The morning times., 1896-09-13
LIFE OF A CLIFF-DwELLER.
How He Dressed. Delved, Built and
Made n Home for Himself.

Made Home for Himself.
Harper's Bd,dr.
He was a Gark-skinned fellow, this old
Cliff-dweller. q. as his Duuimified REMAINS
show plainly enough. The hair was un-
usually black and moderately coarse and
long. He was OF medium stature, and the
back or the skull was flattened by being
tied firmly against board in infancy.
as among some races is the custom still.
He h ad fair teet6, much worn, US the years
grew upon hip, from munching ill-ground
corn.
1t would Ike difficult to say from the ar
ticies thus far discovered, just how much
this prehistoric man was devoted TO dress.
A simple breech- -clout was certainly in
vogue, and there is considerable rea son to
think that this was, at times, at least, the
piece de resistance in his costume. But
parts of hide jackets, fur caps, blankets
made OF feathers tied on TO a coarse net
OF cord, are also in evidence, aud mostly
preserved among tie furnishings of the
dead. A variety of sandals and other rude
footgear has been found. some woven
OF yucca leaves, some braided of other
vegetable filters, some ruQely constructed
from cornhusks.
A certain passion for personal adOrnment
and devotion to superstition is evident
from the rough beads and the strings Of
bones ana small shells which he Wore,
while amulets of turquoise or shell OF
broken pottery pierced for suspension about
the neck are not seldom found. Hebrushed
his hair with tightly tied punches of
stiff grass, with one end trimmed square
and his long, coarse black hairs are
clinging still to some of them.
The spirit of the age still prompts us to
ask what he did for living, this dark
fellow in scanty attire, with a tinge OF
vanity and superstitioue
He was, first of all, farmer. He raised
corn and beans and gourds or squashes, at
least, i'll the thin soil OF the me sas, or upon
the lesser slopes, which still show traces
of scanty terraces. Corn is frequeatly
found, sometimes st:u on the cob, sotiFe-
times shelled off and sto wed in jars, while
corncorbs and cOrnhusks are scattered
every where among the rubbish. The beans
and gourds are less abundant. The gOurd
seeds are sometimes CAREFUL ' sto wed way.
The only farming implements which have
been found are, so far as l am aware. stout
sticks, pointed or rlattened at Que end.
quite like the planting sticks still in use
by primitive agriculturalists.
1t is evident though that in his time, as
now, his country was very dry. and water
had to be carefully husbanded One finds
here and there traces of shallow reservoirs
and what seem to have been irrigating
bitches SlopiDg hollows in the rocks near
the houses are not. infrequently damned
across their low ends, apparently to save
the melting snow or the waste of showers
The considerable number of large jars would
indicate that water was stored, too. in the
houses, it may be for times of siege. Tile
earthen ladies' or dippers not infrequently
found in the ruins or in the graves are often
much worn and bevcled on the edges. an
indication that they We're used to ladle up
water from hollOws in tie rocks, such as
abound on the plateaus above and about the
cliffs. Small springs still exist near some
of the largest cliff houses.
That the cliffmap was skilled in masonry
the weli-shapedand finished Etones the trim
walls hung upon steep sloping rock surfaces,
sheer at the edge Of cliffs, where they rest
today firm and secure, abunda antly prove
The mortar of most OF the ouses was very
skillfully laid in, and between the tiers
pebbles and small stones were set, giving
a pleasing break to the lines of masonry.