The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

A NOVEL APBA TTIS.
He at once invited us to visit the city at any and all times,
and offered to show us any objects of interest that existed
in its vicinity, an invitation that we at once accepted; for
by so doing, we had an opportunity to familiarize ourselves
with the character and habits of this interesting and most
remarkable people.
The cacique informed us that "three suns" before, a party
of Americans, with four wagons, had passed down the valley
to the westward, and that women were among them. He
cautioned us against permitting our stock to wander over
the plain at will, as many deep pits had been dug, as a protection against the Navajoes, who were in the habit of frequently raiding upon the Zuni stock.
Under his guidance we at once commenced an examination of the pits, which were scattered around the plain in
the vicinity of the four trails leading into the town, and.so
located that they testified very clearly to the engineering
skill of the Zunis.
The pits were about ten feet deep, and large enough to
contain a mule or horse. The bottom was filled with sharpened sticks set upright in the earth, and the whole artfully
concealed by being nicely and most ingeniously covered
with brush, grass, and dirt, in such a manner that their
existence would have been entirely unsuspected by a casual
observer. We could easily understand that they would
prove a most dangerous and effective mode of destruction
316