Two cliff houses of small size were visited in Nashlini Canyon which
appear to be those casually mentioned by Dr. Prudden,[6] but, so far as
known, they have not been described. This canyon is one of the southern
branches of the Chelly Canyon, and although not very extensive shares
with it many characteristics. A trip can be made into it by automobile
as far as the first cliff house.
The ruin most easily visited (fig. 2) in this canyon is on a
comparatively low shelf in a shallow cave, 40 feet high, a few feet
above the top of the talus. Like many other cliff houses it is divided
into two parts, called the upper and the lower, according to the level
they occupy. The lower is practically buried under rocks fallen from
the walls of the upper house. The front wall of the upper part is well
preserved and closely follows the contour of the low ridge on which
it stands. The masonry is fairly good, but the floors of the rooms
are buried under a thick deposit of sheep droppings, solidly packed,
showing that the enclosures have been used secondarily as corrals for
these domesticated animals. The partition walls of the rooms end on the
vertical wall of the precipice, the face of the precipice serving as
their rear wall. It thus happens that there is no recess between the
back of the rooms and the rear of the cave, as commonly found in cliff
dwellings. Circular rooms are absent in the upper part of this ruin,
and kivas, if any, must be sought buried under the accumulated débris
of the lower part. The front wall of the upper house measures 64 feet,
and can be traced throughout its whole extent. At one end of the ruin
there are four narrow rooms separated by partitions, each containing
a grinding bin, where maize (corn) was reduced to meal. The remaining
rooms are roofless, plastered, and evidently used as dwellings. In
the lower series of rooms, buried beneath a mass of fallen rocks, are
circular depressions, which may be ceremonial rooms; but no excavations
were made in these depressions and their significance is unknown.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Ground plan of cliff ruin in Nashlini Canyon.]
Another cliff house, a few miles farther up in the canyon, is almost
hidden in an inaccessible recess of the cliff, but so high that it was
not visited.
On the dizzy top of a cliff overlooking the canyon, near the second
ruin, artificial walls were observed but not visited. An Indian guide
claimed that they were towers; they are certainly so situated as to
permit a wide view up and down the canyon. These walls are mentioned by
Dr. Prudden.
On the walls of the canyon not far from the first ruin there is an
instructive group of pictographs (fig. 3) representing human beings,
some painted red, others white, standing in three lines. The majority
have triangular bodies with shoulders prolonged into arms at right
angles to the body; the forearms hanging from their extremities, as is
common in this region. On each side of the head are lateral extensions
recalling the whorls in which Hopi maidens still dress their hair, a
custom that has passed out of use among the other pueblos, but is still
preserved in personifying supernatural beings called Katcina maids. It
appears to have been a universal custom of the unmarried women among
the cliff dwellers to dress their hair in this fashion. These figures
are arranged in three rows; three individuals are depicted in the upper
row, four in the middle, and two in the lower row painted white, unlike
the others. Below the figures are rows of dots and several parallel
bars accompanied by a number of zigzag figures like lightning symbols.
On the supposition that the red figures represent Indian men or women,
the white figures may be white men and the dots and bars an aboriginal
count, the whole representing participants in some past event.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.—Pictographs near mouth of Nashlini Canyon.]