d become chiefly heaps of rubbish. The pottery found here, like that
at "El Moro," is "painted with bright colors, in checks, bands, and
wavy stripes; many fragments show a beautiful polish. A few pieces were
discovered larger in size, inferior in color and quality, but indicating
a more fanciful taste. United, they formed an urn with a curious handle;
a frog painted on the outside and a butterfly within." In the same
neighborhood, on the summit of a cliff twenty feet high, was another old
ruin "strongly walled around." In the centre was a mound on which were
traces of a circular edifice.

The next place of encampment was at Zuni, where, as shown in Figure 21,
can be seen one of these great Pueblo buildings inhabited by two
thousand people (Lieutenant Whipple's estimate). It has five stories,
the walls of each receding from those below it. Looking from the top, he
says it reminded him of a busy ant-hill, turkeys and tamed eagles
constituting a portion of its inhabitants. Not more than a league away
is an "old Zuni" which shows nothing but ruins. Its crumbling walls,
worn away until they are only from two to twelve feet high, are "crowded
together in confused heaps over several acres of ground." This old town
became a ruin in ancient times. After remaining long in a ruined
condition it was again rebuilt, and again deserted after a considerable
period of occupation. It is still easy to distinguish the differences in
construction between the two periods. "The standing walls rest upon
ruins of greater antiquity;" and while the primitive masonry is about
six feet thick, that of the later period is only from a foot to a foot
and a half thick. Small blocks of sandstone were used for the latter.
Heaps of debris cover a considerable space, in which, among other
things, are relics of pottery and of ornaments made of sea-shells.
Pieces of quaintly-carved cedar posts were found here, and their
condition of decay, compared with that of the cedar beams at "El Moro,"
"indicated great antiquity." The place of this ruin is now one of the
consecrated places of the Village Indians; it has "a Zuni altar" which
is constantly used and greatly venerated. On leaving the place, their
guide blew a white powder toward the altar three times, and muttered a
prayer. This, he explained, was "asking a blessing of Montezuma and the
sun." This altar seems to represent recollections of the ancient
sun-worship.

[Illustration: Fig. 21--Modern Zuni.]

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