dians in changing the sites of their villages
"every ten, fifteen, or thirty years; or, in fact, whenever the scarcity
of firewood, the exhaustion of their fields, or the prevalence of an
epidemic made such a step desirable."<33> Doubtless a similar remark
may explain the difference of opinion as to the numbers of the Mound
Builders.<34> And, finally, Mr. Bandelier concludes that the great
number of ruins scattered through New Mexico and its neighboring
territories is by no means evidence of a large population. The evidence
of tradition is to the effect that a large number of villages were
successively, and not simultaneously, occupied by the same people.<35>

We have about completed our survey of the Pueblo country. We might state
that the large communal houses, known as pueblos, are found as far south
on the Rio Grande as Valverde. Clusters of separate houses occur as far
south as Dona Ana. A range of low mountains lies to the west of the Rio
Grande; between it and the headwaters of the Gila evidences of ancient
habitations were observed on the small streams. Though these occur
sometimes in little groups, the court-yards are not connected so as to
form a defensive village. Small inclosed surfaces, with no evidence that
a house ever was connected with them, were also observed. Mr. Bandelier
could only surmise that these were garden-plots, something like the
ancient terrace garden-plots in Peru.

Take it all in all, this is, indeed, a singular region, and the Pueblo
tribes were a singular people. Their architecture shows us a people in
the Middle Status of Barbarism. That they practised agriculture is shown
by the presence of old irrigating ditches. Corn and corn-cobs are found
in the rubbish-heaps of old settlements. Mr. Morgan thinks that the
valley of the San Juan and its numerous tributaries was the place
where the Indian race first rose to the dignity of cultivators of the
soil.<36> Cotton cloth has been found in the ruins on the Salado River.
"At the time of the Spanish conquests the Pueblo Indians along the Rio
Grande used cotton mantles."<37>

As we have devoted considerable time to the pottery of the Mound
Builders, we must see how it compares with the pottery of this region.
Fragments of pottery are very numerous all over the field of ruins. All
explorers mention their abundance. Mr. Holmes on one occasion counted
the pieces of pottery that by their shape evidently belonged to
different vessels that he found