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[Illustration: CLIFF-CASTLE, BRENGUES. In this castle the Bishop ofCahors took refuge from the English, to whom he refused to submit, andin it he died in 1367. It was however captured by the English in 1377.]
"The house i' the rock
. . . no life to ours."
CYMBELINE III. 3.
When in 1850 appeared the Report of the Secretary of War for the UnitedStates, containing Mr. J. H. Simpson's account of the Cliff Dwellingsin Colorado, great surprise was awakened in America, and since thenthese remains have been investigated by many explorers, of whom I needonly name Holmes' "Report of the Ancient Ruins in South-West Coloradoduring the Summers of 1875 and 1876," and Jackson's "Ruins of South-West Colorado in 1875 and 1877." Powell, Newberry, &c., have alsodescribed them. A summary is in "Prehistoric America," by the Marquisde Nadaillac, 1885, and the latest contribution to the subject arearticles in Scribner's Magazine by E. S. Curtis, 1906 and 1909.
The Pueblos Indians dwell for the most part at a short distance fromthe Rio Grande; the Zuñi, however, one of their best known tribes, aresettled far from that river, near the sources of the Gila. In thePueblos country are tremendous cañons of red sandstone, and in theirsides are the habitations of human beings perched on every ledge ininaccessible positions. Major Powell, United States Geologist,expressed his amazement at seeing nothing for whole days butperpendicular cliffs everywhere riddled with human dwellings resemblingthe cells of a honeycomb. The apparently inaccessible heights werescaled by means of long poles with lateral teeth disposed like therungs of a ladder, and inserted at intervals in notches let into theface of the perpendicular rock. The most curious of these dwellings,compared to which the most Alpine chalet is of easy access, have ceasedto be occupied, but the Maqui, in North-West Arizona, still inhabitvillages of stone built on sandstone tables, standing isolated in themidst of a sandy ocean almost destitute of vegetation.
The cause of the abandonment of the cliff dwellings has been thediminished rainfall, that rendering the land barren has sent itspopulation elsewhere. The rivers, the very streams, are dried up, andonly parched water-courses show where they once flowed.
"The early inhabitants of the region under notice were wonderfullyskilful in turning the result of the natural weathering of the rocks toaccount. To construct a cave-dwelling, the entrance to the cave or thefront of the open gallery was walled up with adobes, leaving only asmall opening serving for both door and window. The cliff houses takethe form and dimensions of the platform or ledge from which they rise.The masonry is well laid, and it is wonderful with what skill the wallsare joined to the cliff, and with what care the aspect of theneighbouring rocks has been imitated in the external architecture."[Footnote: Nadaillac, "Prehistoric America," Lond. 1885, p. 205.]
In Asia also these rock-dwellings abound. The limestone cliffs ofPalestine are riddled with them. They are found also in Armenia and inAfghanistan. At Bamian, in the latter, "the rocks are perforated inevery direction. A whole people could put up in the 'Twelve ThousandGalleries' which occupy the slopes of the valley for a distance ofeight miles. Isolated bluffs are pierced with so many chambers that