hypothesis. A people fleeing periodically to the cliffs to
escape from an enemy could not have built such houses. Indeed,
they are simply marvelous when considered as to location and
construction. The time that must necessarily have been consumed
in doing the work and the amount of danger and labor involved--
labor in preparing and getting the material into place and danger
in scaling the dizzy heights over an almost impassible trail, it
seems the boldest assumption to assert that the work was done by
a fleeing and demoralized mob.

Again, it would be a physical impossibility for a people who were
only accustomed to agricultural pursuits to suddenly and
completely change their habits of life such as living among the
rocks would necessitate. Only by native instinct and daily
practice from childhood would it be possible for any people to
follow the narrow and difficult paths which were habitually
traveled by the cliff dwellers. It requires a clear head and
steady nerves to perform the daring feat in safety--to the truth
of which statement modern explorers can testify who have made the
attempt in recent years at the peril of life and limb while
engaged in searching for archaeological treasures.

Judged by the everyday life that is familiar to us it seems
incredible that houses should ever have been built or homes
established in such hazardous places, or that any people should
have ever lived there. But that they did is an established fact
as there stand the houses which were built and occupied by human
beings in the midst of surroundings that might appall the
stoutest heart. Children played and men and women wrought on the
brink of frightful precipices in a space so limited and dangerous