suddenly disappeared]

[Illustration: _From a photograph by George L. Beam_

SPRUCE TREE HOUSE FROM ACROSS THE CANYON

Showing the overhanging rock roof and the forest which tops the Mesa
Verde]

It was plainly unfinished. Walls had risen in some places higher than
in others. As yet there was no roofing. No rooms had been plastered. Of
internal finishing little was completed, and of contents, of course,
there was none. The stone hammers and other utensils of the builders
were found lying about as if thrown down at day's close.

The kivas, although circular, are unlike those of Cliff Palace, inasmuch
as they are above ground, not subterranean. The mortar used in pointing
shows the impress of human hands; no trowels were used. The walls
exhibit many stones incised with complicated designs, largely geometric;
some may be mason's marks; others are decorative or symbolic. These
designs indicate a marked advance over those in Far View House; in fact
they are far more complicated and artistic than any in the southwest.

Bare and ineloquent though its unfinished condition left it, the
religious purposes of the entire building are clear to the archaeologist
in its form. And, as if to make conjecture certainty, a shrine was
uncovered on the corner-stone of the outer wall which frames in solid
stone walls a large fossil palm-leaf whose rays strongly suggest the
sun!

It requires no imagination to picture the effect which the original
discovery of this image of their god must have had upon a primitive
community of sun-worshippers. It must have seemed to them a divine gift,
a promise, like the Ark of the Covenant, of the favor of the Almighty.
It may even have first suggested the idea of building this temple to
their deity.

This is all the story. Go there and study it in detail. Enlightened,
profoundly impressed, nevertheless you will finish at this point. The
tale has no climax. It just stops.

What happened to the people of the Mesa Verde?

Some archaeologists believe that they emigrated to neighboring valleys
southwest. But why should they have left their prosperous farms and fine
homes for regions which seem to us less desirable? And why, a profoundly
religious people, should they have left Sun Temple unfinished?

What other supposition remains?

Only, I think, that, perhaps because of their prosperity and the
unpreparedness that accompanies long periods of peace, they were
suddenly overwhelmed by enemies.