alo leather. Also a hole
that served for a window, with a shutter of the same material, and
similarly suspended. The walls were a wattle of vines and slender poles
bent around the uprights, and daubed carelessly with a lining of mud.
The smooth vertical rock served for one side of the house--so that so
much labour had been spared in the building--and the chimney, which was
nothing better than a hole in the roof, conducted the smoke in such a
manner that a sooty streak marked its course up the face of the cliff.
The door entered at one end, close in by the rock, but the window was in
the side or front. Through the latter the inmates of the hut could
command a view of any one approaching by the regular path. This,
however, was a rare occurrence, as the brace of rude hunters had but few
acquaintances, and their dwelling was far removed from any frequented
route. Indeed, the general track of travel that led along the bottom
line of the bluffs did not approach within several hundred yards of this
point, in consequence of the indentation or bay in which the hut was
placed. Moreover, the thick chapparal screened it from observation on
one side, while the cliffs shut it in upon the other.

Behind the house--that is, at the hinder end of it--was a small
_corral_, its walls rudely constructed with fragments of rock. In this
stood three lean and sore-backed mules, and a brace of mustangs no
better off. There was a field adjoining the corral, or what had once
been a field, but from neglect had run into a bed of grass and weeds. A
portion of it, however, showed signs of cultivation--a patch here and
there--on which stood some maize-plants, irregularly set and badly hoed,
and between their stems the trailing tendrils of the melon and calabash.
It was a true squatter's plantation.

Around the door lay half-a-dozen wolfish-looking dogs; and under the
shelter of the overhanging rock, two or three old pack-saddles rested
upon the ground. Upon a horizontal pole two riding saddles were set
astride--old, worn, and torn--and from the same pole hung a pair of
bridles, and some strings of jerked meat and pods of chile pepper.

Inside the house might have been seen a couple of Indian women, not over
cleanly in their appearance, engaged in kneading coarse bread and
stewing tasajo. A fire burnt against the rock, between two stones--
earthen pots and gourd dishes lay littered over the floor.

The walls were garnished with bows, quive