ble position where one man could
successfully withstand a thousand, to surrender would have been base
cowardice, and weakness was not a characteristic of the cliff dwellers.

The question of their subsistence is likewise a puzzle. They evidently
cultivated the soil where it was practicable to do so as fragments of
farm products have been found in their dwellings, but in the vicinity
of some of the houses there is no tillable land and the inhabitants
must have depended upon other means for support. The wild game which
was, doubtless, abundant furnished them with meat and edible seeds,
fruits and roots from native plants like the pinon pine and mesquite
which together with the saguaro and mescal, supplied them with a
variety of food sufficient for their subsistence as they do, in a
measure, the wild Indian tribes of that region at the present day.

[1] The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, by F. Nordenskiold,
Stockholm. 1893.

[2] An Elder Brother of the Cliff Dwellers, by T. M. Prudden, M.D.
Harper's Magazine, June, 1897.

[3] Pueblo and Cliff Dwellers of the Southwest. Records of the Past,
December, 1902.

CHAPTER XIII

THE MOQUI INDIANS

The Indians of Arizona are, perhaps, the most interesting of any of the
American aborigines. They are as unique and picturesque as is the land
which they inhabit; and the dead are no less so than the living.

The Pueblo Indians, with which the Moquis are classed, number
altogether about ten thousand and are scattered in twenty-six villages
over Arizona and New Mexico. They resemble each other in many
respects, but do not all speak the same language. They represent
several wholly disconnected stems and are classified linguistically by
Brinton as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan, Kera, Tehua and Zuni stocks.
He believes that the Pueblo civilization is not due to any one
unusually gifted lineage, but is altogether a local product, developed
in independent tribes by their peculiar environment, which is favorable
to agriculture and sedentary pursuits.[1]

The houses are constructed of stone and adobe, are several stories high
and contain many apartments. None of the existing pueblos are as large
as some that are in ruins which, judging by the quantity of debris,
must have been huge affairs. Since the advent of the Spaniard the
style of building has changed somewhat to conform to modern ideas, so
that now some families live in separate one-story houses having doors
and