regions of the great Southwest, though subdivided into numerous
tribes, are usually known under the general title of Pueblos. The
name itself, bestowed upon them by the Spaniards, is significant;
since _pueblo_ is the Spanish word for village, and this would seem
to prove that the race thus designated three hundred and fifty years
ago was not nomadic, but had been settled here for many years.

[Illustration: LAGUNA.]

[Illustration: CLIFF PALACES.]

Antiquity and mystery impart a charm to these Pueblo Indians. They
are foundlings of history. We see their immemorial settlements, and
know that, centuries before Columbus landed on San Salvador, a number
of advantageously situated places in the western portion of this
continent served as the homes of powerful tribes, whose towns and
villages formed the scenes of warfare and barbaric splendor. But of
the men who built those villages we know comparatively nothing. Their
origin is almost as trackless as the sand which hides so many of
their relics in a tawny sepulchre. We may be certain, however, that
the remnants who survive are the representatives of myriads who once
made most of the American valleys palpitant with life, but over whom
oblivion has swept like a huge tidal wave, leaving the scattered
fragments of their history like peaks rising from a submerged world.

[Illustration: A TWO-STORY CLIFF PALACE.]

The best conclusions of scientists in regard to the geological
periods of our planet consider that the Glacial Epoch began about two
hundred and forty thousand, and ended about eighty thousand, years