The cave houses were usually dug out in the rocks by human beings. They
were cut in the soft rock with picks or axes of stone. Some of these
dwellings were cut out as simple open caves. In such, there were walls
erected at the front. The cave might be so cut that the rock face remained
for the front wall of the house; a hole was first cut for a doorway, and
then the room or rooms would be dug out from it behind the cliff wall.
Some persons believe these three kinds of houses were built by three
distinct peoples or tribes. This is not likely, for sometimes two or all
three kinds are found together, so related as to show that all were
occupied at one time by the people of one village.
About twenty or twenty-five miles up the Rio Grande from the pueblo of
Cochiti, New Mexico, is a brook called _El Rito de los Frijoles_, which
means “the brook of the beans.” It runs in a fine gorge with rock banks;
large pine trees grow in the valley and cap the summits of the chasm. In
one of the side cliffs are hundreds of holes, the remains of old dug cave
rooms and houses. In most of them the rock cliff face itself forms the
front wall of the house. We entered one single-roomed house that looked
almost as if it had been used yesterday.
We crept in through a little doorway about a dozen feet up in the cliff
and found ourselves in a small room about fifteen feet square. We could
see the marks on the roof and the upper part of the walls, where stone
picks had been used in cutting out the house. The floor was neatly
smoothed, and covered with hard clay. The lower part of the wall was
finished smooth with clay, washed over with a thin coat of fine
cream-colored clay. The roof was black with the smoke of ancient fires; a
little smoke-hole pierced the forward wall, near and above, but at one
side of, the door. There were niches cut out in the wall, where little
treasures used to be kept. Ends of poles set in the rock seemed to be pegs
upon which objects were hung; their unevenly cut ends showed the marks of
stone axes. In the floor we found a line of loops to which the bottom pole
of the old blanket-weaving loom must have been fastened.
But these cave houses are not the only ruins at El Rito. Along certain
parts of the cliff are remains of ancient buildings of the true pueblo
type, which had been built against the base of the cliff. They are often
placed in such a way with reference to cave rooms in the cliff as to show
that both were parts of one great building. Thus, on the ground floor
there might be two pueblo rooms in front of a cave room, on the second
floor there might be one pueblo room in front of one cave room, and on the
third floor there might be only cave rooms. Following up the cañon a
little way from this mass of ruins, passing other cave houses, and
heaped-up rubbish of old pueblo walls, on the way, we see, perhaps a
hundred feet up the cliff, a great natural cavern. Climbing to it, we find
as genuine cliff houses constructed therein as those of Mancos Cañon
itself. It is certain that at El Rito the people built at one time the
three kinds of houses,—the pueblo, the cliff house, the cave house.
At El Rito we find what is common near these ruins in many places,—great
numbers of pictures cut in the rock wall. These pictures are sometimes
painted as well as cut in, and often represent sent the sun, the moon,
human beings, and animals.
Many relics are found at these ruins. The old _metatés_ and rubbing stones
for grinding meal are common. Axes, adzes, and picks of stone are not
rare, and once in a while a specimen is found with the old handle still
attached. These stone tools have a groove around the blade. A flexible
branch was bent around this and tied, thus forming the handle. Many round
pebbles are found which are much battered; these were hammers. Pieces of
sandstone are found with straight grooves worn across them; they were used
to straighten and smooth arrows on. Arrow heads and spear heads made of
chert, jasper, chalcedony, and obsidian, are common. Sometimes yarns of
different colors, bits of cloth, and objects made of hair are found.
Sandals neatly woven of yucca fiber are common.
In many of these old caves dried bodies have been found. They are usually
called “mummies,” but wrongly so. Sometimes sandals are found still upon
their feet, and not rarely the blankets made of feather cloth, in which
they were wrapped, are preserved. This was made by fastening feathers into
a rather open-work cloth of cords.
The art of all arts, however, among the people who built these ancient
houses is the one in which modern Pueblos excel,—pottery. Thousands of
whole vessels have been taken from these ruins. There are many
forms,—great water-jars, flasks, cups, bowls, ladles,—and, in ware and
decoration, they are much better than those made by modern Pueblos. The
ware is generally thinner, better baked, firmer, and gives a better ring
when struck. The decorations are usually good geometrical designs.
The ancient builders were, in culture, mode of life, and architecture,
much like the modern Pueblos. It is probable that some of them were the
ancestors of the Pueblo Indians. The Mokis claim that some of the ruins of
the McElmo Cañon were the old homes of their people; and the inhabitants
of Cochiti assert that it was their forefathers who lived at _El Rito de
los Frijoles_. We cannot say of every ruined building who built it, but
certainly the builders were Indians very like the Pueblos.
ADOLF F. BANDELIER.—Historian, archæologist; made an extended
study of the ruins of New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico.