Chukubi, plan.]
Secure in the darkness from observation, the bands followed the Walpi
chief across the valley, every man with his weapons in hand and a bundle
of inflammables on his back. Beaching the Awatubi mesa they cautiously
crept up the steep, winding trail to the summit, and then stole round
the village to the passages leading to the different courts holding the
kivas, near which they hid themselves. They waited till just before the
gray daylight came, then the Walpi chief shouted his war cry and the
yelling bands rushed to the kivas. Selecting their positions, they were
at them in a moment, and quickly snatching up the ladders through the
hatchways, the only means of exit, the doomed occupants were left as
helpless as rats in a trap. Fire was at hand in the numerous little
cooking pits, containing the jars of food prepared for the celebrants,
the inflammable bundles were lit and tossed into the kivas, and the
piles of firewood on the terraced roofs were thrown down upon the blaze,
and soon each kiva became a furnace. The red pepper was then cast upon
the fire to add its choking tortures, while round the hatchways the
assailants stood showering their arrows into the mass of struggling
wretches. The fires were maintained until the roofs fell in and buried
and charred the bones of the victims. It is said that every male of
Awatubi who had passed infancy perished in the slaughter, not one
escaping. Such of the women and children as were spared were taken out,
and all the houses were destroyed, after which the captives were divided
among the different villages.
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