The spot is well selected for an abode of sedentary Indians.  An extensive view opens toward the east, north, and south.  We see in the east the mountains above Santa Fe, in the south the ranges at whose foot lie the ruins of Hishi.  In the north the high plateaus above the Rito shut out a glimpse of the Puye, but a whitish streak in that direction indicates the top line of the northern cliffs that overhang the Rito de los Frijoles.  Right and left of the village, not more than a hundred yards from each side, begin the rugged declivities of the sides of the potrero.  If we want to go farther we can proceed to the west only, and there we soon get into timber again.

A few steps within that timber, and we have before us a strange sight.  A wall of rudely piled stone slabs planted upright, flags laid upon them crosswise, and smaller fragments piled against and between them, form a pentagonal enclosure which at first sight reminds us of a diminutive Stonehenge.  There is an entrance to it from the southeast,—­an open corridor flanked by similar parapets.  The enclosing wall is not more than three feet high, and we easily peep into the interior.

Inside there are two statues carved out of the living rock.  Although much disfigured to-day they still show a plain resemblance to the figures of two crouching panthers or pumas.  They are life size; and the animals seem to lie there with their heads to the east, their tails extended along the ground.  As we stand and gaze, our Indian goes up to the statues and furtively anoints their heads with red ochre, muttering a prayer between his teeth.

What may be the signification of this statuary?  Do you remember the great dance at the Rito, and the painting on the wall of the estufa where the Koshare Naua sat and held communication with Those Above?  Do you recollect that among these paintings there was one of a panther and another of a bear?  The relation of the bear and panther of the estufa to the picture of the sun-father is here that of the two stone panthers to the sun himself.  Their faces are turned to the east, whence rises the sun, in which dwells the father of all mankind, and the moon, which their mother inhabits.  As in the estufa on the Rito, so in the outside world, the pictures of stone express a prayer to the higher powers, and here daily the people of the village were wont to make offerings and say their prayers.

We are therefore on sacred ground in this crumbling enclosure.  But who knows that we are not on magic ground also?  We might make an experiment; and though our Indian guide is not one of the great shamans, he might help us in an attempt at innocent jugglery.

Let us suffer ourselves to be blindfolded, and then turn around three times from left to right while our friend recites some cabalistic formula, incomprehensible of course to us.

One, two, three!  The bandage is removed.  What can we see?

Nothing strange at first.  Surrounding nature is the same as before.  The same extensive view, the same snow-clad ranges in the far east, the same silent, frowning rocks, the same dark pines around us.  But in the north, over the yellowish band that denotes the cliffs of the Rito, we notice a slight bluish haze.