slept in the safe. The many students who wished
copies of their very own were referred to dealers in Americana, who
searched for this already rare volume; and many were proud to get it, at
last, at ten, fifteen and even twenty times its original price. It will
always be a standard--the most photographic story yet printed of the
life of the prehistoric Americans.
CHARLES F. LUMMIS.
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATIONS
Portrait of the Author Frontispiece FACING PAGE The East End of
the Cañon of the Tyuonyi 8 A Modern Indian Dance 18 An Estufa 18
Rito de los Frijoles: Cavate Rooms in Cliff; Ruins of Talus Pueblo at
the Foot of Cliff 38 A Westerly Cliff of the Habitations of the Tyuonyi,
Showing Second and Third Story Caves, and Some High Lookout
Caves 70 A Navajo Hogan 88 The Heart of the Tyuonyi: The
Excavated Lower Story of the Great Terraced Communal House 88
Rito de los Frijoles: A Cliff Estufa of the Snake-Clan 116 The Dance of
the Ayash Tyucotz 140 Indian Pueblo Dances of To-day: Lining Up for
the Dance; The "Clowns" 164 Type of Old Indian Woman 186 Juanico:
A Member of the Modern Village-Council 224 The Hishtanyi Chayan,
or Chief Medicine Man 256 Looking Out from One of the Weathered
Cave-Rooms of the Snake-Clan 320 Rito de los Frijoles: Looking Out
from the Ceremonial Cave 384 Ruins of an Ancient Pueblo 472 A
Modern Pueblo 486
* * * * *
THE DELIGHT MAKERS
CHAPTER I.
The mountain ranges skirting the Rio Grande del Norte on the west,
nearly opposite the town of Santa Fé, in the Territory of New Mexico,
are to-day but little known. The interior of the chain, the Sierra de los
Valles, is as yet imperfectly explored. Still, these bald-crested
mountains, dark and forbidding as they appear from a distance, conceal
and shelter in their deep gorges and clefts many a spot of great natural
beauty, surprisingly picturesque, but difficult of access. From the river
these cañons, as they are called in New Mexico, can be reached only by
dint of toilsome climbing and clambering; for their western openings
are either narrow gaps, or access to them is barred by colossal walls
and pillars of volcanic rocks. The entire formation of the chain, as far
as it faces the Rio Grande, is volcanic, the walls of the gorges
consisting generally of a friable white or yellowish tufa containing
nodules of black, translucent obsidian. The rock is so soft that in many
places it can be scooped out or detached with the most primitive tools,
or even with the fingers alone. Owing to this peculiarity the slopes
exposed to the south and east, whence most of the heavy rains strike
them, are invariably abrupt, and often even perpendicular; whereas the
opposite declivities, though steep, still afford room for scanty
vegetation. The gorges run from west to east,--that is, they descend
from the mountain crests to the Rio Grande, cutting the long and
narrow pedestal on which the high summits are resting.
Through some but not all of these gorges run never-failing streams of
clear water. In a few instances the gorge expands and takes the
proportions of a narrow vale. Then the high timber that usually skirts
the rivulets shrinks to detached groves, and patches of clear land appear,
which, if cultivated, would afford scanty support to one or two modern
families. To the village Indian such tillable spots were of the greatest
value. The deep ravine afforded shelter not only against the climate but
against roving enemies, and the land was sufficient for his modest
crops; since his wants were limited, and game was abundant.
The material of which the walls of these cañons are composed,
suggested in times past to the house-building Indian the idea of using
them as a home. The tufa and pumice-stone are so friable that, as we
have said, the rock can be dug or burrowed with the most primitive
implements. It was easier, in fact, to excavate dwellings than to pile up
walls in the open air.
Therefore the northern sides of these secluded gorges are perforated in
many places by openings similar in appearance to pigeon-holes. These
openings are the points of exit and entrance of artificial caves, dug out
by sedentary aborigines in times long past. They are met with in
clusters of as many as several hundred; more frequently, however, the
groups are small. Sometimes two or more tiers of caves are
superimposed. From the objects scattered about and in the cells, and
from the size and disposition of the latter, it becomes evident that the
people who excavated and inhabited them were on the same level of
culture as the so-called Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.
It is not surprising,
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