The table-lands above the ravines were, as a rule, fairly fertile, and the Indians were able to grow maize, or Indian corn. When they were obliged to give up the roving life of hunters, animal food must have become a scarce luxury.
Being an industrious race, they were not long content to live in the rugged caverns as nature made them, but with wonderful labour built walls, floors, and roofs, to make their homes more comfortable, and to keep out the icy winds which howled up the canyons. The marvel is how they reached their homes, which are often at great heights; and one shudders to think of how many stray babies, clambering children, and nervous folk of all ages, must have stumbled and fallen over the rocky platforms to certain death. Every drop of water, every bit of fuel, and all food of every kind, must have been carried up those awful precipices, usually on ladders placed from ledge to ledge, and drawn up after the climber. That any people should choose such dwelling-places shows how unsafe life down in the plains must have been, and later on we will try to see how far the Cave Indians contrived to secure peace and comfort in their cliff houses.
Helena Heath.
PUZZLERS FOR WISE HEADS.
10.—Oblique Puzzle.
Each word is one letter shorter than the one before. The initials, read downwards, give the name of a South American city.
- The highest degree of respect.
- Bitter hatred.
- A common and useful covering for the floor.
- A model of excellence.
- A woman's name.
- A sharp instrument.
- A curved structure.
- Congealed water.
- An adverb.
- A vowel.
C. J. B.