eople who were only
accustomed to agricultural pursuits to suddenly and completely change
their habits of life such as living among the rocks would necessitate.
Only by native instinct and daily practice from childhood would it be
possible for any people to follow the narrow and difficult paths which
were habitually traveled by the cliff dwellers. It requires a clear
head and steady nerves to perform the daring feat in safety--to the
truth of which statement modern explorers can testify who have made the
attempt in recent years at the peril of life and limb while engaged in
searching for archaeological treasures.

Judged by the everyday life that is familiar to us it seems incredible
that houses should ever have been built or homes established in such
hazardous places, or that any people should have ever lived there. But
that they did is an established fact as there stand the houses which
were built and occupied by human beings in the midst of surroundings
that might appall the stoutest heart. Children played and men and
women wrought on the brink of frightful precipices in a space so
limited and dangerous that a single misstep made it fatal.

It is almost impossible to conceive of any condition in life, or
combination of circumstances in the affairs of men, that should drive
any people to the rash act of living in the houses of the cliff
dwellers. Men will sometimes do from choice what they cannot be made
to do by compulsion. It is easier to believe that the cliff dwellers,
being free people, chose of their own accord the site of their
habitation rather than that from any cause they were compelled to make
the choice. Their preference was to live upon the cliffs, as they were
fitted by nature for such an environment.

For no other reason, apparently, do the Moquis live upon their rocky
and barren mesas away from everything which the civilized white man
deems desirable, yet, in seeming contentment. The Supais, likewise,
choose to live alone at the bottom of Cataract Canon where they are
completely shut in by high cliffs. Their only road out is by a narrow
and dangerous trail up the side of the canon, which is little traveled
as they seldom leave home and are rarely visited.

To affirm that the cliff dwellers were driven from their strongholds
and dispersed by force is pure fiction, nor is there any evidence to
support such a theory. That they had enemies no one doubts, but, being
in possession of an impregna