ne, ancient Tusayan
ware, like that of Sikyatki and Shunopovi. Extended excavations would
reveal, I am sure, many beautiful objects and shed considerable light
on the obscure history of Walpi and its early population.

After moving from Old Walpi it seems that the people first built
houses on the terrace above, or on the platform extending westward
from the western limits of the summit of East Mesa. The whole top of
that part of the mesa is covered with house walls, showing the former
existence of a large pueblo. Here, no doubt, if we can trust
tradition, the mission of Walpi was built, and I have found in the
debris fragments of pottery similar to that used in Mexico, and very
different from ancient or modern Pueblo ware. But even Kisakobi[43]
was not a safe site for the Walpians to choose for their village, so
after they destroyed the mission and killed the priest they moved up
to their present site and abandoned both of their former villages.

It is said that with this removal of the villagers there were found to
be no easy means of climbing the precipitous walls, and that the
stairway trails were made as late as the beginning of the present
century. In those early days there was a ladder near where the
stairway trail is now situated, and some of the older men of Walpi
have pointed out to me where this ladder formerly stood.

The present plan of Walpi shows marked differences from that made
twenty years ago, and several houses between the stairway trail and
the Wikwaliobi kiva, on the edge of the mesa, which have now fallen
into ruin, were inhabited when I first visited Walpi in 1890. The
buildings between the Snake kiva and the Nacab kiva are rapidly
becoming unsafe for habitation, and most of these rooms will soon be
deserted. As many Walpi families are building new houses on the plain,
it needs no prophet to predict that the desertion of the present site
of Walpi will progress rapidly in the next few years, and possibly by
the end of our generation the pueblo may be wholly deserted--one more
ruin added to the multitudes in the Southwest.

The site of Old Walpi, at Kuechaptuevela, is the scene of an interesting
rite in the New-fire ceremony at Walpi, for not far from it is a
shrine dedicated to a supernatural being called Tuewapontumsi,
"Earth-altar-woman." This shrine, or house, as it is called, is about
230 feet from the ruin, among the neighboring bowlders, and consists
of four flat slabs set upright, formin