e members of the tribe reside together in one
immense community building. It is rather droll to find among these
natives of the desert the idea of the modern apartment house; but, in
this place, as in all the settlements of the Pueblo Indians, communal
dwellings were in existence long before the discovery of America, and
the _mesa_ of Acoma was inhabited as it now is, when the Pilgrims
landed upon Plymouth Rock.

[Illustration: RAIN WATER BASIN, ACOMA.]

[Illustration: THE COURTYARD OF ACOMA.]

An Indian _pueblo_ is really a honeycomb of adobe cells, built up in
terraces. The outer walls, being the most exposed, are the highest,
and from them toward the centre of the village, projecting stories
descend in such a way that the balcony of one series of rooms forms a
roof for the next below it. Finally, in the heart of the _pueblo_ is
an open area where horses are corralled. When the space on the summit
of the _mesa_ is sufficient, these apartment dwellings may be
increased indefinitely by adding cells to the original mass, till it
is six or seven stories high, and may contain one hundred, five
hundred, or even a thousand persons, according to the size of the
tribe. Formerly there were no doorways in the lowest stories; but in
these peaceful days they are now introduced occasionally by Indian
architects. Where they do not exist, the only means of entering the
ground-floor rooms is by climbing a ladder from the courtyard to the
first terrace, and thence descending by another ladder through a hole
in the roof. The upper stories, being safer from attack, are more
liberally supplied with doors and windows, the latter being
sometimes glazed with plates of mica. At present, panes of glass are
also used, though they were pointed out to us as special luxuries. At
night, and in times of danger, the ladders in these _pueblos_ used
always to be drawn up after the last climbers had used them; since
these industrious and sedentary Indians were ever liable to raids
from their nomadic enemies, who coveted their stores of food and the
few treasures they had gradually accumulated. This precaution on the
part of the Pueblos again reminds us that human nature, in its
primitive devices for self-protection, is everywhere very much the
same. Thus, there is no connection between the Swiss Lake Dwellers
and the Indians of New Mexico; yet as the latter, on retiring to
their houses, draw up their ladders after them, so the old occupants
of the v