lived on the river at the north-east of their present home. The reader will remember that the Quichés called the Nahuas Yaqui, the name of a river of Sinaloa and Sonora where marked traces of the Nahua language are found, and the supposed locality of the first Toltec station. Is it not possible that Yaqui is a dialectic modification of Maqui or Moqui? It has been observed in the pages of this chapter that in more than one instance ruined pueblos were composed of either red adobe or had been painted, a circumstance which had won for them such a designation as “Red-house” or “Pueblo-pintado,” etc. Furthermore, the red glare of the desert north of the Moqui settlements has received the name of the “Painted desert.” The fact that Hue hue Tlapalan signifies “old red land” is suggestive that this locality may have been the mysterious rendezvous of the Toltecs. The Moquis like the Nahuas are sun-worshippers, though the ceremonial of both people differ considerably.
Besides the mound-works observed on the upper San Juan by Mr. Holmes associated with the work of the Cliff-dwellers, recent exploration has shown that combinations of mound and pueblo features of architecture exist in Utah. Dr. C. C. Parry found in a mound on the St. Clara River in Southern Utah very fine specimens of Pueblo pottery, and other articles which clearly identify its architects with the people of the cliffs or with the village builders at the South.[484] The recent exploration of several mounds in southern Utah by Dr. Edward Palmer fully confirms this conclusion. In Kane County, Utah, the same explorer discovered among a number of articles of apparent Moqui make in a cave-shelter, a shovel of horn having a blade fourteen inches long by five inches wide. Among the articles was a pair of shoes made of the fibre of the Yucca, which in style, shape, manner of braiding, etc., closely resemble shoes made of the leaves of the Typa found by Prof. F. W. Putnam in a cave in Kentucky.[485]
The mound examined by Mr. Barrand on the west fork of the Little Sioux of Dakota, and found to contain a large interior circular chamber, probably was the work of the ancestors of this western branch of the mound-building people.[486] The circular chamber was much like an estufa.
The many-sided culture-hero of the Pueblos, Montezuma, is the centre of a group of the most poetic myths found in Ancient American Mythology. The Pueblos believed in a supreme being, a good spirit, so exalted and worthy of reverence that his name was considered too sacred to mention, as, with the ancient Hebrews, Jehovah’s was the “unmentionable name.” Nevertheless Montezuma was the equal of this great spirit, and was often considered identical with the sun. The variety of aspects in which Montezuma is presented to us is due to the fact that each tribe of Pueblos had its particular legends concerning his birth and achievements. Many places in New Mexico claim the honor of his nativity at a period long before those village builders were acquainted with the arts of architecture, which have since given them their distinguishing name. In fact, this culture-god was none other than the genius who introduced the knowledge of building among them.[487] Some traditions, however, make him the ancestor and even the creator of the race; others, its prophet, leader and lawgiver. Mr. Bancroft says, “Under restrictions, we may fairly regard him as the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the Messiah of these Pueblo-desert wanderers from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his people how to build cities with tall houses, to construct Estufas, or semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire.” It has been aptly remarked by Mr. Tyler, that Montezuma was the great “somebody” of the tribe to whom the qualities and achievements of every other were attributed.
Fremont gives an account of the birth of the hero, in which his mother is declared to have been a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought for by all men. She was the recipient of rich presents of corn and skins from her admirers, yet she refused the hands of all her suitors. A famine soon occurred, and great distress followed. Now the fastidious beauty showed herself to be a lady of charitable spirit and tender heart. She opened her granaries, in which all her presents had been stored, and out of their abundance relieved the wants of the poor. The offerings of love were made to perform their mission a second time. At last, when the pure and plenteous rains again brought fertility to the earth, the summer shower fell upon the Pueblo goddess, and she gave birth to a son, the immortal Montezuma. The intelligent chief of the Papagoes, whose people occupy the territory between the Santa Cruz River and the Gulf of California, related a legend of the origin and offices of Montezuma, which, while it surprises the reader with its close resemblances to some leading points in the Hebrew and Chaldean genesis and deluge accounts, still is conspicuous for its inconsistencies, and in its closing statements for the absence of any knowledge of time or order.[488]
In substance it is as follows: The Great Spirit, having made all things—sky, earth, and the living creatures which inhabit it—descended into the earth for the purpose of creating man also. Digging in the earth, he found clay, such as a potter uses; this he carried back with him to his celestial abode, and dropped it again from the sky into the pit from which he had dug it. Instantly Montezuma, the genius of life, sprang from the pit, and became a partner in the creation of other men. The Apaches were the next formed, and were so wild that they severally ran away as fast as created. Those were golden days which followed the birth of the race; the sun was very much nearer the earth than now, and his grateful presence rendered clothing useless. A common language between all men, shared even by beasts, was one of the strongest possible bonds of peace.