File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17974114259).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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108 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL Cottonwood trees, the)^ might almost 23ass unnoticed, or be thought mereh' a part of tlie adjacent cliff. They re- mind one of scenes in Palestine, and the solitary shepherd surrounded by his sheep on the bare hillside, or the old woman going to the stream with her water jug, serves to enhance the illu- sion. It strikes the newcomer oddly to find that English is seldom spoken in these towns, the )\Ioxican language pre- vailing every- where excei)t in the larger cen- ters. 'i'he Indian villages, how- ever, so often perched on the tops of inac- cessible mesas, are much more strikingly pic- turesque, while the Indian wo- men are like birds of bright- colored plu- mage as they dart in and out of their door- ways or climb the ladders with jars of painted pottery on their heads. Their love of brilliant hues in their dress con- trasts with the taste in garb shown by the Mexican woman, Avho is usually clad in somber black with a shawl of the same color thrown over her head. One's imagination tries to picture the old life of these Indian women when they occupied the rows of caves or the cliff dwellings which line the walls of
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This ancient Indian guardhouse, built under an over- hanging ledge high up in the cliff, is not so easy of access as it would appear from the picture. In fact. I almost gave up trying to reach it across the steep face of the rock. It is neatly finished inside, but is too small to have been used as a dwelling the Frijoles Caiion near Santa Fe. I still see that ceremonial chamber high up in the cliff, with its three long shaky ladders, where I confess that my cour- age failed me ere I reached the top. Kuined villages, the search for which led us all over northwestern New Mex- ico, seem in great part at least to be situated in the most pictur- esque localities; so while the In- dian ma)^ have selected his dwelling place with many other tilings in view, 1 for one am convinced that he had an eye for the beauty (>r his sur- roundings. I feel grateful to him for this, since in this way we also \\-ere brought to these spots. From a place called the "Point of Mai Pais," we trav- eled for miles through the An- gostura, a nar- row rocky caiion with stupendous cliffs on one side and the black lava flow on the other, to emerge at evening into a beautiful meadow where we found a spring of. water and luscious grass for the horses. We camped in a sheltered rincon near a natural sand- stone bridge of great beauty. Oppo- site, across the valley, was another won- derful rock formation resembling a oreat cathedral. As the sun sank be-

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