ied in places; its
ornamentation is exactly similar to that of the pottery of the interior
area, and different from that of Zuni. They used flint, but no trace of
obsidian is found. This may be purely accidental; still, why should it
occur at three places so totally different in regard to erosion and
abrasion as the slope south of the church, the west bank of the creek
directly opposite, and, if thorough examination should confirm the
results of my cursory observations, the apron of the high mesa? The
graves, wherever found, are identical with those of the _mesilla_; the
plan of building, and consequently of living,[135] appears similar to
that exhibited in houses _A_ and _B_; the material used is the same, but
the walls are more ruinous, and apparently of a much older date. The
inference is therefore not unreasonable, that the inhabitants of the
three areas named, as outside of the great circumvallation, were of the
kind now called "pueblo Indians," who preceded the tribe of Pecos proper
in point of time. It is not improbable that one or the other of these
ruins may have been erected by the Pecos themselves before they settled
on the mesilla. Still, there is neither proof nor disproval of this
surmise extant.

There appears to be also a slight difference between the different ruins
of this period themselves. The ruins south of the church and those along
the mesa are similar, in that they are more ruined, and not covered with
_debris_, and in that their surfaces are also devoid of pottery. The
space west of the creek has pottery and also heaps of rubbish, and I
therefore conclude that it was the most recent of the three
locations,--or at least the one last abandoned. To it must be added the
small mound or promontory found further south on the east bank of the
arroyo. One fact is certain: all these places were deserted, and perhaps
as badly ruined as now, at the time when Coronado first visited
Pecos.[136] (The partial removal of the surface material may have been
effected by the Pecos Indians themselves in order to build their own
houses.)

Referring now to the inhabitants of the two houses, whose ruins are
situated on the mesilla, north of the church, it is a thoroughly
well-authenticated fact that they spoke the same language as the Indians
of the pueblo of Jemez. Jemez lies 80 miles N.W. of Pecos, beyond the
Rio Grande. It is possible that the Pecos Indians came to the valley
from that direction. But it is singular