One morning, however, an old woman came over to
Mashongnavi to borrow some tobacco, saying that they were going to have
a dance in her village in five days. The next day the Payupki quietly
departed. Seeing no smoke from the village the Mashongnavi at first
thought that the Payupki were preparing for their dance, but on the
third day a band of warriors was sent over to inquire and they found the
village abandoned. The estufas and the houses of the priests were pulled
down.
The narrator adds that the Payupki returned to San Felipe whence they
came.
[Illustration: Plate XV. Standing walls of Payupki.]
CHAPTER II.
RUINS AND INHABITED VILLAGES OF TUSAYAN.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE PROVINCE.
That portion of the southwestern plateau country comprised in the
Province of Tusayan has usually been approached from the east, so that
the easternmost of the series of mesas upon which the villages are
situated is called the "First Mesa." The road for 30 or 40 miles before
reaching this point traverses the eastern portion of the great plateau
whose broken margin, farther west, furnishes the abrupt mesa-tongues
upon which the villages are built. The sandstone measures of this
plateau are distinguished from many others of the southwest by their
neutral colors. The vegetation consisting of a scattered growth of
stunted pi?on and cedar, interspersed with occasional stretches of
dull-gray sage, imparts an effect of extreme monotony to the landscape.
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