e is no evidence that a church or mission house ever
formed part of the villages on the mesa summits. Their plans are
complete in themselves, and probably represent closely the first pueblos
built on these sites. These summits have been extensively occupied only
in comparatively recent times, although one or more small clusters may
have been built here at an early date as outlooks over the fields in the
valleys below.

[Illustration: Plate CX. Portion of a corral in Pescado.]

It is to be noted that some of the ruins connected traditionally and
historically with Tusayan and Cibola differ in no particular from stone
pueblos widely scattered over the southwestern plateaus which have been
from time to time invested with a halo of romantic antiquity, and
regarded as remarkable achievements in civilization by a vanished but
once powerful race. These deserted stone houses, occurring in the midst
of desert solitudes, appealed strongly to the imaginations of early
explorers, and their stimulated fancy connected the remains with
"Aztecs" and other mysterious peoples. That this early implanted bias
has caused the invention of many ingenious theories concerning the
origin and disappearance of the builders of the ancient pueblos, is
amply attested in the conclusions reached by many of the writers on this
subject.

In connection with the architectural examination of some of these
remains many traditions have been obtained from the present tribes,
clearly indicating that some of the village ruins, and even cliff
dwellings, have been built and occupied by ancestors of the present
Pueblo Indians, sometimes at a date well within the historic period.

The migrations of the Tusayan clans, as described in the legends
collected by Mr. Stephen, were slow and tedious. While they pursued
their wanderings and awaited the favorable omens of the gods they halted
many times and planted. They speak traditionally of stopping at certain
places on their routes during a certain number of "plantings," always
building the characteristic stone pueblos and then again taking up the
march.

When these Indians are questioned as to whence they came, their replies
are various and conflicting; but this is due to the fact that the
members of one clan came, after a long series of wanderings, from the
north, for instance, while those of other gentes may have come last from
the east. The tribe to-day seems to be made up of a collection or a
confederacy of ma