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Show 146 the population was doubtless much greater. The stone composing the walls are black basaltic lava, and have probably been brought from a considerable distance, as we were unable to discover any large deposit of this material in the vicinity. At the Sresent time these walls are but 18 inches in height, and are gradually crumbling own, but enough debris is scattered about to show that an enormous quantity of the stone was used in the construction. Interspersed with the stones are found great quantities of broken pottery, exhibiting the same peculiarities of markings and colorations as the fragments found in other ancient dwelling- places in this part of New Mexico, for examples of which the reader is referred to the report of Lieut. Jas. H. Simpson, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, entitled, " Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe\ N. Mex., to the Navajo Country/ 1 published in 1852 by Lippincott Grambo & Co., in Philadelphia. These illustrations are faithful representations of just such specimens of pottery as we have now in our collection from this village. In addition to the fragments of pottery, we found chips of black obsidian, of red porphyry, and carnelian, white and red; but not a bead, an arrow, a lance- head, nor an ax- bead of stone or metal rewarded our long and eager search, which may perhaps be accounted for from the fact that the present Pueblo Indians have a great degree of regard and veneration for ancieut stone implements of all kinds, and treasure them with great care. The " estufa," or council- chamber, was carefully examined, and appeared to have been similar iu its character to the ones at present used in modern pueblos. These chambers are formed by digging in the ground a circular pit from 10 to 20 feet iu depth ; a wall, in some cases of 2 or 3 feet in height, is built around the rim of the hole, and on this branches of trees or beams of wood are laid, forming a roof, which is cov-' ered with brush, and earth packed firmly on top. At the pueblo of Taos each headman has an estufa of his own, but in this aud other village visited only one appears to have been in use. After carefully examining the remains of the village, we set out in search of the graves, having been informed by Padre Salazar, the village priest of Abiquiu, that we would probably find some skeletons near the walls of the town, he having received his information from some sheep- herders who had seen bones in the arroyos while wandering over the mesa. We could hardly credit the statement, as it is well known that Indians, as a rule, are not in the habit of burying their dead in the immediate vicinity of their villages, unless they have a church with cemetery attached. However, we found in this case that bodies had been buried within 30 feet of the walls of the town. The arroyos cc} as already stated, had been washed out by water, and the f i l i ng away of the earth disclosed the remains. The first skeleton found was in the right-hand or eastern arroyo, some 6 or 8 feet below the level of the mesa, and had been placed in the grave face downward, the head, singularly enough, pointing to the south. This is very interesting and curious, and I am not aware that these two facts have ever been before noticed in regard to American aborigines. As the body lay, we had a fine section of the strata of earth above it. Two feet above the skeleton we noticed two smooth black u ollas," or vases, which, when dug out, were found to contain charcoal, parched corn, and the bones of small mammals aud fowls which had doubtless been placed therein at the funeral- feast; and the remaining earth to the surface contained nothing but pieces of charcoal. Not a vestige of clothing, no ornaments, implements, or weapons were found near the corpse, and apparently no receptacle had been employed to contain it. By carefully digging away the surrounding earth with our knives, we were fortunate enough to secure every bone belonging to this skeleton, and it has arrived in Washington iu good order, and been presented to the Army Medical Museum. A further search iu both arroyos revealed more bodies similarly buried, and we secured several, but in some cases the crania were wanting. Three or four skeletons of children were also discovered, but the boues were in such fragile condition as to crumble on exposure to the air, consequently we wore unable to preserve them. In examining the anatomical peculiarities of the bones, we were struck with the very large capacity of the cranial vault as compared with the crania of the present Pueblo and other Indiaus, and the narrowness of the cheek- boues, aud the peculiarly attenuated and pointed chin. In two of the skulls the occiput was markedly flattened, whether artificially or not we could not surmise; and in some of the tibiae the spines were somewhat flatter than those of more recent Indians. In all the skulls found the " ossa triqnetra " were numerous. This occurrence is common in most crania of Iudi-an8 and negroes which 1 have examined. The size and stature of the individuals during life was probably greater than that of the average aborigine or white of the present day* although the bones, though longer, were much slighter. We in vain endeavored to fiud out from the Indians living in the vicinity of Abiquiu if they had any knowledge or tradition regarding the town or burial- places, but noue of them seemed to know anything positive, saying, when questioned, that such towns had been built during the time of Moctezuma, and that even the oldest people never remember to have heard from their ancestors that living people had ever been seen there. |