e fields."

"Why did Zashue do that?"

"This he dare not tell, for the Koshare Naua"--her voice trembled at the
mention of the name--"forbade him to say anything about it." Her eyes
clung to the features of her father. Topanashka turned away slowly and
quietly, and she followed him to the door. As he was crossing the
threshold he whispered to her,--

"There is nothing new as yet."

CHAPTER V.

The people of the Water clan dwelt at the western end of the cliffs
which border the Tyuonyi on the north. They occupied some twenty caves
scooped out along the base of the rock, and an upper tier of a dozen
more, separated from the lower by a thickness of rock averaging not over
three feet. This group of cave-dwellings--and vestiges thereof are still
visible at this day--lay in a re-entering angle formed by the cliffs,
which overhang in such a manner as to form a sheltered nook open to the
south. Ascent to their base is quite steep, and great heaps of debris
cover the slope. The gorge is narrow, a dense thicket interspersed with
pine-trees lines the course of the brook, and the declivity forming the
southern border of the Rito approaches the bottom in rocky steps,
traversed laterally by ledges overgrown with scrubby vegetation.

Vestiges of former occupancy are still scattered about the caves. Some
of these furnish a clew to the manner in which the dwellings were formed
by scraping and burrowing. Splinters of obsidian and of basalt--sharp
fragments, resembling clumsy chisels or knives--served to dig an oblong
hole in the soft pumice or tufa of the cliff. After this narrow cavity
had penetrated a depth of one or two feet, the artisan began to enlarge
it inside, until a room was formed for which the tunnelled entrance
served as a doorway. The room, or cell, was gradually finished in a
quadrangular or polygonal shape, with a ceiling high enough to permit a
person of average size to stand erect. Not unfrequently side rooms were
excavated connecting with the first by low apertures, to pass through
which it was necessary to stoop, or even to creep on all fours. These
passages were too low for doorways, too short to deserve the name of
tunnels. Into the front apartment light and air were admitted through
the entrance, and sometimes through small window-like apertures. The
side cells were utterly dark except where excavated parallel to the face
of the rock, when sometimes another entrance was opened to the front,
sometimes