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Show 264 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Photograph hy O. C. Havens DRYING PEACHES IN THE HOPI VILLAGE OF ORAIBI: NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA of the archeologist translates into the history of primitive culture. During the fall of 1923 I began the study of the prehistoric ruins in Canon del Muerto for the American Museum of Natural History of New York City. On a bright September day our expedition encamped in front of Mummy Cave. In the latter there stands a typical cliff dwelling, a masonry structure of 80 rooms, in one place three stories in height (see pages 270 and 271). From the front of the building a blanket of refuse, principally ashes and sweepings, spreads down over the sloping rock to the top of the natural talus, 100 feet below. At one end of the refuse deposit the wind had uncovered human bones, and there we began to dig. The first skeletons were badly decayed, and the only objects found with them were stone pipes. Farther in, beneath a covering of cedar bark, there lay the body of a man mummified by desiccation. Buckskin moccasins with an insole of cedar bark inclosed the feet, and spiral leggings of the same material extended to the knees. A broad sash of buckskin encircled the waist three times. One end fell like an apron to the middle of the thighs, while the other was tossed diagonally across the breast and over the left shoulder. On the left wrist was a bracelet of shell beads, and by the right side a spear thrower. On the breast lay a wooden flageolet incrusted with white beads set in pitch, a sack made from the entire skin |