nd writers with a halo of romance and
regarded as the wondrous achievements in civilization of a vanished but
once powerful race. These abandoned stone houses found in the midst of
desert solitudes excited the imaginations of early explorers to connect
the remains with "Aztecs" and other mysterious peoples. From this early
implanted bias arose many ingenious theories concerning the origin and
disappearance of the builders of the ancient pueblos.

In connection with the architectural examination of some of these
remains many traditions were obtained from the living members of the
tribes, several of which are published in the present paper, and which
clearly indicate that some of the village ruins and cliff dwellings have
been built and occupied by ancestors of the present Pueblo Indians at a
date well within the historic period. Both architectural and traditional
evidence are in accord in establishing a continuity of descent from the
ancient Pueblos to those of the present day. Many of the communities are
now made up of the more or less scattered but interrelated remnants of
gentes which in former times occupied villages on the present or
neighboring sites.

Mr. Mindeleff's conclusions may be condensed as follows:

The general outlines of the development of architecture, wherein the
ancient builders were stimulated to the best use of the exceptional
materials about them both by the difficult conditions of their
semidesert environment and by constant necessity for protection against
their neighbors, can be traced in its various stages of growth from the
primitive conical lodge to its culmination in the large communal village
of many-storied terraced buildings which were in use at the time of the
Spanish discovery, and which still survive in Zuni. Yet the various
steps have resulted from a simple and direct use of the material
immediately at hand, while methods gradually improved as frequent
experiments taught the builders to utilize more fully the local
facilities. In all cases the material was derived from the nearest
available source, and often variations in the quality of the finished
work are due to variations in the quality of the stone near by. The
results accomplished attest the patient and persistent industry of the
ancient builders, but the work does not display great skill in the
construction or the preparation of material.

The same desert environment that furnished an abundance of material for
the ancient