Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-03-10
CLIFF JEWELLERS OF ARIZONA.
A Fine Collection of Relics, Showing
 Their Life and Habits.

A Fine Collection of Relics, Showing
 Their Life and Habits.
 Professor Albert $. Bickmore, the su- perintendent of the American Museum of Natural History, at Saventy-eighth street and Eighth avenue, the other after noon showed reporter an exceedingly 1 interesting collection which was received | at the museum within few days. It is | an assortment of over 2,200 distinct speci- | mems illustrating the mode of life land of | death) of the ancient Pueblo Indians. | The collection was made and donated to i the museum by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, assistant surgeon in the United States | army, now stationed at Fort Verde, A. l T. Here he has been for nearly three years, and has occupied himself with searching for and exploring the wonder full cliff dwellings and other ancient re- mains so common in that region. The collection which he has sent on to the museum is exceedingly fine and interest ing. It embraces articles Illustrating the art of war as carried on by these aborigi- nal inhabitants of America, their various domestic manufactures, their manner of hunting and the food upon which they lived.
 From the great depth at which the articles were found the immense lapse of time since these villages were ill active operation and teenling with life, may be estimated. Some of the articles were found at depths ranging from two to six feet; in the caves they were covered with dust and guano formed by the millions of bats which inhabit these dreary recesses, xx-bf1 iI, 1,o 1oIT covered with volcanic dust and scoria washed down from the neighboring heights. The caves are situated far up Sometimes hundreds of feet on the sides of the canyons in which all the streams of that region are found. They are prob- ably artificial and were made by the ancient inhabitants as projections against wild beasts and their human enemies. l Among the most interesting specimens | in the collection just received are seven | large lava or sandstone mortars, called metates by the Indians of the present | day. They were and are still used by the modern Mexicans for grinding corn ] (maize), preparatory to making it into cakes. The method of grinding was exactly similar to that of the common mortar and pestle. But the chief in terest attaching to them is their great size, several being one and half or two feet ill length and a foot in thickness; also the unusual depth to which they have been hoilowed or scooped out This depth shows the unremitting toll, energy and patience of this primitive race, who,
 with but another stone as a tool, gradu- ally hollowed out, by hours and days of labor, block of stone of the hardest kind to depth of several inches. Each mortar is accompanied by several pestles,
 also made of lava sandstone, and some of greensboro, variety of lava.
 Another exceedingly interesting set of specimens are the axes, of which there is
 a large number of examples. Among
 tiicra are fevVy-piairlr~ Profcs5or Dick more states he considers to be probably
 unique. These are stone battle axes,
 with pointed end like an awl, instead
 of the usual flat edge In the collection
 is an assortment of cloth fabrics, and
 among them is needle found in piece
 of the cloth. This, unlike our modern
 needles, although yet very sharp, is of
 wood, being nothing more or less than
 the sharp. needle like leaf of a member
 of the pine family of trees The thread
 is still in position just as it was left by
 some aboriginal lady of fashion, long
 since dead and gone.
 Besides these articles already noticed,
 the collection includes pieces of wicker
 and basket work, almost as it came from
 the hand of the maker, specimens of corn
 grains and cobs, ends. bone awls and pins,
 stone arrow and spear points, fashioned , both from splinters of obsidian (volcanic glass; and from chaicedony hammers, arrow sharpeners, stone knives and
 many other articles made both
 from stone and bone, whose , uses are sometimes not wholly clear even to the skilled arch@ologist. , Among the various tools there Is a small, , round piece of wood, which Professor Bickmore explained was evidently in- tended to produce fire A soft, pithy
 stick, being inserted in hole in the first piece of wood and quickly twirled back ward and forward, the rapid motion soon sets it afire.
 | Besides the corn and seeds the food of the ancient Pueblos is also shown by g
 large assortment of bones-some whole l some fractured, and some mere sphnters , When found they were in such position ' and condition as to show that they were l the remains of feasts. Other bones, sucI 3 as those of man, have also sometime: 3 become mixed with them. Some of the l animals whose bones can be recognized 7 are the elk, mule deer, antelope, beaver : spermophile and gopher (both species O l rat), turtle, snake, turkey, cottontail an( r jack rabbit, mouse, rnusquash, and many f others.-New York Evening Sun.