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There were several smoke-blackened caves without walls of masonry, but with floors strewn with charred wood, showing Apache occupancy. No cavate dwellings were found in the section of the Red-rocks visited by our party. The two largest of the Red-rock cliff houses to which I shall refer were named Honanki or Bear-house and Palatki or Red-house.
There is likewise no evidence that the Apache had ever sought it for shelter, or if they had, their occupancy occurred so long ago that time has effaced all evidence of their presence. The largest ruin visited in the Red-rock country was called, following Hopi etymology, Honanki; but the nomenclature was adopted not because it was so called by the Hopi, but following the rule elsewhere suggested.
The eastern part of the main ruin of Honanki, however, lies but a short distance west of that described, and consists of many similar chambers, arranged side by side. These are lettered in the diagram h to u, beginning with h, which is irregularly circular in form, and ends with a high wall, the first to be seen as one approaches the ruin from Lloyd canyon.
There are no pictographs near this ruin, and no signs of former visits by white men. Midway between Honanki and the second Palatki ruin a small ancient house of the same character as the latter was discovered. This ruin is very much exposed, and therefore the walls are considerably worn, but six well-marked inclosures, indicative of former rooms, were readily made out.
The pictographs on the face of the cliff above Honanki are for the greater part due to the former Apache occupants of the rooms, and are situated high above the tops of the walls of the ruin. They are, as a rule, drawn with white chalk, which shows very clearly on the red rock, and are particularly numerous above room g.
It was impossible for us to enter these works, even after we had clambered up the side of the precipice to their level, so inaccessible were they to our approach. These "forts" were probably for refuge, but they are ill adapted as points of observation on account of the configuration of the canyon. Their masonry, as examined at a distance with a field glass, resembles that of Palatki and Honanki.
Beginning with h, the round room, which adjoins the main quarter of Honanki, we find much in its shape to remind us of a kiva. The walls are in part built on foundations of large bowlders, one of which formed the greater part of the front wall. This circular room was found to be full of fallen débris, and could not be examined without considerable excavation.
While it can not be positively asserted that we were the original discoverers of this interesting building, there is no doubt that I was the first to describe it and to call attention to its highly characteristic architectural plan. The walls of Palatki are not so massive as those of the neighboring Honanki, and the number of rooms in both ruins which form Palatki is much smaller.
Although the cliff houses of Verde valley had been known for many years, and the ruins here described are of the same general character, anyone who examines Casa Montezuma, on Beaver creek, and compares it with Honanki, will note differences of an adaptive nature.
The two ruins, Honanki and Palatki, are not the only ones in the lone canyon where we encamped. Following the canyon a short distance from its entrance, there was found to open into it from the left a tributary, or so-called box canyon, the walls of which are very precipitous. Perched on ledges of the cliffs there are several rows of fortifications or walls of masonry extending for many yards.
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