“We learned that there were seven towns; that the name of that which we were visiting was Mooshahneh. A second smaller town was half a mile distant; two miles distant was a third. * * * Five or six miles to the north-east a bluff was pointed out as the location of three others; and we were informed that the last of the seven, Oraybe, was still further distant on the trail towards the great river.”

“Each pueblo is built around a rectangular court, in which we suppose are the springs that furnish the supply to the reservoirs. The exterior walls, which are of stone, have no openings, and would have to be scaled or battered down before access could be gained to the interior. The successive stories are set back one behind the other. The lower ones are reached through trap-doors from the first landing. The houses are three rooms deep, and open upon the interior court. The arrangement is as strong and compact as well could be devised, but as the court is common and the landings are separated by no partitions, it involves a certain community of residence.”

In describing the gardens of Oraybe, distant eight or nine miles, he remarks:

“At the foot [of the bluff] was a reservoir and a broad road winding up the steep ascent. On either side the bluffs were cut into terraces, and laid out into gardens similar to those seen at Mooshahneh, and like them irrigated from an upper reservoir. The whole reflected great credit upon Moqui ingenuity and skill in the department of engineering. The walls of the terraces and reservoirs were of partly-dressed stone, well and strongly built, and the irrigating pipes conveniently arranged. The little gardens were neatly laid out. * * * The walls of the terraces and the gardens themselves are kept in good order and preservation. The stone and earth for construction and repairs they carry in blankets upon their shoulders from the valley below.”[480]

Mr. Bancroft has furnished the reader descriptions of several of the New Mexican group of pueblos, which he has extracted from the reports of various travelers. We do not consider it necessary to repeat accounts so generally accessible.[481] The New Mexican group, situated on the Rio Grande del Norte and its tributaries, is the most numerous in inhabited pueblos, but as they differ little if at all from those of the Moquis, further treatment of them is unnecessary. The pueblos which are and have been inhabited during the nineteenth century number about twenty, some of which are well known to have been occupied by the ancestors of their present inhabitants when first visited by the Spaniards. The best specimen of inhabited pueblos is that of Taos, situated on one of the northern forks of the river which gives it its name. There are two large houses, each between three and four hundred feet long by one hundred and fifty wide, situated on opposite sides of a small creek, and tradition states that formerly they were connected by a bridge. They are five and six stories high.

Besides the inhabited towns there are a number now unoccupied and fast going to decay. The names of these are given with slight variations by different writers; the following, however, are generally agreed upon: Pecos, Quivira, Valverda, San Lázaro, San Marcos, San Cristóbal, Socorro, Senacu, Abó, Quarra, Rita, Poblazon, old San Filipe, and old Zuñi.[482] The most important of all these ruins is Pecos, one of the sacred cities of the pueblos. Here the everlasting fire dedicated to their god Montezuma was kept burning from time immemorial down to the abandonment of the town, which occurred some time during the second quarter of the present century. The reader will remember, however, that the culture-god of the Pueblos and the Aztec monarch are in no sense to be associated with each other, since it is quite certain that they were not confounded in the mythology of the worshippers of the deity. Whether the Pueblos, Cliff-dwellers, etc., were ever in any way related to the Aztecs or any Nahua people is difficult to determine. Certainly there is no architectural nor traditional evidence that they were. When the Spaniards under Coronado traversed the region in 1540 A. D., no reports of inter-communication between the two peoples seem to have been current. Father Escalante, who in 1776 visited many of the pueblos, and mentions many ruins not since located, as well as many inhabited towns now in ruins, found nothing to really substantiate the “Aztec theory.”[483] On the contrary, substantial arguments can be presented for the intimate relationship of the Nahuas and some of the Pueblos.

In the tenth chapter of this work will be found the basis of linguistic affinities between the Nahua and Moqui languages, though none is claimed between the Nahua and New Mexican Pueblos. Mr. Becker, in his memoir addressed to the Congrès des Américanistes at Luxembourg, refers to Camergo’s account of the migration of the Teo-Chichimecs, the allies of the Toltecs, and to his statement that they came from Amaquetepic (“the mountains of the Amaques”), and expresses the belief that the words Amaques and Moquis are identical. Mr. Becker considers the “A” prefix of the former to be an abbreviation of the Nahua “atl” water, and Amaqui would mean the Maqui or Moqui living by the water, just as Acolhuas means Culhuas near the water and Anahuac, the Nahua land on the water. The tradition of the Moquis distinctly states that they formerly lived on the river at the north-east of their present home. The reader will remember that the Quichés called the Nahuas Yaqui, the name of a river of Sinaloa and Sonora where marked traces of the Nahua language are found, and the supposed locality of the first Toltec station. Is it not possible that Yaqui is a dialectic modification of Maqui or Moqui? It has been observed in the pages of this chapter that in more than one instance ruined pueblos were composed of either red adobe or had been painted, a circumstance which had won for them such a designation as “Red-house” or “Pueblo-pintado,” etc. Furthermore, the red glare of the desert north of the Moqui settlements has received the name of the “Painted desert.” The fact that Hue hue Tlapalan signifies “old red land” is suggestive that this locality may have been the mysterious rendezvous of the Toltecs. The Moquis like the Nahuas are sun-worshippers, though the ceremonial of both people differ considerably.

Besides the mound-works observed on the upper San Juan by Mr. Holmes associated with the work of the Cliff-dwellers, recent exploration has shown that combinations of mound and pueblo features of architecture exist in Utah. Dr. C. C. Parry found in a mound on the St. Clara River in Southern Utah very fine specimens of Pueblo pottery, and other articles which clearly identify its architects with the people of the cliffs or with the village builders at the South.[484] The recent exploration of several mounds in southern Utah by Dr. Edward Palmer fully confirms this conclusion. In Kane County, Utah, the same explorer discovered among a number of articles of apparent Moqui make in a cave-shelter, a shovel of horn having a blade fourteen inches long by five inches wide. Among the articles was a pair of shoes made of the fibre of the Yucca, which in style, shape, manner of braiding, etc., closely resemble shoes made of the leaves of the Typa found by Prof. F. W. Putnam in a cave in Kentucky.[485]

The mound examined by Mr. Barrand on the west fork of the Little Sioux of Dakota, and found to contain a large interior circular chamber, probably was the work of the ancestors of this western branch of the mound-building people.[486] The circular chamber was much like an estufa.

The many-sided culture-hero of the Pueblos, Montezuma, is the centre of a group of the most poetic myths found in Ancient American Mythology. The Pueblos believed in a supreme being, a good spirit, so exalted and worthy of reverence that his name was considered too sacred to mention, as, with the ancient Hebrews, Jehovah’s was the “unmentionable name.” Nevertheless Montezuma was the equal of this great spirit, and was often considered identical with the sun. The variety of aspects in which Montezuma is presented to us is due to the fact that each tribe of Pueblos had its particular legends concerning his birth and achievements. Many places in New Mexico claim the honor of his nativity at a period long before those village builders were acquainted with the arts of architecture, which have since given them their distinguishing name. In fact, this culture-god was none other than the genius who introduced the knowledge of building among them.[487] Some traditions, however, make him the ancestor and even the creator of the race; others, its prophet, leader and lawgiver. Mr. Bancroft says, “Under restrictions, we may fairly regard him as the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the Messiah of these Pueblo-desert wanderers from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his people how to build cities with tall houses, to construct Estufas, or semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire.” It has been aptly remarked by Mr. Tyler, that Montezuma was the great “somebody” of the tribe to whom the qualities and achievements of every other were attributed.

Fremont gives an account of the birth of the hero, in which his mother is declared to have been a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought for by all men. She was the recipient of rich presents of corn and skins from her admirers, yet she refused the hands of all her suitors. A famine soon occurred, and great distress followed. Now the fastidious beauty showed herself to be a lady of charitable spirit and tender heart. She opened her granaries, in which all her presents had been stored, and out of their abundance relieved the wants of the poor. The offerings of love were made to perform their mission a second time. At last, when the pure and plenteous rains again brought fertility to the earth, the summer shower fell upon the Pueblo goddess, and she gave birth to a son, the immortal Montezuma. The intelligent chief of the Papagoes, whose people occupy the territory between the Santa Cruz River and the Gulf of California, related a legend of the origin and offices of Montezuma, which, while it surprises the reader with its close resemblances to some leading points in the Hebrew and Chaldean genesis and deluge accounts, still is conspicuous for its inconsistencies, and in its closing statements for the absence of any knowledge of time or order.[488]

In substance it is as follows: The Great Spirit, having made all things—sky, earth, and the living creatures which inhabit it—descended into the earth for the purpose of creating man also. Digging in the earth, he found clay, such as a potter uses; this he carried back with him to his celestial abode, and dropped it again from the sky into the pit from which he had dug it. Instantly Montezuma, the genius of life, sprang from the pit, and became a partner in the creation of other men. The Apaches were the next formed, and were so wild that they severally ran away as fast as created. Those were golden days which followed the birth of the race; the sun was very much nearer the earth than now, and his grateful presence rendered clothing useless. A common language between all men, shared even by beasts, was one of the strongest possible bonds of peace.

But at last this paradisiacal age was ended by a great deluge in which all men and living creatures perished. Only Montezuma and his friend, the coyote—a prairie-wolf—escaped. This wonderful animal, with semi-divine attributes, plays a remarkable part in the religion of many of the Pacific tribes, and furnishes us a parallel in our Occidental mythology with the half-human, half-brute combinations of Greco-Roman mythology. The coyote, gifted with prophetic powers, had foretold the approach of this great calamity, and Montezuma, heeding the warning, had built him a boat, which he kept in readiness on the summit of Santa Rosa. His sagacious friend, the coyote, also escaped in an ark made from a gigantic cane which grew by a river’s side; having gnawed it down and crawled into it, he stopped up the ends with gum, and escaped. When the waters subsided, the two met again on dry ground. Montezuma then employed the coyote on several wearisome excursions in order to discover the extent of the land, which developed the fact that upon the east and south and west the water yet remained. Only on the north was there land.

The Great Spirit and Montezuma again created men and animals, and the former committed to his partner in the work the duties of governing the new race. These were, however, neglected by Montezuma, who became puffed up with pride, and permitted all manner of wickedness to prevail. The Great Spirit remonstrated with him, even descending to the earth for the purpose of moving his faithless and haughty vicegerent to restore order, but with no avail. Then, returning to his abode in heaven, he pushed the sun back to a remote part of the sky as a punishment on the race. At this, Montezuma became enraged, collected the tribes around him, and set about the construction of a house which should reach heaven. The builders had already completed several apartments, lined with gold and silver and precious stones, and progressed to a point which encouraged all to believe that their defiant purpose would be accomplished, when the Great Spirit smote it to the earth amid the crash of his thunder. Here the account becomes very confused—a great leap is made from Montezuma the culture-hero to Montezuma the emperor, and the two become confounded.

The legend states that upon the defeat of his rebellious scheme, Montezuma still hardened his heart, and caused the sacred images to be dragged through the streets for the derision of the villagers; the temples were desecrated, and defiance to the Supreme declared. As a punishment, the Great Spirit caused an insect to fly toward the east to an unknown land, to bring the Spaniards, who utterly destroyed him.

The post-diluvian part of this story presents the hero in quite another light than that generally accepted by most of the Pueblo tribes, in which he is represented as having been the very model of goodness and beneficence—the founder of their cities, of which Acoma was the first and Pecos the second. Before taking his departure from his people, he prophesied that they should suffer from drought and from the oppressions of a strange nation, but promised them to return as their deliverer. He then planted a tree upside down, and bade them preserve the sacred fire notwithstanding their misfortunes, until the tree fell, at which time he would return with a white race, who would destroy all their enemies and bring back the fertile showers.

It is said that this tree fell from its place as the American army entered Santa Fé, in 1846. In the cramped, subterranean estufa, the Pueblo fed the sacred fire burning in the basin of a small altar. It was a warrior’s vigil, for by turns their heroes descended into its suffocating atmosphere, thick with smoke, and charged with carbonic acid, to wait often for two successive days and nights without refreshment, often even until death relieved the guard.[489]

For generations these strange architects and faithful priests have waited for the return of their god—looked for him to come with the sun, and descend by the column of smoke which rose from the sacred fire. As of old the Israelitish watcher upon Mount Seir replied to the inquiry, “What of the night?” “The morning cometh,” so the Pueblo sentinel mounts the house-top at Pecos, and gazes wistfully into the east for the golden appearance, for the rapturous vision of his redeemer, for Montezuma’s return; and, though no ray of light meets his watching eye, his never-failing faith, with cruel deception, replies, “The morning cometh.”[490]

Explorations among the Pueblos.—In the summer of 1879 the Smithsonian Institution undertook a thorough and extensive examination of the Pueblo civilization of New Mexico and Arizona. Major Powell sent an expedition to New Mexico in charge of Mr. James Stevenson, and a large collection illustrative of the manners and customs of the Pueblos was made. Mr. F. H. Cushing was especially fortunate in obtaining minute information concerning their traditions, rites, and ceremonies. The work of investigation is still in progress, and at this writing (September, 1881) an expedition is in the field. A full report will ultimately be published. During the latter half of the year 1880 Mr. Baudelier, the eminent Mexican scholar, visited Taos, and prepared a paper on that interesting locality for the Archæological Institute of America, under whose patronage his exploration was conducted. During a residence of two months in the Pueblo of Cochití, occupied by a branch of the Queres tribe, Mr. Baudelier made a thorough study of the institutions of that interesting people. See Second Ann. Report of Arch. Inst. of Amer.