about the graves of the Pecos Indians. He finally replied (after he had
for a time insisted upon it that they were at the church) that before
they became Christians ("antes que fueron cristianos") they buried their
dead on the right bank of the Arroyo de Pecos, where he had often seen
the skeletons (las calaveras, the corpses) washed out of the cliffs and
strewn about. At Mrs. Kozlowski's, this also appeared to be a known
fact; but an examination of the creek banks showed no trace of bones,
and showed no other structures except the mound already mentioned on the
left shore. In the cliffs of the basin which I have now described I met
with the first sign of what Sr. Ruiz called "El Campo-Santo de los
Indios, antes que fueron Cristianos." Still it is not at all positive,
because the surface of the level west of the bluff shows extensive but
flat and low mounds, covered with stones used for building, and with
painted pottery, showing that at least adjoining the human remains a
very large building, if not several, had stood at some very remote time.
The wall would then stand towards that ancient structure in the same
relation as the mound or chamber _V_ stands towards the ruin _A_ on the
_mesilla_; and it would indicate the custom on the part of their
inhabitants of burying their dead around their houses, or at least in
sight of the rising sun, and in little chambers of stone. This view is
corroborated by the statement of Mr. E. K. Walters, of Pecos, that at a
place which I have marked _a_ (therefore to the north of the wall) he
dug out, very near the edge of the bluff, a stone grave, and with it a
human skeleton. The grave was a rectangle, walled up on four sides, with
stones on the top and no floor. The western side was rounded, so as to
present the following plan:--
[Illustration: Grave]
In it lay the skeleton, two feet below the soil, the feet pointing
eastward. The length of the chamber was about one third of a large man's
body; the head lay at the west end, amongst the bones of the chest. It
had therefore been buried in a sitting posture facing the rising
sun.[127] Along with the body arrow-heads were found, and pieces of
tanned deerskin, such as are still worn by the Indians. Of course, all
traces of the skull, etc., have since disappeared.
While this conversation was taking place, the partner of Mr. Walters,
Sr. Juan Basa y Salazar, came in, and the question of the great bell
(which I have already mentioned) came up for discussion. All the parties
assured me that this bell formerly belonged to the church of Pecos, and
that after the outbreak of 1680 the Indians carried it up into their
winter pueblo, on the top of the high mesa, where it broke and they left
it. The positive assertion that the winter pueblo of the Pecos tribe was
about 2,000 feet higher than the great ruins on the _mesilla_--that
these ruins themselves were but their summer houses--was very startling.
It appeared incredible that the Indians should have left their
comfortable quarters in the coldest season to look for shelter in the
highest and coldest places of the whole region. Still, my informants
being old residents and candid men, with certainly no intention to
deceive me, and there being besides confused reports of the existence of
ruins on the mesa current among the people of the valley, I resolved to
devote my last day to a rapid reconnoissance of the elevated plateau.
Therefore, after a visit to the Plaza de Pecos, on the 5th of September,
where the Rev. Father Leon Mailluchet confirmed the reports about the
winter houses on the mesa, I set out (always on foot) on the morning of
the 6th, Mr. Thomas Munn having volunteered to be my guide.
We followed the railroad track downwards, and about a mile and a half
south of Baughl's, east of the track, met a tolerably large mound. At
the station of Kingman, four miles from Baughl's, there is also a ruined
stone house, rectangular, but smaller than any one of those on the
_mesilla_.[128] I had no time to make any survey. We went along the
railroad for one mile farther, then struck to the S. W. across a
recently cultivated but abandoned field, and finally reached the apron
of gravelly clay and locas skirting the high mesa. Here Mr. Munn assured
me were the remains of stone structures all along for miles, and
especially stone graves. Of the latter he had seen "hundreds." He
described them exactly as Mr. Walters had, and as I had found the pit in
mound V, and described the position of the skeleton also as if sitting
with the face to the east. We soon came to a walled ruin 6 m. x 6 m. or
20 ft. x 20 ft., the walls composed of sandstone,--a range of rubble
blocks very much ruined,--a _pinon_ having a diameter of 0.45 m.--18
in.--shooting up from the interior. 50 m.--165 ft.--further north a
clearly defined estufa is seen, 4 m.--13 ft.--across, with stone walls 1
m.--3 ft. 3 in.--in width. The apron of the mesa is overgrown with fine
pines. Thence, following a tie-shoot, we ascended very nearly
vertically, about 1,000 feet at least, to the top. Here already the view
to the E. and S. was magnificent; but the air was light and chilly.
Thunder-clouds were hovering N. and E., rain-streaks pouring down on the
Sierra de Tecolote, and soon a heavy cloud formed south of us, while
others were slowly nearing from the N.E. The mesa dips or slants
decidedly to the W. and S.W.; the strata on its surface are tilted up to
a high pitch, and appear to be almost vertical. The ground is very
rocky, covered with high _pinon_.
Notwithstanding the steadily nearing thunder, we plunged to the S.W.,
past the tie-camp of Mr. Keno, and soon struck the source of an arroyo
in a rocky, desolate hollow, pines shooting up in and around it. There,
on its left bank, were the foundations of a stone structure 11 m. x 3
m.--36 ft. x 10 ft. About three miles from the edge of the mesa, in a
still wilder _canada_, where there is no space nor site for any abode
around, the bell was found. There is no trace of any "winter house"
here,--not even on the entire mesa; and the bell was left there, not
because its carriers there remained, but because it dropped there and
broke. Who these carriers were I shall discuss further on; at all
events, they were not the Indians of Pecos. This _canada_ is the
entrance to a gorge descending directly towards the pueblo of
Galisteo.[129] Meanwhile the clouds had accumulated over our heads,
sharp thunder-claps and icy blasts preceding the storm. It was of short
duration, but as the hail fell thickly we were thoroughly pelted and wet
before again reaching the camp, glad to enjoy the hospitality and hot
coffee of its inmates. At one P.M. the sun shone again, and we started
(this time to the north) along the border of the mesa. Vegetation is
here more exuberant than in the valley of Pecos. Not only do tall pines
grow everywhere, but there is a thick undergrowth of _encina_; the Yucca
is large and green, mountain sage covers the soil, and grassy levels are
dotted with flowers. Animal life, also, is more vigorous and more
varied. Whereas in the valley crows and turkey-buzzards alone enliven
the air, and there are scarcely any beetles; up here there is deer and
turkey, and the gray wolf; jays and magpies flutter through the
thickets, and the horned lizard is met with occasionally. The pith of
the pine-trees attracts a large species of buprestis, and lepidopterae
are quite common. But there is not the least vestige of former human
dwellings, so far as I could see: the top of the mesa of Pecos is, and
was, a wilderness. It may have been the hunting-grounds of the tribe
even in winter, but as for their exchanging their large pueblo at the
bottom for a residence on the top it is very much as if the good people
of New York City should spend Christmas week on the Catskill Range, or
the Bostonians take winter quarters on Mount Monadnock. We followed the
crest of the mesa for nearly four miles, ascending two of its highest
tops. They are steep, denuded, and craggy. Beneath them vertical ledges
descend in amphitheatres. From the highest point the horizon to the
south appears unbounded. Like a small cone, the peak of Bernal seems to
guard the lowest end of the Valley of Pecos. Over this vale rain-clouds
still cast their shadows, and distant thunder muttered behind the Owl
Mountains and the high Sierras in the north. To the west and south-west
are almost unlimited expanses of slope, dark green pineries, and grassy
spots. The bold outline of the Sandia Mountains looms up stately beyond
it. Even the distant Sierra de Jemez protrudes. Between it and the
northern limits of the mesa lies, far off yet, the city of Santa Fe.
The mesa is mostly yellow sandstone, but its highest points are capped
with red; therefore the name of "Cerro amarillo" often applied to it.
Through a gorge worn in the rock, and on an almost perpendicular
"burro-trail," we finally descended to the apron of the plateau,
surrounded during our descent by scenery as weird and wild as any of the
lower Alps of Switzerland. On the lower edge of the apron, a mile and a
half north of Kingman, and half a mile from the railroad track, we
struck again several ruins. They were partitioned rectangles, very
similar in size and in condition to the foundations seen south of the
old church of Pecos, and, like those, utterly devoid of fragments of
pottery. Along their eastern line, and inside of the walls, there
appeared little square heaps of stones. These were the graves of which
my guide had spoken, and their position is exactly similar to that of
those near and at the pueblo itself.[130]
My time was up, however, and I could not stop to explore them. I
therefore returned to Baughl's, and thence to Santa Fe, with the firm
determination to revisit Pecos at a future day, and then do what I was
compelled reluctantly to leave undone this time. Should, in the mean
time, some archaeologist explore the same locality, correct my errors,
and unravel the mysteries hovering about the place, I heartily wish him
as much pleasure and quiet enjoyment as I have had during my ten days'
work, in which the dream of a life has at last begun its realization.
Before, however, turning to the close of my report, which will embody
scraps of history gathered about the place, remarks on the customs and
arts of its former inhabitants, and general reflections, I must express
my thanks here to a few gentlemen not yet named in this "personal
narrative." Besides Mr. J. D. C. Thurston, who kindly assisted me for
the first two days, Mr. G. C. Bennet, the skilful photographer, of whose
ability his work is telling, has been for two days a pleasant and
welcome companion. Last, but certainly not least, I thank Mr. John D.
McRae, not only for his assistance free of expense to the Institute in
many important mechanical matters, but especially for the solicitude
with which he has watched my work and looked to my comforts, and for the
great store of information I have gathered from his conversation.
HISTORY.
My survey of the grounds occupied by the aboriginal ruins in the valley
of the Pecos indicates, as I have already stated, three epochs,
successive probably in time, in which they have been occupied by man;
that is, I have noticed these, and beyond these I have not been able to
go as yet. Subsequent explorers may be more fortunate. This distinction,
or rather classification, is very imperfect in the two earlier stages,
and even arbitrary; but between the second and the last there is a
marked break,--not in time, but in ethnological development. I shall
term the three epochs as follows:--
1. Pre-traditional. (Indicated by the presence of the corrugated and
indented pottery as its most conspicuous "land-mark.")
2. Traditional and documentary. (Documents in the sense of written
records.)
3. Documentary period.
THE PRE-TRADITIONAL PERIOD.
I have not been able to detect as yet among the confused traditions
current about the pueblo of Pecos any tale concerning occupation of
their grounds by human beings prior to the settlement of which the ruins
now bear testimony. It is true that the proper traditions of the tribe
of Pecos are now preserved only at the pueblo of Jemez, about eighty
miles N.W. of Pecos and fifty miles W. of Santa Fe, and that I have not
as yet visited that place.[131] But it must be remembered that I now
report "up to date," and that subsequent information will, or at least
should, come in time.
My reason for admitting a pre-traditional period is, then, simply that I
have found human remains at Pecos older than those of the present ruins
and different in kind. These remains, as it may already have been
inferred from the "personal narrative," are those found on the west side
of the arroyo, in the basin (or rather the bank encircling it) opposite
the rock carvings.
One fact is certain, the human bones, the walls protruding from the
banks, and the grave found by Mr. E. K. Walters, are all above the layer
of white ashes, charcoal, corncobs, and corrugated pottery found as a
continuous seam along an extent of over 100 m.--327 ft.--from N. to S.
Consequently, the walls and graves must have been built over these
remains of a people which appears to have made indented and corrugated
pottery alone, and consequently also the latter must be older in time
than the former. It does not appear that the sedentary Indians of New
Mexico ever made, within traditional and documentary times, any other
than the painted pottery in greater or less degree of perfection. Even
Gaspar Castano de la Sosa, when he made his inroad into New Mexico in
1590, mentions at the first pueblo which he conquered: "They have much
pottery,--red, figured, and black,--platters, caskets, salters,
bowls.... Some of the pottery was glazed."[132] The corrugated and
indented pottery, as I am assured by Sr. Vigil, is rarely met with over
New Mexico, except at old ruined pueblos, and only when digging (en
cavando).[133] I feel, therefore, justified in assuming it to have been
the manufactured ware of a people distinct from the Pecos tribe or the
pueblo Indians of New Mexico in general, and their predecessors in point
of time. This pottery, however, is frequently met with among the cliff
dwellings of the Rio Mancos and in Utah.[134] Its relation, then, to the
painted pottery has, as far as I know, not yet been investigated.
But what could have been the purpose in covering originally a space of
over 100 m.--327 ft.--in length with the products of combustion and
fragments of one and the same industry in such a manner as to form an
uninterrupted layer of 0.45 m.--18 in.--at least in thickness? Those who
subsequently buried their dead over the seam certainly did not collect
these ashes and spread them there as a floor on which they rested their
structures afterwards. The combustion of a large wooden building would
not have given the same uniformity on such a large scale. Sr. Vigil has
suggested to me the following very plausible explanation: In order to
burn or bake their pottery, the present pueblo Indians of New Mexico
build large but low hearths on the ground of small wood, sticks, and
other inflammable rubbish and refuse, on which they place the newly
formed articles, and then set the floor on fire, until the whole is
thoroughly burnt. Fragments of broken objects, etc., are not removed.
The combustible material is thus reduced to ashes, and the broken pieces
remain within them; their convex surfaces, of course, falling outwards,
and thus resting on the floor. In this manner a thick layer of ashes
and charcoal, with pottery, is easily formed. These "hogueras" are still
from 20 to 40 feet in diameter; but, as they accommodate themselves to
the size of the pueblo, it is certain that they were formerly much
larger. The analogy between such a "potters'-field" and the layer in
question is very striking, and the inference appears likely that the
people who made this corrugated and indented pottery made it in the same
manner as the pueblo Indians now make their painted ware, and as they
made it at the time of the conquest.
These very old manufacturers of indented ceramics were also a
horticultural people, for they raised Indian corn. The cob found in the
ashes, or rather cut out with the knife at some distance inside the
bluff, is charred and small. To what variety of Zea it belongs the
specialist must decide.
I hold it to be utterly useless, and even improper, on my part to
speculate any further on these "pre-traditional" people. Perhaps I have
already said too much. Excavations alone can throw further light on the
subject.
THE TRADITIONAL AND DOCUMENTARY PERIOD.
The term "traditional" is applied to this period, because the people
occupying the site of Old Pecos have left some traditions behind them,
and not because we know when it commenced. In fact, I am much inclined
to divide it, for the sake of convenience, into two periods again, one
of which includes the occupation of the area within the circumvallation
and its necessary annexes (field, etc.), whereas the other includes the
area without. Of the former, we have definite knowledge in regard to its
inhabitants; of the latter, we have none whatever. It is therefore also
pre-traditional as yet. Nevertheless, I have included it in the second
epoch, as its ruins indicate that its people possessed arts identical
with those of the present pueblo Indians. Their pottery, wherever
exposed, was painted, figured, and vitrified in places; its
ornamentation is exactly similar to that of the pottery of the interior
area, and different from that of Zuni. They used flint, but no trace of
obsidian is found. This may be purely accidental; still, why should it
occur at three places so totally different in regard to erosion and
abrasion as the slope south of the church, the west bank of the creek
directly opposite, and, if thorough examination should confirm the
results of my cursory observations, the apron of the high mesa? The
graves, wherever found, are identical with those of the _mesilla_; the
plan of building, and consequently of living,[135] appears similar to
that exhibited in houses _A_ and _B_; the material used is the same, but
the walls are more ruinous, and apparently of a much older date. The
inference is therefore not unreasonable, that the inhabitants of the
three areas named, as outside of the great circumvallation, were of the
kind now called "pueblo Indians," who preceded the tribe of Pecos proper
in point of time. It is not improbable that one or the other of these
ruins may have been erected by the Pecos themselves before they settled
on the mesilla. Still, there is neither proof nor disproval of this
surmise extant.
There appears to be also a slight difference between the different ruins
of this period themselves. The ruins south of the church and those along
the mesa are similar, in that they are more ruined, and not covered with
_debris_, and in that their surfaces are also devoid of pottery. The
space west of the creek has pottery and also heaps of rubbish, and I
therefore conclude that it was the most recent of the three
locations,--or at least the one last abandoned. To it must be added the
small mound or promontory found further south on the east bank of the
arroyo. One fact is certain: all these places were deserted, and perhaps
as badly ruined as now, at the time when Coronado first visited
Pecos.[136] (The partial removal of the surface material may have been
effected by the Pecos Indians themselves in order to build their own
houses.)
Referring now to the inhabitants of the two houses, whose ruins are
situated on the mesilla, north of the church, it is a thoroughly
well-authenticated fact that they spoke the same language as the Indians
of the pueblo of Jemez. Jemez lies 80 miles N.W. of Pecos, beyond the
Rio Grande. It is possible that the Pecos Indians came to the valley
from that direction. But it is singular that, while there are no other
settlements speaking this same idiom but Jemez and Pecos, these two
pueblos should be separated, as early as at Coronado's time (1540), by
three distinct linguistical stocks, different from theirs and lying
across, intervening between them. Directly W. of Pecos the Queres, S.W.
the Tanos, N.W. the Tehuas--all at war with the Jemez and the Pecos, and
often with each other--lay like a barrier between the latter two. The
point is an interesting one, as the pueblo of Pecos defines (together
with Taos at the north) the utmost easterly limit to which the pueblo
Indians seem to have penetrated.
Who were first in the valley of the Rio Grande? Did the Queres, Tanos,
Tehuas, etc., drive out the Pecos, then already settled to the S.W.,
into the Sierra, or did the Pecos, migrating from Jemez, force their
passage through the other tribes? I conjecture that the Jemez, etc.,
were the first; that they migrated down the Rio Grande, and on the same
area, between Sandia to the S. and Santa Fe, were gradually displaced by
the others successively coming in,--one branch, the Jemez, recoiling
into the mountains towards San Diego;[137] the other, the Pecos, driven
up the canon of San Cristobal,[138] and finally, when the Tanos moved up
into that valley, crossing over to the valley of Pecos.
This is to a great extent conjecture; still there are other singular
indications. I give them with due reserve, however, formally protesting
against any imputation that they are intended for anything else than to
suggest problems for future study.
According to my friend Mr. A. S. Gatchet, of Washington, D. C., an
excellent linguist, the Tanos and the inhabitants of Isleta, the most
southerly pueblo on the Rio Grande still occupied, speak the same
language.[139] The same is asserted here, as a known fact, to be the
case with the Taos and the Picuries in the north, and the Isletas at the
south. If this be true, then the supposition that the Queres and Tehuas
are the latest intrusive stock would become a certainty. More than that:
the Tanos prior to 1680, had their chief pueblo at San Cristobal, N. E.
of Galisteo, on the slope of the mesa of Pecos. They also had become
dispossessed of the Rio Grande valley, and divided into (originally)
two branches,--the Picuries and Taos north, and the Tanos, of Galisteo,
east. Isleta itself is a later agglomeration.[140] There being no pueblo
E. and S. E. of Pecos, then it appears that the Jemez, or rather Emmes,
were the first migration, the Tanos the second, and the Queres and
Tehuas the last.
The earliest traditions of the Pecos are preserved to us by Pedro de
Castaneda, one of the eye-witnesses and chroniclers of Coronado's
"march" in 1540. They told him that, five or six years (?) before the
arrival of the Spaniards, a roaming tribe called the "Teyas" (Yutas) had
ravaged the surroundings of their pueblo, and even, though fruitlessly,
attempted to capture it.[141] This tribe was afterwards met by Coronado
in the plains to the N.E. and E.[142]
Another tradition, very well known,--so well, indeed, that it has given
to the name of the unlucky "capitan de la guerra" of the ancient
Mexicans the honorific title of an aboriginal "cultus-hero,"--is that of
Montezuma.
I hope, at some future time, to be able to give some further information
on this Spanish-Mexican importation. Suffice it to say for the present,
that not a single one of the numerous chronicles and reports about New
Mexico, up to the year 1680, mentions the Montezuma story! The word
itself, Mon-te-zuma, is a corruption of the Mexican word
"Mo-tecu-zoma,"--literally, "my wrathy chief,"--which corruption that
eminently "reliable gentleman," Bernal Diez de Castillo, is to be
thanked for. He wrote in 1568.[143]
What the Indians themselves say of this tale I have not as yet
ascertained; but the people of the valley all assert that the people of
the pueblo believe in it,--that they even affirmed that Montezuma was
born at Pecos; that he wore golden shoes, and left for Mexico, where,
for the sake of these valuable brogans, he was ruthlessly slaughtered.
They further say that, when he left Pecos, he commanded that the holy
fire should be kept burning till his return, in testimony whereof the
sacred embers were kept aglow till 1840, and then transferred to Jemez.
There is one serious point in the whole story, and that is the
illustration how an evident mixture of a name with the Christian faith
in a personal redeemer, and dim recollections of Coronado's presence and
promise to return,[144] could finally take the form of a mythological
personage. In this respect, for the study of mythology in general, it is
of great importance. That the sacred fire had, originally, nothing at
all to do with the Montezuma legend is amply proven by the earliest
reports.
It will also become interesting to ascertain in the future how many
pueblos, and which, concede to Pecos the honor of being the birthplace
of that famed individual, and how many, as is the case with other great
folks in more civilized communities, claim the same honor for
themselves.
I cannot, therefore, attach to the Montezuma tale any historical
importance whatever,--not even a traditional value.