A state of perpetual
siege and watchfulness, of readiness to fight at any moment, of keeping
lookouts on the alert day and night, of working in the fields with one hand
on the implements of peace and industry, and the other on the implements of
war. The night attack, murder, rapine, fire and bloodshed became common
experiences, and the discovery of many bodies, the skulls crushed with
battleaxes, of skeletons of men slain with the deadly arrow, of bodies
twisted by torture and charred by fire, reveal what a reign of terror and
dread that epoch must have been in the land of the cliff-dweller.
Houses Became Fortresses. For how many decades or centuries this lasted, we
do not know. Somewhat uncertain tradition is all we have to rely upon. But
ultimately the pressure became less severe. In some cases, hostilities
largely ceased; in others, they became less constant. So the pueblos we
find in existence to-day slowly began to arise. One by one, the bands of
cliff-dwellers dared to leave their wall fortresses and to build in more
congenial places, nearer to their fields and springs or water-courses. But,
taught by past experience, they made their homes into fortresses. The
houses were massed together, largely for protective purposes; there was no
means of easy entrance to the bottom story (they were built from two to
seven stories high), the only way provided being by a hatchway and ladder
from the roof.
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