time of or shortly
after the abandonment of the settlement.

From the second section of Honanki we pass to the third and
best-preserved portion of the ruins (figure 249), indicated in the
diagram from _a_ to _g_. To this section I have referred as the "main
ruin," for it was evidently the most populous quarter of the ancient
cliff dwelling. It is better preserved than the remainder of Honanki,
and is the only part in which all four walls of the chambers still
remain erect. Built at a higher level than the series of rooms already
considered, it must have towered above them, and possibly served as a
place of retreat when danger beset the more exposed quarters of the
village.

[Illustration: FIG. 249--The main ruin of Honanki]

Approaching the main ruin of Honanki (plate CIV) from the east, or
the parts already described, one passes between the buttress on which
the front wall of the rounded room _h_ is built and a fragment of
masonry on the left, by a natural gateway through which the trail is
very steep. On the right there towers above the visitor a
well-preserved wall of masonry, the front of room _a_, and he soon
passes abreast of the main portion of the ruin of Honanki. This
section is built in a huge cavern, the overhanging roof of which, is
formed by natural rock, arching far above the tops of the highest
walls of the pueblo and suggesting the surroundings of the "Cliff
Palace" of Mesa Verde, so well described by the late Baron G.
Nordenskioeld in his valuable monograph on the ruins of that section of
southern Colorado. The main ruin of Honanki is one of the largest and
best preserved architectural monuments of the former people of Verde
valley that has yet been described. Although somewhat resembling its
rival, the well-known "Casa Montezuma" of Beaver creek, its
architecture is dissimilar on account of the difference in the form of
the cavern in which it is built and the geological character of the
surrounding cliffs. Other Verde ruins may have accommodated more
people, when inhabited, but none of its type south of Canyon de Chelly
have yet been described which excel it in size and condition of
preservation. I soon found that our party were not the first whites
who had seen this lonely village, as the names scribbled on its walls
attested; but so far as I know it had not previously been visited by
archeologists.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CII

HONANKI (RUIN