out of which a tall beam, notched at regular intervals like a primitive
ladder, protruded, and down which also the beam disappeared as if
extended into the bowels of the earth. This edifice, half underground,
half above the soil, was what to-day is called in New Mexico an
_estufa_.[2] This Spanish word has become a technical term, and we shall
hereafter use it in the course of the story as well as the designations
_tshikia_ and _kaaptsh_ of the Queres Indians.

The estufas were more numerous in a single pueblo formerly than they are
now. Nor are they always sunken. At the Rito there were at least ten,
five of which were circular chambers in the rock of the cliffs. These
chambers or halls were, in the times we speak of, gathering places for
men exclusively. No woman was permitted to enter, unless for the purpose
of carrying food to the inmates. Each clan had its own estufa, and the
young men slept in it under the surveillance of one or more of the aged
principals, until they married, and frequently even afterward.

There the young men became acquainted with the affairs of their
individual connections, and little by little also with the business of
the tribe. There, during the long evenings of winter, old men taught
them the songs and prayers embodying traditions and myths, first of
their own clan, then of the tribe.[3] The estufa was school, club-house,
nay, armory to a certain extent. It was more. Many of the prominent
religious exercises took place in it. The estufa on special occasions
became transformed into a temple for the clan who had reared it.

From the depths of this structure there came a series of
dull sounds like beats of a drum. The youngsters stopped short, and
looked at each other in surprise.