In it lay the skeleton, two feet below the soil, the feet pointing eastward. The length of the chamber was about one third of a large man's body; the head lay at the west end, amongst the bones of the chest. It had therefore been buried in a sitting posture facing the rising sun.[127] Along with the body arrow-heads were found, and pieces of tanned deerskin, such as are still worn by the Indians. Of course, all traces of the skull, etc., have since disappeared. While this conversation was taking place, the partner of Mr. Walters, Sr. Juan Basa y Salazar, came in, and the question of the great bell (which I have already mentioned) came up for discussion. All the parties assured me that this bell formerly belonged to the church of Pecos, and that after the outbreak of 1680 the Indians carried it up into their winter pueblo, on the top of the high mesa, where it broke and they left it. The positive assertion that the winter pueblo of the Pecos tribe was about 2,000 feet higher than the great ruins on the _mesilla_--that these ruins themselves were but their summer houses--was very startling. It appeared incredible that the Indians should have left their comfortable quarters in the coldest season to look for shelter in the highest and coldest places of the whole region. Still, my informants being old residents and candid men, with certainly no intention to deceive me, and there being besides confused reports of the existence of ruins on the mesa current among the people of the valley, I resolved to devote my last day to a rapid reconnoissance of the elevated plateau. Therefore, after a visit to the Plaza de Pecos, on the 5th of September, where the Rev. Father Léon Mailluchet confirmed the reports about the winter houses on the mesa, I set out (always on foot) on the morning of the 6th, Mr. Thomas Munn having volunteered to be my guide.