the state of his mind. Shyuote did not dare to inquire of him further
than to ask a very insignificant question,--namely, who the man was that
had called.

Okoya answered readily, for this query was almost a relief,--a diversion
which enabled him to subdue his agitation. "Tyope Tihua," he said
hastily, "wanted to know if I had seen any mountain sheep. I told him
that I had only seen bear-tracks. Let him follow those," he growled.
"Come on, satyumishe, it is getting late."

While this conversation had been carried on, the boys, now hurrying and
now slackening their pace, had arrived within a short distance of the
tall clay-pile, which was seen to be a high polygonal building,
apparently closed on all sides. Between them and this edifice there was
still another lower one, not unlike an irregular honeycomb. About forty
cells, separated from each other by walls of earth, carried up from the
ground to a few inches above the terraced roof, constituted a
ground-floor on which rested a group of not more than a dozen similar
cells. The walls of this structure were of stones, irregularly broken
and clumsily piled, but they were covered by a thick coating of clay so
that nothing of the rough core remained visible. Instead of doors or
entrances, air-holes, round or oval, perforated these walls.

The house appeared empty. No smoke flitted over the flat roof; the
coating was so recent that many places were hardly dry.

[Illustration: (Upper picture) A modern Indian Dance]

[Illustration: (Lower picture) An estufa]

North of this building, a circular structure thirty feet in diameter
rose a few feet only above the soil, like the upper part of a sunken
cylinder. Its top was flat, and large flags of stone formed a rough
staircase leading to its roof. In the centre, a square opening appeared,
out of which a tall beam, notched at regular intervals like a primitive
ladder, protruded, and down which also the beam disappeared as if
extended into the bowels of the earth. This edifice, half underground,
half above the soil, was what to-day is called in New Mexico an
_estufa_.[2] This Spanish word has become a technical term, and we shall
hereafter use it in the course of the story as well as the designations
_tshikia_ and _kaaptsh_ of the Queres Indians.

The estufas were more numerous in a single pueblo formerly than they are
now. Nor are they always sunken. At the Rito there were at least ten,
five of which were circular chambers in