But the thought was finally discarded, on the ground that it was not the Tehuas who should make overtures of peace,--because they were absolutely innocent,--but the Queres, for it was they who, ere proceeding to hostile demonstrations, should have called on the Tehuas for explanation.

Had the two tribes been on friendly terms, it might have been different; but there existed a breach between them already, and if the Queres chose to still further widen it, the Tehuas felt ready for any emergency.

It was resolved to prepare for war at once, to call to arms the entire male population, send ahead the necessary spies, and thus prepared, to wait.
With this the matter went into the hands of the great medicine-man and the head war-chief.

The former was almost an equivalent to the Hishtanyi Chayan among the Queres, the latter the exact equivalent of the maseua.
The castle-like rock of the Puye, along whose base the numerous cave-dwellings are burrowed out of a very friable and almost snow-white tufa, is situated about ten miles west of the Rio Grande, and not two miles south of the picturesque canon of Santa Clara.

The cliff is over one half mile long, and it dominates the mesa on which it stands.