e there with their heads to the east, their tails
extended along the ground. As we stand and gaze, our Indian goes up to
the statues and furtively anoints their heads with red ochre, muttering
a prayer between his teeth.

What may be the signification of this statuary? Do you remember the
great dance at the Rito, and the painting on the wall of the estufa
where the Koshare Naua sat and held communication with Those Above? Do
you recollect that among these paintings there was one of a panther and
another of a bear? The relation of the bear and panther of the estufa to
the picture of the sun-father is here that of the two stone panthers to
the sun himself. Their faces are turned to the east, whence rises the
sun, in which dwells the father of all mankind, and the moon, which
their mother inhabits. As in the estufa on the Rito, so in the outside
world, the pictures of stone express a prayer to the higher powers, and
here daily the people of the village were wont to make offerings and say
their prayers.

We are therefore on sacred ground in this crumbling enclosure. But who
knows that we are not on magic ground also? We might make an experiment;
and though our Indian guide is not one of the great shamans, he might
help us in an attempt at innocent jugglery.

Let us suffer ourselves to be blindfolded, and then turn around three
times from left to right while our friend recites some cabalistic
formula, incomprehensible of course to us.

One, two, three! The bandage is removed. What can we see?

Nothing strange at first. Surrounding nature is the same as before. The
same extensive view, the same snow-clad ranges in the far east, the same
silent, frowning rocks, the same dark pines around us. But in the north,
over the yellowish band that denotes the cliffs of the Rito, we notice a
slight bluish haze.

A change has taken place in our immediate vicinity. The stone panthers
and the stone enclosure have vanished, and the ground is bare, like all
the ground in the neighbourhood. Looking beyond we see that a
transformation has also taken place on the spot where stood the ruin.
The crumbling walls and heaps of rubbish are gone, and in their place
newly built foundations are emerging from the ground; heaps of stone,
partly broken, are scattered about; and where a moment ago we were the
only living souls, now Indians--village Indians like our guide, only
somewhat more primitive--move to and fro, busily engaged.

Some of them ar