orchards in ten minutes, and climbed if necessary on burro back; but it has been improved for the purpose. In old days it would have constituted nearly as formidable a barrier to storm as the other two. Locally, Americans know the mountain by its Zuñi name. In books it is written Thunder Mountain, for which Cushing is probably responsible, and which is as striking and as worthy a designation for the majestic rock as could be desired, and in the best vein of that man of genius. Unfortunately, I must incline to Mrs. Stevenson's cooler interpretation of Corn Mountain, not only on Zuñi authority, but on my own imperfect knowledge of the speech. Thunder is towowo, and corn towwa, in the orthography which I follow. I have more frequently heard Toayallanna--also, it is true, toa more often than towwa; but I suspect the ww to be slurred after o in both words. I add for the advantage of those who may have the good fortune to follow me in a stay, however transient, at "the middle place," that it is impossible to carry away a truly full remembrance of the country of the Zuñi,--of their earth--until he has looked down the valley from the rim of this looming mesa. If, in addition, one be privileged to see distant rainstorms travel among the still sunshine, he will know the world the Zuñi heart dreams of as well as the one its body walks. The ruins, which do not appear to bear any other name than that of the mountain, have been surveyed and described by Mindeleff. They do not seem to have altered to any sensible extent. The southeastern portion is practically on top of Kyakkima, six or seven hundred feet below. My visit occurred after a week of rains; and two natural basins of water were seen which with a little damming might have been extended to the size of those mentioned by Mindeleff. The ruin is the largest in the vicinity. It gives the casual impression of having sheltered a thousand people; but is so scattered that it cannot be surveyed in one sweep of the eye, and may have harbored twice as many. The available building stone did not break into even slabs; hence the walls are shambling and tumbledown, and afford no ground for estimating the age of other ruins by comparison with the condition of this two hundred and twenty-two year abandoned masonry. Part of the mountain top is arable sand; but the area available is too small, if ever it was utilized, to have supported more than a minute fraction of the population. The potsherds of course are of type A. They are frequent at some distance from the structures. A pair of willing hands guided by a sufficiently patient brain, might gather a thousand pounds without a tool. All five members of our party collected at different spots; so that I suspect a somewhat undue proportion of colored pieces, and that perhaps half of the monotonous black and dull unpolished fragments within reach were left. -29- |