The rock, being extremely friable, crumbled constantly; and now and then inhabited caves were falling a prey to the wear and tear of the material in which they had been excavated.

As this slow decay was sure to continue, it was logical to expect that room must be found for the houseless outside.
Already the Corn clan had been compelled to build a house in the bottom of the valley.

All this further tended to curtail the space for agriculture, and rendered a diminution of numbers prospectively imperative.
These facts had been recognized by Tyope, and he had talked with the Koshare Naua about them for some time past.

They were the only persons who had thought of them, not so much deploring the necessity arising therefrom in the future as hailing them as welcome pretexts for their immediate personal aims.

Neither Tyope nor the Naua had such high ambition as to aspire to a change of the basis of social organization.
Neither of them had any conception of government but what was purely tribal, but they both aspired to offices and dignities such as tribal organization alone knows.