Fig. 109. Construction of a Zuñi corral.
In both of the pueblo groups under discussion, small gardens contiguous to the villages are frequent. Those of Tusayan are walled in with stone.
Within the pueblo of Zuñi a small group of garden patches is inclosed by stake fences, but the majority of the gardens in the vicinity of the
principal villages are provided with low walls of mud masonry. The small terraced gardens here are near the river bank on the southwest and southeast sides of the village. The inclosed spaces, averaging in size about 10 feet square, are used for the cultivation of red peppers, beans, etc., which, during the dry season, are watered by hand. These inclosures, situated close to the dwellings, suggest a probable explanation for similar inclosures found in many of the ruins in the southern and eastern portions of the ancient pueblo region. Mr. Bandelier was informed by the Pimas[10] that these inclosures were ancient gardens. He concluded that since acequias were frequent in the immediate vicinity these gardens must have been used as reserves in case of war, when the larger fields were not available, but the manner of their occurrence in Zuñi suggests rather that they were intended for cultivation of special crops, such as pepper, beans, cotton, and perhaps also of a variety of
tobacco—corn, melons, squashes, etc., being cultivated elsewhere in larger tracts. There is a large group of gardens on the bank of the stream at the southeastern corner of Zuñi, and here there are slight indications of terracing. A second group on the steeper slope at the southwestern corner is distinctly terraced. Small walled gardens of the same type as these Zuñi examples occur in the vicinity of some of the Tusayan villages on the middle mesa. They are located near the springs or water pockets, apparently to facilitate watering by hand. Some of them contain a few small peach trees in addition to the vegetable crops ordinarily met with. The clusters here are, as a rule, smaller than those of Zuñi, as there is much less space available in the vicinity of the springs. At one point on the west side of the first mesa, a few miles above Walpi, a copious spring serves to irrigate quite an extensive series of small garden patches distributed over lower slopes.
Plate CXI. Zuñi eagle-cage.