welve hundred inhabitants, and the
hill on which it is built slopes gently up from the plain on one side,
but falls away in a precipitous bluff to the narrow waters of the Zuni
River on the other.

"Billy" Brackett had read up on this ancient city of Cibola, and had
imparted so much of his information to Glen as to arouse a curiosity in
the boy's mind regarding the place fully equal to his own. So, as soon
as they reached camp, which was on the plain at the foot of the hill,
they hurried off to "do" the town.

Chapter XXXVI.

ZUNI, THE HOME OF THE AZTECS.

As the leveller and his rodman ascended the slope on which Zuni is
built, they saw that the town reached entirely across it, and seemingly
presented a blank wall of irregular heights, containing only two or
three low arched openings. A ladder, here and there, reached from the
ground to a flat terrace on top of the wall; but evidently the means of
entering the place were few, and could readily be made less. Outside of
the wall were long ranges of corrals, fenced with poles, set close
together, and fixed firmly in the ground. These poles, which were of all
lengths, and the tops of ladders projecting everywhere above the roofs
of the town, gave the place a peculiarly ragged and novel appearance.
Glen wondered at the height of the buildings, most of which were of five
or six stories, and what the ladders were for.

Seeing no other way of gaining an entrance, they followed an Indian, who
led a burro bearing an immense load of fagots on his back, into one of
the dark arched passages through the wall. It was just wide enough to
admit the laden donkey, and so low that, as they followed him, they were
obliged to stoop to avoid striking their heads against its roof. It was
so long that it evidently led beneath an entire block of houses.

Finally they emerged from its darkness into one of the most novel
plazas, or squares, of the world. It was surrounded by buildings of
several stories in height, but very few of them had any doors, while the
tiny windows of the lower stories were placed high up, beyond a man's
reach. On the flat roof of the lower house, or first story, a second
house was built; but it was so much narrower than the first as to leave
a broad walk on the roof in front of it. Above this second house rose a
third, fourth, fifth, and often a sixth, each one narrower than the one
beneath it, so that the whole looked like a gigantic flight of steps.

The