That They Had Enemies No
One Doubts, But, Being In Possession Of An Impregnable Position
Where One Man Could Successfully Withstand A Thousand, To
Surrender Would Have Been Base Cowardice, And Weakness Was Not A
Characteristic Of The Cliff Dwellers.
The question of their subsistence is likewise a puzzle.
They
evidently cultivated the soil where it was practicable to do so
as fragments of farm products have been found in their dwellings,
but in the vicinity of some of the houses there is no tillable
land and the inhabitants must have depended upon other means for
support. The wild game which was, doubtless, abundant furnished
them with meat and edible seeds, fruits and roots from native
plants like the pinon pine and mesquite which together with the
saguaro and mescal, supplied them with a variety of food
sufficient for their subsistence as they do, in a measure, the
wild Indian tribes of that region at the present day.
CHAPTER XII
THE MOQUI INDIANS
The Indians of Arizona are, perhaps, the most interesting of any
of the American aborigines. They are as unique and picturesque
as is the land which they inhabit; and the dead are no less so
than the living.
The Pueblo Indians, with which the Moquis are classed, number
altogether about ten thousand and are scattered in twenty-six
villages over Arizona and New Mexico. They resemble each other
in many respects, but do not all speak the same language. They
represent several wholly disconnected stems and are classified
linguistically by Brinton as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan, Kera,
Tehua and Zuni stocks.
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