A long time ago, before the white people came to live here, the COCHITI
Indians used to live in houses made by hollowing deep holes into the
north side of the deep canons. They built their houses to face the
south, because it was warmer in winter when the fierce north wind came
over the mountains to see what damage he could do. Instead of finding
houses to go into, he could only blow against the mountains.
The little boys used to climb down the sides of the cliffs from their
homes, and play in the warm sunshine with their tame foxes and make them
jump for dried meat.
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Sometimes they took their bows and arrows and went out to hunt wild
turkeys in the arroyos, or deep gullies around their homes.
At night the foxes found a warm place in some house that had been
deserted, perhaps because the opening had grown too large and the sand
had drifted in, or perhaps because it was not sheltered enough from the
snow in winter. The boys would climb to their own houses.
In those days, the men and boys had to watch from high places to warn
the people of the approach of any of their enemies, because the NAVAJO
and APACHE Indians troubled the PUEBLO Indians a great deal in olden
times.
As long as the watchers could see no enemy, the women used to carry
water from the river--which was quite far away--gather wood and till
little patches of ground, but as soon as the enemy came down upon them,
they looked for water in wells dug into the rock to hold the rain when
it fell. This water was always saved for cases of this kind.
[Illustration: SOMETIMES THEY WENT OUT TO HUNT WILD TURKEYS.]
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