e concluding night special rites
are held in the kivas. At these ceremonies every man must be in the kiva
to which he belongs, and after the close of the rites they all sleep
there, no one being permitted to leave the kiva until after sunrise on
the following day.

There was still some little intercourse between Awatubi and Walpi, and
it was easily ascertained when this feast was to be held. On the day of
its close, the Walpi sent word to their allies "to prepare the war arrow
and come," and in the evening the fighting bands from the other villages
assembled at Walpi, as the foray was to be led by the chief of that
village. By the time night had fallen something like 150 marauders had
met, all armed, of course; and of still more ominous import than their
weapons were the firebrands they carried--shredded cedar bark loosely
bound in rolls, resinous splinters of pinon, dry greasewood (a furze
very easily ignited), and pouches full of pulverized red peppers.

[Illustration: Plate XII. Chukubi, plan.]

Secure in the darkness from observation, the bands followed the Walpi
chief across the valley, every man with his weapons in hand and a bundle
of inflammables on his back. Beaching the Awatubi mesa they cautiously
crept up the steep, winding trail to the summit, and then stole round
the village to the passages leading to the different courts holding the
kivas, near which they hid themselves. They waited till just before the
gray daylight came, then the Walpi chief shouted his war cry and the
yelling bands rushed to the kivas. Selecting their positions, they were
at them in a moment, and quickly snatching up the ladders through the
hatchways, the only means of exit, the doomed occupants were left as
helpless as rats in a trap. Fire was at hand in the numerous little
cooking pits, containing the jars of food prepared for the celebrants,
the inflammable bundles were lit and tossed into the kivas, and the
piles of firewood on the terraced roofs were thrown down upon the blaze,
and soon each kiva became a furnace. The red pepper was then cast upon
the fire to add its choking tortures, while round the hatchways the
assailants stood showering their arrows into the mass of struggling
wretches. The fires were maintained until the roofs fell in and buried
and charred the bones of the victims. It is said that every male of
Awatubi who had passed infancy perished in the slaughter, not one
escaping. Such of the women and children as w