Here the projecting stones are of singularly regular and symmetrical

form, and receive very little artificial treatment. Their extreme

thinness makes it easy to trim off the projecting corners and angles,

reducing them to such a form that they can be laid in close contact.

Thus laid they furnish an admirable protection against the destructive

action of the violent rains. The stones are usually trimmed to a width

corresponding to the thickness of the walls. Of course where a

projecting cornice is built, it can be made, to some extent, to conform

to the width of available coping stones. These can usually be procured,

however, of nearly uniform width. In the case of the overhanging

cornices the necessary projection is attained by continuing either the

main roof beams, or sometimes the smaller poles of the second series,

according to the position of the required cornice, for a foot or more

beyond the outer face of the wall. Over these poles the roofing is

continued as in ordinary roof construction with the exception that the

edge of the earth covering is built of masonry, an additional precaution

against its destruction by the rains. In many places the adobe

plastering originally applied to the faces of these cornices, as well as

to the walls, has been washed away, exposing the whole construction. In

some of these instances the face of the cornice furnishes a complete

section of the roof, in which all the series of its construction can be

readily identified. The protective agency of these coping stones is well

illustrated in Pl. XCVII, which shows the destructive effect of rain at

a point where an open joint has admitted enough water to bare the

masonry of the cornice face, eating through its coating of adobe, while

at the firmly closed joint toward the left there has been no erosive

action. The much larger proportion of projecting copings or cornices in

Zuñi, as compared with Tusayan, is undoubtedly attributable to the

universal smoothing of the walls with adobe, and to the more general use

of this perishable medium in this village, and the consequent necessity

for protecting the walls. The efficiency of this means of protecting the

wall against the wear of weather is seen in the preservation of external

whitewashing for several feet below such a cornice on the face of the

walls. At the pueblo of Acoma a similar extensive use of projecting

cornices is met with, particularly on the third story walls. Here again

it is due to the use of adobe, which has been more frequently employed

in the finish of the higher and newer portions of the village than in

the lower terraces. As a rule these overhanging copings occur

principally on the southern exposures of the buildings and on the

terraced sides of house rows. When walls rise to the height of several

stories directly from the ground, such as the back walls of house rows,

they are not usually provided with this feature but are capped with

flush copings.

[Illustration: Plate LXXII. Fragments of ancient masonry in Pescado.]

The rapid and destructive erosion of the earthen roof covering must have

early stimulated the pueblo architect to devise means for promptly

distributing where it would do the least harm, the water which came upon

his house. This necessity must have led to the early use of roof drains,

for in no other way could the ancient builders have provided for the

effectual removal of the water from the roofs and at the same time have

preserved intact the masonry of the walls. Unfortunately we have no

examples of such features in the ruined pueblos, for in the destruction

or decay of the houses they are among the first details to be lost. The

roof drain in the modern architecture becomes a very prominent feature,

particularly at Zuñi.

[Illustration: Fig. 39. Single stone roof drains.]

[Illustration: Fig. 40. Trough roof drains of stone.]

These drains are formed by piercing an opening through the thickness of

the coping wall, at a point where the drainage from the roof would

collect, the opening being made with a decided pitch and furnished with

a spout or device of some kind to insure the discharge of the water

beyond the face of the wall. These spouts assume a variety of forms.

Perhaps the most common is that of a single long, narrow slab of stone,

set at a suitable angle and of sufficient projection to throw the

discharge clear of the wall. Fig. 39 illustrates drains of this type,

No. 1 being a Tusayan example and No. 2 from Zuñi. It will be noted that

the surrounding masonry of the former, as well as the stone itself, are

much ruder than the Zuñi example. Another type of drain, not differing

greatly from the preceding, is illustrated in Fig. 40. This form is a

slight improvement on the single stone drain, as it is provided with

side pieces which convert the device into a trough-like spout, and more

effectually direct the discharge. No. 1 is a Tusayan spout and No. 2 a

Zuñi example. Wooden spouts are also commonly used for this purpose.

Fig. 41 illustrates an example from each province of this form of drain.

These are usually made from small tree trunks, not exceeding 3 or 4

inches in diameter, and are gouged out from one side. No tubular

specimens of wooden spouts were seen. At Tusayan the builders have

utilized stone of a concretionary formation for roof drains. The workers

in stone could not wish for material more suitably fashioned for the

purpose than these specimens. Two of these curious stone channels are

illustrated in Fig. 42. Two more examples of Tusayan roof drains are

illustrated in Fig. 43. The first of the latter shows the use of a

discarded metate, or mealing stone, and the second of a gourd that has

been walled into the coping.

[Illustration: Fig. 41. Wooden roof drains.]

[Illustration: Fig. 42. Curved roof drains of stone in Tusayan.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXIV. General view of Ojo Caliente.]

It is said that tubes of clay were used at Awatubi in olden times for

roof drains, but there remains no positive evidence of this. Three forms

of this device are attributed to the people of that village. Some are

said to have been made of wood, others of stone, and some again of

sun-dried clay. The native explanation of the use in this connection of

sun-dried clay, instead of the more durable baked product, was that the

application of fire to any object that water passes through would be

likely to dry up the rains. It was stated in this connection that at the

present day the cobs of the corn used for planting are not burned until

rain has fallen on the crop. If the clay spout described really existed

among the people at Awatubi, it was likely to have been an innovation

introduced by the Spanish missionaries. Among the potsherds picked up at

this ruin was a small piece of coarsely made clay tube, which seemed to

be too large and too roughly modeled to have been the handle of a ladle,

which it roughly resembled, or to have belonged to any other known form

of domestic pottery. As a roof drain its use would not accord with the

restrictions referred to in the native account, as the piece had been

burnt.

[Illustration: Fig. 43. Tusayan roof drains; a discarded metate and

a gourd.]

In some cases in Zuñi where drains discharge from the roofs of upper

terraces directly upon those below, the lower roofs and also the

adjoining vertical walls are protected by thin tablets of stone, as

shown in Fig. 44. It will be seen that one of these is placed upon the

lower roof in such a position that the drainage falls directly upon it.

Where the adobe roof covering is left unprotected its destruction by the

rain is very rapid, as the showers of the rainy season in these regions,

though usually of short duration, are often extremely violent. The force

of the torrents is illustrated in the neighboring country. Here small

ruts in the surface of the ground are rapidly converted into large

arroyos. Frequently ordinary wagon tracks along a bit of valley slope

serve as an initial channel to the rapidly accumulating waters and are

eaten away in a few weeks so that the road becomes wholly impassable,

and must be abandoned for a new one alongside.

[Illustration: Fig. 44. Zuñi roof drain, with splash stones on roof

below.]

The shiftlessness of the native builders in the use of the more

convenient material brings its own penalty during this season in a

necessity for constant watchfulness and frequent repairs to keep the

houses habitable. One can often see in Zuñi where an inefficient drain

or a broken coping has given the water free access to the face of a

plastered wall, carrying away all its covering and exposing in a

vertical space the jagged stones of the underlying masonry. It is

noticeable that much more attention has been paid to protective devices

at Zuñi than at Tusayan. This is undoubtedly due to the prevalent use of

adobe in the former. This friable material must be protected at all

vulnerable points with slabs of stone in order quickly to divert the

water and preserve the roofs and walls from destruction.

LADDERS AND STEPS.

In the inclosed court of the old fortress pueblos the first terrace was

reached only by means of ladders, but the terraces or rooms above this

were reached both by ladders and steps. The removal of the lower tier of

ladders thus gave security against intrusion and attack. The builders of

Tusayan have preserved this primitive arrangement in much greater purity

than those of Cibola.

[Illustration: Plate LXXV. House at Ojo Caliente.]

In Zuñi numerous ladders are seen on every terrace, but the purpose of

these, on the highest terraces, is not to provide access to the rooms of

the upper story, which always have external doors opening on the

terraces, but to facilitate repairs of the roofs. At Tusayan, on the

other hand, ladders are of rare occurrence above the first terrace,

their place being supplied by flights of stone steps. The relative

scarcity of stone at Zuñi, suitable for building material, and its great

abundance at Tusayan, undoubtedly account for this difference of usage,

especially as the proximity of the timber supply of the Zuñi mountains

to the former facilitates the substitution of wood for steps of masonry.

[Illustration: Fig. 45. A modern notched ladder in Oraibi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 46. Tusayan notched ladders from Mashongnavi.]

The earliest form of ladder among the pueblos was probably a notched

log, a form still occasionally used. Figures 45 and 46 illustrate

examples of this type of ladder from Tusayan.

A notched ladder from Oraibi, made with a modern axe, is shown. This

specimen has a squareness of outline and an evenness of surface not

observed in the ancient examples. The ladder from Mashongnavi,

illustrated on the left of Fig. 46, closely resembles the Oraibi

specimen, though the workmanship is somewhat ruder. The example

illustrated on the right of the same figure is from Oraibi. This ladder

is very old, and its present rough and weatherbeaten surface affords but

little evidence of the character of the implement used in making it.

[Illustration: Fig. 47. Aboriginal American forms of ladder.]

The ladder having two poles connected by cross rungs is undoubtedly a

native invention, and was probably developed through a series of

improvements on the primitive notched type. It is described in detail in

the earliest Spanish accounts. Fig. 47 illustrates on the left the

notched ladder, and on the right a typical two-pole ladder in its most

primitive form. In this case the rungs are simply lashed to the

uprights. The center ladder of the diagram is a Mandan device

illustrated by Mr. Lewis H. Morgan.[6] As used by the Mandans this

ladder is placed with its forked end on the ground, the reverse of the

Pueblo practice. It will readily be seen, on comparing these examples,

that an elongation of the fork which occurs as a constant accompaniment

of the notched ladder might eventually suggest a construction similar to

that of the Mandan ladder reversed. The function of the fork on the

notched ladder in steadying it when placed against the wall would be

more effectually performed by enlarging this feature.

[Footnote 6: Cont. to N.A. Ethn., vol. 4, Houses and House life,

pp. 129-131.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXVII. Outline plan of Zuñi, showing

distribution of oblique openings.]

At one stage in the development of the form of ladder in common use

to-day the rungs were laid in depressions or notches of the vertical

poles, resembling the larger notches of the single ladder, and then

lashed on with thongs of rawhide or with other materials. Later, when

the use of iron became known, holes were burned through the side poles.

This is the nearly universal practice to-day, though some of the more

skillful pueblo carpenters manage to chisel out rectangular holes. The

piercing of the side poles, particularly prevalent in Zuni, has brought

about a curious departure from the ancient practice of removing the

ladder in times of threatened danger. Long rungs are loosely slipped

into the holes in the side pieces, and the security formerly gained by

taking up the entire ladder is now obtained, partially at least, by the

removal of the rungs. The boring of the side pieces and the employment

of loose rungs seriously interferes with the stability of the structure,

as means must be provided to prevent the spreading apart of the side

pieces. The Zuni architect has met this difficulty by prolonging the

poles of the ladder and attaching a cross piece near their upper ends to

hold them together. As a rule this cross piece is provided with a hole

near each end into which the tapering extremities of the poles are

inserted. From their high position near the extremities of the ladders,

seen in silhouette against the sky, they form peculiarly striking

features of Zuni. They are frequently decorated with rude carvings of

terraced notches. Examples of this device may be seen in the views of

Zuni, and several typical specimens are illustrated in detail in Pl.

XCVIII. The use of cross pieces on ladders emerging from roof openings

is not so common as on external ones, as there is not the same necessity

for holding together the poles, the sides of the opening performing that

office.

There are two places in Zuni, portions of the densest house cluster,

where the needs of unusual traffic have been met by the employment of

double ladders, made of three vertical poles, which accommodate two

tiers of rungs. The sticks forming the rungs are inserted in continuous

lengths through all three poles, and the cross pieces at the top are

also continuous, being formed of a single flat piece of wood perforated

by three holes for the reception of the tips of the poles. In additional

to the usual cross pieces pierced for the reception of the side poles

and rudely carved into ornamental forms, many temporary cross pieces are

added during the harvest season in the early autumn to support the

strips of meat and melons, strings of red peppers, and other articles

dried in the open air prior to storage for winter use. At this season

every device that will serve this purpose is employed. Occasionally

poles are seen extending across the reentering angles of a house or are

supported on the coping and rafters. The projecting roof beams also are

similarly utilized at this season.

Zuni ladders are usually provided with about eight rungs, but a few have

as many as twelve. The women ascend these ladders carrying ollas of

water on their heads, children play upon them, and a few of the most

expert of the numerous dogs that infest the village can clumsily make

their way up and down them. As described in a previous section all

houses built during the year are consecrated at a certain season, and

among other details of the ceremonial, certain rites, intended to

prevent accidents to children, etc., are performed at the foot of the

ladders.

In Tusayan, where stone is abundant, the ladder has not reached the

elaborate development seen in Zuñi. The perforated cross piece is rarely

seen, as there is little necessity for its adoption. The side poles are

held together by the top and bottom rungs, which pass entirely through

the side pieces and are securely fixed, while the ends of the others are

only partly embedded in the side pieces. In other cases (Pl. XXXII) the

poles are rigidly held in place by ropes or rawhide lashings.

Short ladders whose side poles are but little prolonged beyond the top

rung are of common occurrence, particularly in Oraibi. Three such

ladders are shown in Pl. LXXXIV. A similar example may be seen in Pl.

CVII, in connection with a large opening closed with rough masonry. In

these cases the rungs are made to occupy slight notches or depressions

in the upright poles and are then firmly lashed with rawhide, forming a

fairly rigid structure. This type of ladder is probably a survival of

the earliest form of the pueblo ladder.

In addition to the high cross piece whose function is to retain in place

the vertical poles, the kiva ladders are usually provided, both in Zuñi

and Tusayan, with a cross piece consisting of a round stick tied to the

uprights and placed at a uniform height above the kiva roof. This stick

affords a handhold for the marked dancers who are often encumbered with

ceremonial paraphernalia as they enter the kiva. In the case of the

Oraibi kiva occupying the foreground of Pl. XXXVIII, it may be seen that

this handhold cross piece is inserted into holes in the side poles, an

exception to the general practice. In Pl. LXXXVII, illustrating kivas,

the position of this feature will be seen.

The exceptional mode of access to Tusayan kiva hatchways by means of

short nights of stone steps has already been noticed. In several

instances the top steps of these short flights cover the thickness of

the wall. The remains of a similar stairway were observed in Pueblo

Bonito, where it evidently reached directly from the ground to an

external doorway. Access by such means, however, is a departure from the

original defensive idea.

[Illustration: Plate LXXVIII. General inside view of Zuñi, looking

west.]

Modern practice in Zuñi has departed more widely from the primitive

system than at Tusayan. In the former pueblo short nights of stone steps

giving access to doors raised but a short distance above the ground are

very commonly seen. Even in the small farming pueblo of Pescado two

examples of this arrangement are met with. Pl. XCIX illustrates one of

these found on the north outside wall. In the general views of the

Tusayan villages the closer adherence to primitive methods is clearly

indicated, although the modern compare very unfavorably with the ancient

examples in precision of execution. Pl. XXXII illustrates two flights of

stone steps of Shupaulovi. In many cases the workmanship of these stone

steps does not surpass that seen in the Walpi trail, illustrated in Pl.

XXV.

[Illustration: Fig. 48. Stone steps at Oraibi, with platform at

corner.]

[Illustration: Fig. 49. Stone steps, with platform at chimney,

in Oraibi.]

Perhaps in no one detail of pueblo construction are the careless and

shiftless modern methods so conspicuous as in the stone steps of the

upper terraces of Tusayan. Here are seen many awkward makeshifts by

means of which the builders have tried to compensate for their lack of

foresight in planning. The absence of a definite plan for a house

cluster of many rooms, already noted in the discussion of dwelling-house

construction, is rendered conspicuous by the manner in which the stone

stairways are used. Figs. 48 and 49 illustrate stone steps on upper

terraces in Oraibi. In both cases the steps have been added long after

the rooms against which they abut were built. In order to conform to the

fixed requirement of placing such means of access at the corners of the

upper rooms, the builders constructed a clumsy platform to afford

passage around the previously built chimney. Fig. 50 shows the result of

a similar lack of foresight. The upper portion of the flight, consisting

of three steps, has been abruptly turned at right angles to the main

flight, and is supported upon rude poles and beams. The restriction of

this feature to the corners of upper rooms where they were most likely

to conflict with chimneys is undoubtedly a survival of ancient practice,

and due to the necessary vertical alignment of walls and masonry in this

primitive construction.

[Illustration: Fig. 50. Stone steps in Shumopavi.]

COOKING PITS AND OVENS.

Most of the cooking of the ancient Pueblos was probably done out of

doors, as among the ruins vestiges of cooking pits, almost identical in

character with those still found in Tusayan, are frequently seen. In

Cibola the large dome-shaped ovens, common to the Pueblos of the Rio

Grande and to their Mexican neighbors are in general use. In Tusayan a

few examples of this form of oven occur upon the roofs of the terraces,

while the cooking pit in a variety of forms is still extensively used.

[Illustration: Plate LXXIX. Zuñi terraces.]

The distribution of the dome-shaped ovens in Cibola and in Tusayan may

be seen on the ground plans in Chapters III and IV. The simplest form of

cooking pit, still commonly used in Tusayan, consists of a depression in

the ground, lined with a coating of mud. The pit is usually of small

size and is commonly placed at some little distance from the house; in a

few cases it is located in a sheltered corner of the building. Fig. 51

illustrates a series of three such primitive ovens built against a house

wall, in a low bench or ledge of masonry raised 6 inches above the

ground; the holes measure about a foot across and are about 18 or 20

inches deep. Many similar pits occur in the Tusayan villages; some of

them are walled in with upright stone slabs, whose rough edges project 6

or 8 inches above the ground, the result closely resembling the ancient

form of in-door fireplace, such as that seen in a room of Kin-tiel. (Pl.

C.)

[Illustration: Fig. 51. A series of cooking pits in Mashongnavi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 52. Pi-gummi ovens of Mashongnavi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 53. Cross sections of pi-gummi ovens of

Mashongnavi.]

In its perfected form the cooking pit in Tusayan takes the place of the

more elaborate oven used in Zuñi. Figs. 52 and 53 show two specimens of

pits used for the preparation of pi-gummi, a kind of baked mush.

These occur on the east side of Mashongnavi. They project 6 or 8 inches

above the ground, and have a depth of from 18 to 24 inches. The débris

scattered about the pits indicates the manner in which they are covered

with slabs of stone and sealed with mud when in use. In all the oven,

devices of the pueblos the interior is first thoroughly heated by a long

continued fire within, the structure. When the temperature is

sufficiently high the ashes and dirt are cleaned out, the articles to be

cooked inserted, and the orifices sealed. The food is often left in

these heated receptacles for 12 hours or more, and on removal it is

generally found to be very nicely cooked. Each of the pi-gummi ovens

illustrated above is provided with a tube-like orifice 3 or 4 inches in

diameter, descending obliquely from the ground level into the cavity.

Through this opening the fire is arranged and kept in order, and in this

respect it seems to be the counterpart of the smaller hole of the Zuñi

dome-shaped ovens. When the principal opening, by which the vessel

containing the pi-gummi or other articles is introduced, has been

covered with a slab of stone and sealed with mud, the effect is similar

to that of the dome-shaped oven when the ground-opening or doorway is

hermetically closed.

No example of the dome-shaped oven of pre-Columbian origin has been

found among the pueblo ruins, although its prototype probably existed in

ancient times, possibly in the form of a kiln for baking a fine quality

of pottery formerly manufactured. However, the cooking pit alone,

developed to the point of the pi-gummi oven of Tusayan, may have been

the stem upon which the foreign idea was engrafted. Instances of the

complete adoption by these conservative people of a wholly foreign idea

or feature of construction are not likely to be found, as improvements

are almost universally confined to the mere modification of existing

devices. In the few instances in which more radical changes are

attempted the resulting forms bear evidence of the fact.

[Illustration: Fig. 54. Diagram showing foundation stones of a Zuñi

oven.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXX. Old adobe church of Zuñi.]

In Cibola the construction of a dome-shaped oven is begun by laying out

roughly a circle of flat stones as a foundation. Upon these the upper

structure is rudely built of stones laid in the mud and approximately in

the courses, though often during construction one side will be carried

considerably higher than another. The walls curve inward to an

apparently unsafe degree, but the mud mortar is often allowed to partly

dry before carrying the overhanging portion so far as to endanger the

structure, and accidents rarely happen. The oven illustrated in Pl.

XCVII shows near its broken doorway the arrangement of foundation stones

referred to. Typical examples of the dome oven occur in the foreground

of the general view of Zuñi shown in Pl. LXXVIII.

The dome ovens of Cibola are generally smoothly plastered, inside and

out, but a few examples are seen in which the stones of the masonry are

exposed. In. Pl. XCIX may be seen two ovens differing in size, one of

which shows the manner in which the opening is blocked up with stone to

keep out stray dogs during periods of disuse. Fig. 55 illustrates a

mud-plastered oven at Pescado, which is elevated about a foot above the

ground on a base or plinth of masonry. The opening of this oven is on

the side toward the houses. This form is quite exceptional in Cibola,

though of frequent occurrence among the Rio Grande pueblos. A very large

and carefully finished example was examined at Jemez.

[Illustration: Fig. 55. Dome-shaped oven on a plinth of masonry.]

[Illustration: Fig. 56. Oven in Pescado exposing stones of masonry.]

[Illustration: Fig. 57. Oven in Pescado exposing stones of masonry.]

Figs. 56 and 57 illustrate two specimens of rough masonry ovens seen at

Pescado. In one of these a decided horizontal arrangement of the stones

in the masonry prevails. The specimen at the right is small and rudely

constructed, showing but little care in the use of the building

material. The few specimens of dome ovens seen in Tusayan are

characterized by the same rudeness of construction noticed in their

house masonry. The rarity of this oven at Tusayan, where so many of the

constructions have retained a degree of primitiveness not seen

elsewhere, is perhaps an additional evidence of its foreign origin.

[Illustration: Plate LXXXI. Eastern rows of Zuñi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 58. Shrines in Mashongnavi.]

OVEN-SHAPED STRUCTURES.

In Tusayan, there are other structures, of rude dome-shape, likely to be

mistaken for some form of cooking device. Fig. 58 illustrates two

specimens of shrines that occur in courts of Mashongnavi. These are

receptacles for plume sticks (bahos) and other votive offerings used at

certain festivals, which, after being so used, are sealed up with stone

slabs and adobe. These shrines occur at several of the villages, as

noted in the discussion of the plans in Chapter III. In the foreground

of Pl. XXXVIII may be seen an Oraibi specimen somewhat resembling those

seen at Mashongnavi.

[Illustration: Fig. 59. A poultry house in Sichumovi resembling an

oven.]

Fig. 59 illustrates a very rude structure of stones in Sichumovi,

resembling in form a dome oven, which is used as a poultry house.

Several of these are seen in the Tusayan villages.

FIREPLACES AND CHIMNEYS.

The original fireplace of the ancient pueblo builders was probably the

simple cooking pit transferred to a position within the dwelling room,

and employed for the lighter cooking of the family as well as for

warming the dwelling. It was placed in the center of the floor in order

that the occupants of the house might conveniently gather around it. One

of the first improvements made in this shallow indoor cooking pit must

have consisted in surrounding it with a wall of sufficient height to

protect the fire against drafts, as seen in the outdoor pits of Tusayan.

In excavating a room in the ancient pueblo of Kin-tiel, a completely

preserved fireplace, about a foot deep, and walled in with thin slabs of

stone set on edge, was brought to light. The depression had been

hollowed out of the solid rock.

[Illustration: Fig. 60. Ground plan of an excavated room in Kin-tiel.]

This fireplace, together with the room in which it was found, is

illustrated in Pl. C and Fig. 60. It is of rectangular form, but other

examples have been found which are circular. Mr. W. H. Jackson describes

a fireplace in a cliff dwelling in “Echo Cave” that consisted of a

circular, basin-like depression 30 inches across and 10 inches deep.

Rooms furnishing evidence that fires were made in the corners against

the walls are found in many cliff dwellings; the smoke escaped overhead,

and the blackened walls afford no trace of a chimney or flue of any

kind.

The pueblo chimney is undoubtedly a post-Spanish feature, and the best

forms in use at the present time are probably of very recent origin,

though they are still associated with fireplaces that have departed

little from the aboriginal form seen at Kin-tiel and elsewhere. It is

interesting to note, in this connection, that the ceremony consecrating

the house is performed in Tusayan before the chimney is added,

suggesting that the latter feature did not form a part of the aboriginal

dwelling.

[Illustration: Plate LXXXII. A Zuñi court.]

In Cibola a few distinct forms of chimney are used at the present time,

but in the more remote Tusayan the chimney seems to be still in the

experimental stage. Numbers of awkward constructions, varying from the

ordinary cooking pit to the more elaborate hooded structures, testify to

the chaotic condition of the chimney-building art in the latter

province.

Before the invention of a chimney hood, and while the primitive

fireplace occupied a central position in the floor of the room, the

smoke probably escaped through the door and window openings. Later a

hole in the roof provided an exit, as in the kivas of to-day, where

ceremonial use has perpetuated an arrangement long since superseded in

dwelling-house construction. The comfort of a dwelling room provided

with this feature is sufficiently attested by the popularity of the

modern kivas as a resort for the men. The idea of a rude hood or flue to

facilitate the egress of the smoke would not be suggested until the

fireplace was transferred from the center of a room to a corner, and in

the first adoption of this device the builders would rely upon the

adjacent walls for the needed support of the constructional members.

Practically all of the chimneys of Tusayan are placed in corners at the

present time, though the Zuñi builders have developed sufficient skill

to construct a rigid hood and flue in the center of a side wall, as may

be seen in the view of a Zuñi interior, Pl. LXXXVI.

Although the pueblo chimney owes its existence to foreign suggestion it

has evidently reached its present form through a series of timid

experiments, and the proper principles of its construction seem to have

been but feebly apprehended by the native builders, particularly in

Tusayan. The early form of hood, shown in Fig. 66, was made by placing a

short supporting pole across the corner of a room at a sufficient

distance from the floor and upon it arranging sticks to form the frame

work of a contracting hood or flue. The whole construction was finally

covered with a thick coating of mud. This primitive wooden construction

has probably been in use for a long time, although it was modified in

special cases so as to extend across the entire width of narrow rooms to

accommodate “piki” stones or other cumbersome cooking devices. It

embodies the principle of roof construction that must have been employed

in the primitive house from which the pueblo was developed, and

practically constitutes a miniature conical roof suspended over the

fireplace and depending upon the walls of the room for support. On

account of the careful and economical use of fuel by these people the

light and inflammable material of which the chimney is constructed does

not involve the danger of combustion that would be expected. The perfect

feasibility of such use of wood is well illustrated in some of the old

log-cabin chimneys in the Southern States, where, however, the

arrangement of the pieces is horizontal, not vertical. These latter

curiously exemplify also the use of a miniature section of house

construction to form a conduit for the smoke, placed at a sufficient

height to admit of access to the fire.

A further improvement in the chimney was the construction of a corner

hood support by means of two short poles instead of a single piece, thus

forming a rectangular smoke hood of enlarged capacity. This latter is

the most common form in use at the present time in both provinces, but

its arrangement in Tusayan, where it represents the highest achievement

of the natives in chimney construction, is much more varied than in

Cibola. In the latter province the same form is occasionally executed in

stone. Fig. 61 illustrates a corner hood, in which the crossed ends of

the supporting poles are exposed to view. The outer end of the lower

pole is supported from the roof beams by a cord or rope, the latter

being embedded in the mud plastering with which the hood is finished.

The vertically ridged character of the surface reveals the underlying

construction, in which light sticks have been used as a base for the

plaster. The Tusayans say that large sunflower stalks are preferred for

this purpose on account of their lightness. Figs. 63 and 64 show another

Tusayan hood of the type described, and in Fig. 69 a large hood of the

same general form, suspended over a piki-stone, is noticeable for the

frank treatment of the suspending cords, which are clearly exposed to

view for nearly their entire length.

[Illustration: Fig. 61. A corner chimney hood with two supporting

poles (Tusayan).]

In a chimney in a Mashongnavi house, illustrated in Fig. 62, a simple,

sharply curved piece of wood has been used for the lower rim of this

hood, thus obtaining all the capacity of the two-poled form. The

vertical sticks in this example are barely discernible through the

plastering, which has been applied with more than the usual degree of

care.

[Illustration: Fig. 62. A curved chimney hood of Mashongnavi.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXXIII. A Zuñi small house.]

A curious example illustrating a rudimentary form of two-poled hood is

shown in Fig. 63. A straight pole of unusual length is built into the

walls across the corner of a room, and its insertion into the wall is

much farther from the corner on one side than the other. From the longer

stretch of inclosed wall protrudes a short pole that joins the principal

one and serves as a support for one side of the chimney-hood. In this

case the builder appears to have been too timid to venture on the bolder

construction required in the perfected two-poled hood. This example

probably represents a stage in the development of the higher form.

[Illustration: Fig. 63. A Mashongnavi chimney hood and walled up

fireplace.]

In some instances the rectangular corner hood is not suspended from the

ceiling, but is supported from beneath by a stone slab or a piece of

wood. Such a chimney hood seen in a house of Shupaulovi measures nearly

4 by 5 feet. The short side is supported by two stone slabs built into

the wall and extending from the hood to the floor. Upon the upper stone

rests one end of the wooden lintel supporting the long side, while the

other end, near the corner of the room, is held in position by a light

crotch of wood. Fig. 64 illustrates this hood; the plan indicating the

relation of the stones and the forked stick to the corner of the room.

Fig. 71, illustrating a terrace fireplace and chimney of Shumopavi,

shows the employment of similar supports.

Corner chimney hoods in Zuñi do not differ essentially from the more

symmetrical of the Tusayan specimens, but they are distinguished by

better finish, and by less exposure of the framework, having been, like

the ordinary masonry, subjected to an unusually free application of

adobe.

[Illustration: Fig. 64. A chimney hood of Shupaulovi.]

The builders of Tusayan appear to have been afraid to add the necessary

weight of mud mortar to produce this finished effect, the hoods usually

showing a vertically ridged or crenated surface, caused by the sticks of

the framework showing through the thin mud coat. Stone also is often

employed in their construction, and its use has developed a large,

square-headed type of chimney unknown at Tusayan. This is illustrated in

Fig. 65. This form of hood, projecting some distance beyond its flue,

affords space that may be used as a mantel-shelf, an advantage gained

only to a very small degree by the forms discussed above. This chimney,

as before stated, is built against one of the walls of a room, and near

the middle.

[Illustration: Fig. 65. A semi-detached square chimney hood of Zuñi.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXXIV. A house-building at Oraibi.]

All the joints of these hoods, and even the material used, are generally

concealed from view by a carefully applied coating of plaster,

supplemented by a gypsum wash, and usually there is no visible evidence

of the manner in which they are built, but the construction is little

superior to that of the simple corner hoods. The method of framing the

various types of hoods is illustrated in Fig. 66. The example on the

left shows an unplastered wooden hood skeleton. The arrangement of the

parts in projecting rectangular stone hoods is illustrated in the

right-hand diagram of the figure. In constructing such a chimney a thin

buttress is first built against the wall of sufficient width and height

to support one side of the hood. The opposite side of the hood is

supported by a flat stone, firmly set on edge into the masonry of the

wall. The front of the hood is supported by a second flat stone which

rests at one end on a rude shoulder in the projecting slab, and at the

other end upon the front edge of the buttress. It would be quite

practicable for the pueblo builders to form a notch in the lower corner

of the supported stone to rest firmly upon a projection of the

supporting stone, but in the few cases in which the construction could

be observed no such treatment was seen, for they depended mainly on the

interlocking of the ragged ends of the stones. This structure serves to

support the body of the flue, usually with an intervening stone-covered

space forming a shelf. At the present period the flue is usually built

of thin sandstone slabs, rudely adjusted to afford mutual support. The

whole structure is bound together and smoothed over with mud plastering,

and is finally finished with the gypsum wash, applied also to the rest

of the room. Mr. A. F. Bandelier describes “a regular chimney, with

mantel and shelf, built of stone slabs,” which he found “in the caves of

the Rito de los Frijoles, as well as in the cliff dwellings of the

regular detached family house type,”[7] which, from the description,

must have closely resembled the Zuñi chimney described above. Houses

containing such devices may be quite old, but if so they were certainly

reoccupied in post-Spanish times. Such dwellings are likely to have been

used as places of refuge in times of danger up to a comparatively recent

date.

[Footnote 7: Fifth Ann. Rept. Arch. Inst. Am., p. 74.]

[Illustration: Fig. 66. Unplastered Zuñi chimney hoods, illustrating

construction.]

Among the many forms of chimneys and fireplaces seen in Tusayan a

curious approach to our own arrangement of fireplace and mantel was

noticed in a house in Sichumovi. In addition to the principal mantel

ledge, a light wooden shelf was arranged against the wall on one side of

the flue, one of its ends being supported by an upright piece of wood

with a cap, and the other resting on a peg driven into the wall. This

fireplace and mantel is illustrated in Fig. 67.

Aside from the peculiar “guyave” or “piki” baking oven, there is but

little variation in the form of indoor fireplaces in Cibola, while in

Tusayan it appears to have been subjected to about the same mutations

already noted in the outdoor cooking pits. A serious problem was

encountered by the Tusayan builder when he was called upon to construct

cooking-pit fireplaces, a foot or more deep, in a loom of an upper

terrace. As it was impracticable to sink the pit into the floor, the

necessary depth was obtained by walling up the sides, as is shown in

Fig. 68, which illustrates a second-story fireplace in Mashongnavi.

Other examples may be seen in the outdoor chimneys shown in Figs. 72 and

73.

[Illustration: Fig. 67. A fireplace and mantel in Sichumovi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 68. A second-story fireplace in Mashongnavi.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXXV. A Tusayan interior.]

A modification of the interior fireplace designed for cooking the thin,

paper-like bread, known to the Spanish-speaking peoples of this region

as “guyave,” and by the Tusayan as “piki,” is common to both Cibola and

Tusayan, though in the former province the contrivance is more carefully

constructed than in the latter, and the surface of the baking stone

itself is more highly finished. In the guyave oven a tablet of carefully

prepared sandstone is supported in a horizontal position by two slabs

set on edge and firmly imbedded in the floor. A horizontal flue is thus

formed in which the fire is built. The upper stone, whose surface is to

receive the thin guyave batter, undergoes during its original

preparation a certain treatment with fire and piñon gum, and perhaps

other ingredients, which imparts to it a highly polished black finish.

This operation is usually performed away from the pueblo, near a point

where suitable stone is found, and is accompanied by a ceremonial, which

is intended to prevent the stone from breaking on exposure to the fire

when first used. During one stage of these rites the strictest silence

is enjoined, as, according to the native account, a single word spoken

at such a time would crack the tablet.

[Illustration: Fig. 69. Piki stone and chimney hood in Sichumovi.]

When the long guyave stone is in position upon the edges of the back and

front stones the fire must be so applied as to maintain the stone at a

uniform temperature. This is done by frequent feeding with small bits of

sage brush or other fuel. The necessity for such economy in the use of

fuel has to a certain extent affected the forms of all the heating and

cooking devices. Fig. 69 illustrates a Sichumovi piki stone, and Fig. 70

shows the use of the oven in connection with a cooking fireplace, a

combination that is not uncommon. The latter example is from Shumopavi.

The illustration shows an interesting feature in the use of a primitive

andiron or boss to support the cooking pot in position above the fire.

This boss is modeled from the same clay as the fireplace floor and is

attached to it and forms a part of it. Mr. Stephen has collected free

specimens of these primitive props which had never been attached to the

floor. These were of the rudely conical form illustrated in the figure,

and were made of a coarsely mixed clay thoroughly baked to a stony

hardness.

[Illustration: Fig. 70. Piki stone and primitive andiron in

Shumopavi.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXXVI. A Zuñi interior.]

Chimneys and fireplaces are often found in Tusayan in the small,

recessed, balcony-like rooms of the second terrace. When a deep

cooking-pit is required in such a position, it is obtained by building

up the sides, as in the indoor fireplaces of upper rooms. Such a

fireplace is illustrated in Fig. 71. A roofed recess which usually

occurs at one end of the first terrace, called “tupubi,” takes its name

from the flat piki oven, the variety of fireplace generally built in

these alcoves. The transfer of the fireplace from the second-story room

to the corner of such a roofed-terrace alcove was easily accomplished,

and probably led to the occasional use of the cooking-pit, with

protecting chimney hood on the open and unsheltered roof. Fig. 72

illustrates a deep cooking-pit on an upper terrace of Walpi. In this

instance the cooking pit is very massively built, and in the absence of

a sheltering “tupubi” corner is effectually protected on three sides by

mud-plastered stone work, the whole being capped with the usual

chimneypot. The contrivance is placed conveniently near the roof

hatchway of a dwelling room.

[Illustration: Fig. 71. A terrace fireplace and chimney of Shumopavi.]

[Illustration: Fig. 72. A terrace cooking-pit and chimney of Walpi.]

The outdoor use of the above-described fireplaces on upper terraces has

apparently suggested the improvement of the ground cooking pit in a

similar manner. Several specimens were seen in which the cooking pit of

the ordinary depressed type, excavated near an inner corner of a house

wall, was provided with sheltering masonry and a chimney cap; but such

an arrangement is by no means of frequent occurrence. Fig. 73

illustrates an example that was seen on the east side of Shumopavi. It

will be noticed that in the use of this arrangement on the ground--an

arrangement that evidently originated on the terraces--the builders have

reverted to the earlier form of excavated pit. In other respects the

example illustrated is not distinguishable from the terrace forms above

described.

[Illustration: Fig. 73. A ground cooking-pit of Shumopavi covered with

a chimney.]

In the discussion of the details of kiva arrangement in Tusayan (p. 121)

it was shown that the chimney is not used in any form in these

ceremonial chambers; but the simple roof-opening forming the hatchway

serves as a smoke vent, without the addition of either an internal hood

or an external shaft. In the Zuñi kivas the smoke also finds vent

through the opening that gives access to the chamber, but in the framing

of the roof, as is shown elsewhere, some distinction between door and

chimney is observed. The roof-hole is made double, one portion

accommodating the ingress ladder and the other intended to serve for the

egress of the smoke.

[Illustration: Plate LXXXVII. A kiva hatchway of Tusayan.]

The external chimney of the pueblos is a simple structure, and exhibits

but few variations from the type. The original form was undoubtedly a

mere hole in the roof; its use is perpetuated in the kivas. This

primitive form was gradually improved by raising its sides above the

roof, forming a rudimentary shaft. The earlier forms are likely to have

been rectangular, the round following and developing later short masonry

shafts which were finally given height by the addition of chimney pots.

In Zuñi the chimney has occasionally developed into a rather tall shaft,

projecting sometimes to a height of 4 or 5 feet above the roof. This is

particularly noticeable on the lower terraces of Zuñi, the chimneys of

the higher rooms being more frequently of the short types prevalent in

the farming pueblos of Cibola and in Tusayan. The tall chimneys found in

Zuñi proper, and consisting often of four or five chimney pots on a

substructure of masonry, are undoubtedly due to the same conditions that

have so much influenced other constructional details; that is, the

exceptional height of the clusters and crowding of the rooms. As a

result of this the chimney is a more conspicuous feature in Zuñi than

elsewhere, as will be shown by a comparison of the views of the villages

given in Chapters III and IV.

[Illustration: Fig. 74. Tusayan chimneys.]

In Tusayan many of the chimneys are quite low, a single pot surmounting

a masonry substructure not more than 6 inches high being quite common.

As a rule, however, the builders preferred to use a series of pots. Two

typical Tusayan chimneys are illustrated in Fig. 74. Most of the

substructures for chimneys in this province are rudely rectangular in

form, and clearly expose the rough stonework of the masonry, while in

Zuñi the use of adobe generally obliterates all traces of construction.

In both provinces chimneys are seen without the chimney pot. These

usually occur in clusters, simply because the builder of a room or group

of rooms preferred that form of chimney. Pl. CI illustrates a portion of

the upper terraces of Zuñi where a number of masonry chimneys are

grouped together. Those on the highest roof are principally of the

rectangular form, being probably a direct development from the square

roof hole. The latter is still sometimes seen with a rim rising several

inches above the roof surface and formed of slabs set on edge or of

ordinary masonry. These upper chimneys are often closed or covered with

thin slabs of sandstone laid over them in the same manner as the roof

holes that they resemble. The fireplaces to which some of them belong

appear to be used for heating the rooms rather than for cooking, as they

are often disused for long periods during the summer season.

Pl. CI also illustrates chimneys in which pots have been used in

connection with masonry bases, and also a round masonry chimney. The

latter is immediately behind the single pot chimney seen in the

foreground. On the extreme left of the figure is shown a chimney into

which fire pots have been incorporated, the lower ones being almost

concealed from view by the coating of adobe. A similar effect may be

seen in the small chimney on the highest roof shown in Pl. LVIII. Pl.

LXXXII shows various methods of using the chimney pots. In one case the

chimney is capped with a reversed large-mouthed jar, the broken bottom

serving as an outlet for the smoke. The vessel usually employed for this

purpose is an ordinary black cooking pot, the bottom being burned out,

or otherwise rendered unfit for household use. Other vessels are

occasionally used. Pl. LXXXIII shows the use, as the crowning member of

the chimney, of an ordinary water jar, with dark decorations on a white

ground. A vessel very badly broken is often made to serve in chimney

building by skillful use of mud and mortar. To facilitate smoke exit the

upper pot is made to overlap the neck of the one below by breaking out

the bottom sufficiently. The joining is not often visible, as it is

usually coated with adobe. The lower pots of a series are in many cases

entirely embedded in the adobe.

The pueblo builder has never been able to construct a detached chimney a

full story in height, either with or without the aid of chimney pots;

where it is necessary to build such shafts to obtain the proper draft he

is compelled to rely on the support of adjoining walls, and usually

seeks a corner. Pl. CI shows a chimney of this kind that has been built

of masonry to the full height of a story. A similar example is shown in

the foreground of Pl. LXXVIII. In Pl. XXII may be seen a chimney of the

full height of the adjoining story, but in this instance it is

constructed wholly of pots. Pl. LXXXV illustrates a similar case

indoors.

The external chimney probably developed gradually from the simple roof

opening, as previously noted. The raised combing about trapdoors or roof

holes afforded the first suggestion in this direction. From this

developed the square chimney, and finally the tall round shaft, crowned

with a series of pots. The whole chimney, both internal and external,

excluding only the primitive fireplace, is probably of comparatively

recent origin, and based on the foreign (Spanish) suggestion.

GATEWAYS AND COVERED PASSAGES.

Gateways, arranged for defense, occur in many of the more

compactly-built ancient pueblos. Some of the passageways in the modern

villages of Tusayan and Cibola resemble these older examples, but most

of the narrow passages, giving access to the inner courts of the

inhabited villages, are not the result of the defensive idea, but are

formed by the crowding together of the dwellings. They occur, as a rule,

within the pueblo and not upon its periphery. Many of the terraces now

face outward and are reached from the outside of the pueblo, being in

marked contrast to the early arrangement, in which narrow passages to

inclose courts were exclusively used for access. In the ground plans of

several villages occupied within historic times, but now ruined,

vestiges of openings arranged on the original defensive plan may be

traced. About midway on the northeast side of Awatubi fragments of a

standing wall were seen, apparently the two sides of a passageway to the

inclosed court of the pueblo. The masonry is much broken down, however,

and no indication is afforded of the treatment adopted, nor do the

remains indicate whether this entrance was originally covered or not.

It is illustrated in Pl. CII.

[Illustration: Plate LXXXVIII. North kivas of Shumopavi, from the

northeast.]

Other examples of this feature may be seen in the ground plans of

Tebugkihu, Chukubi, and Payupki (Fig. 7, and Pls. XII and XIII).

In the first of these the deep jambs of the opening are clearly defined,

but in the other two only low mounds of débris suggest the gateway. In

the ancient Cibolan pueblos, including those on the mesa of Tâaaiyalana,

no remains of external gateways have been found; the plans suggest that

the disposition of the various clusters approximated somewhat the

irregular arrangement of the present day. There are only occasional

traces, as of a continuous defensive outer wall, such as those seen at

Nutria and Pescado. In the pueblos of the Cibola group, ancient and

modern, access to the inner portion of the pueblo was usually afforded

at a number of points. In the pueblo of Kin-tiel, however, occurs an

excellent example of the defensive gateway. The jambs and corners of the

opening are finished with great neatness, as may be seen in the

illustration (Pl. CIII). This gateway or passage was roofed over, and

the rectangular depressions for the reception of cross-beams still

contain short stumps, protected from destruction by the masonry. The

masonry over the passageway in falling carried away part of the masonry

above the jamb corner, thus indicating continuity of bond. The ground

plan of this ruin (Pl. LXIII) indicates clearly the various points at

which access to the inner courts was obtained. On the east side a

noticeable feature is the overlapping of the boundary wall of the south

wing, forming an indirect entranceway. The remains do not indicate that

this passage, like the one just described, was roofed over. In some

cases the modern passageways, as they follow the jogs and angles of

adjoining rows of houses, display similar changes of direction. In

Shupaulovi, which preserves most distinctly in its plan the idea of the

inclosed court, the passageway at the south end of the village changes

its direction at a right angle before emerging into the court (Pl. XXX).

This arrangement was undoubtedly determined by the position of the

terraces long before the passageway was roofed over and built upon. Pl.

XXII shows the south passageway of Walpi; the entrances are made

narrower than the rest of the passage by building buttresses of masonry

at the sides. This was probably done to secure the necessary support for

the north and south walls of the upper story. One of the walls, as maybe

seen in the illustration, rests directly upon a cross beam, strengthened

in this manner.

One of the smaller inclosed courts of Zuñi, illustrated in Pl. LXXXII,

is reached by means of two covered passages, bearing some general

resemblance to the ancient defensive entrances, but these houses,

reached from within the court, have also terraces without. The low

passage shown in the figure has gradually been surmounted by rooms,

reaching in some cases a height of three terraces above the openings;

but the accumulated weight finally proved too much for the beams and

sustaining walls--probably never intended by the builders to withstand

the severe test afterwards put upon them--and following an unusually

protracted period of wet weather, the entire section of rooms above fell

to the ground. This occurred since the surveying and photographing. It

is rather remarkable that the frail adobe walls withstood so long the

unusual strain, or even that they sustained the addition of a top story

at all.

In the preceding examples the passageway was covered throughout its

length by rooms, but cases occur in both Tusayan and Cibola in which

only portions of the roof form the floor of superstructures. Pl. CIV

shows a passage roofed over beyond the two-story portion of the building

for a sufficient distance to form a small terrace, upon which a ladder

stands. Pl. XXIII illustrates a similar arrangement on the west side of

Walpi. The outer edges of these terraces are covered with coping stones

and treated in the same manner as outer walls of lower rooms. In Zuñi an

example of this form of passage roof occurs between two of the eastern

house rows, where the rooms have not been subjected to the close

crowding characteristic of the western clusters of the pueblo.

DOORS.

In Zuñi many rooms of the ground story, which in early times must have

been used largely for storage, have been converted into well-lighted,

habitable apartments by the addition of external doors. In Tusayan this

modification has not taken place to an equal extent, the distinctly

defensive character of the first terrace reached by removable ladders

being still preserved. In this province a doorway on the ground is

always provided in building a house, but originally this space was not

designed to be permanent; it was left merely for convenience of passing

in and out during the construction, and was built up before the walls

were completed. Of late years, however, such doorways are often

preserved, and additional small openings are constructed for windows.

[Illustration: Plate LXXXIX. Masonry in the north wing of Kin-tiel.]

In ancient times the larger doorways of the upper terraces were probably

never closed, except by means of blankets or rabbit-skin robes hung over

them in cold weather. Examples have been seen that seem to have been

constructed with this object in view, for a slight pole, of the same

kind as those used in the lintels, is built into the masonry of the

jambs a few inches below the lintel proper. Openings imperfectly closed

against the cold and wind were naturally placed in the lee walls to

avoid the prevailing southwest winds, and the ground plans of the

exposed mesa villages were undoubtedly influenced by this circumstance,

the tendency being to change them from the early inclosed court type and

to place the houses in longitudinal rows facing eastward. This is

noticeable in the plans given in Chapter II.

Doorways closed with masonry are seen in many ruins. Possibly these are

an indication of the temporary absence of the owner, as in the harvest

season, or at the time of the destruction or abandonment of the village;

but they may have been closed for the purpose of economizing warmth and

fuel during the winter season. No provision was made for closing them

with movable doors. The practice of fastening up the doors during the

harvesting season prevails at the present time among the Zuñi, but the

result is attained without great difficulty by means of rude cross bars,

now that they have framed wooden doors. One of these is illustrated in

Fig. 75. These doors are usually opened by a latch-string, which, when

not hung outside, is reached by means of a small round hole through the

wall at the side of the door. Through this hole the owner of the house,

on leaving it, secures the door by props and braces on the inside of the

room, the hole being sealed up and plastered in the same manner that

other openings are treated.

[Illustration: Fig. 75. A barred Zuñi door.]

This curious arrangement affords another illustration of the survival

of ancient methods in modified forms. It is not employed, however, in

closing the doors of the first terrace; these are fastened by barring

from the inside, the exit being made by means of internal ladders to the

terrace above, the upper doors only being fastened in the manner

illustrated. In Pl. LXXIX may be seen good examples of the side hole.

Fig. 75 shows a barred door. The plastering or sealing of the small side

hole instead of the entire opening was brought about by the introduction

of the wooden door, which in its present paneled form is of foreign

introduction, but in this, as in so many other cases, some analogous

feature which facilitated the adoption of the idea probably already

existed. Tradition points to the early use of a small door, made of a

single slab of wood, that closed the small rectangular wall niches, in

which valuables, such as turquoise, shell, etc., were kept. This slab,

it is said, was reduced and smoothed by rubbing with a piece of

sandstone. A number of beams, rafters, and roofing planks, seen in the

Chaco pueblos, were probably squared and finished in this way. The

latter examples show a degree of familiarity with this treatment of wood

that would enable the builders to construct such doors with ease. As

yet, however, no examples of wooden doors have been seen in any of the

pre-Columbian ruins.

The pueblo type of paneled door is much more frequently seen in Cibola

than in Tusayan, and in the latter province it does not assume the

variety of treatment seen in Zuñi, nor is the work so neatly executed.

The views of the modern pueblos, given in Chapters III and IV, will

indicate the extent to which this feature occurs in the two groups. In

the construction of a paneled door the vertical stile on one side is

prolonged at the top and bottom into a rounded pivot, which works into

cup-like sockets in the lintel and sill, as illustrated in Fig. 76. The

hinge is thus produced in the wood itself without the aid of any

external appliances.

[Illustration: Fig. 76. Wooden pivot hinges of a Zuñi door.]

It is difficult to trace the origin of this device among the pueblos. It

closely resembles the pivot hinges sometimes used in mediæval Europe in

connection with massive gates for closing masonry passages; in such

cases the prolonged pivots worked in cavities of stone sills and

lintels. The Indians claim to have employed it in very early times, but

no evidence on this point has been found. It is quite possible that the

idea was borrowed from some of the earlier Mormon settlers who came into

the country, as these people use a number of primitive devices which are

undoubtedly survivals of methods of construction once common in the

countries from which they came. Vestiges of the use of a pivotal hinge,

constructed on a much more massive scale than any of the pueblo

examples, were seen at an old fortress-like, stone storehouse of the

Mormons, built near the site of Moen-kopi by the first Mormon settlers.

[Illustration: Plate XC. Adobe garden walls near Zuñi.]

The paneled door now in use among the pueblos is rudely made, and

consists of a frame inclosing a single panel. This panel, when of large

size, is occasionally made of two or more pieces. These doors vary

greatly in size. A few reach the height of 5 feet, but the usual height

is from 3½ to 4 feet. As doors are commonly elevated a foot or more

above the ground or floor, the use of such openings does not entail the

full degree of discomfort that the small size suggests. Doors of larger

size, with sills raised but an inch or two above the floor or ground,

have recently been introduced in some of the ground stories in Zuñi; but

these are very recent, and the idea has been adopted only by the most

progressive people.

[Illustration: Fig. 77. Paneled wooden doors in Hano.]

Pl. XLI shows a small paneled door, not more than a foot square, used as

a blind to close a back window of a dwelling. The smallest examples of

paneled doors are those employed for closing the small, square openings

in the back walls of house rows, which still retain the defensive

arrangement so marked in many of the ancient pueblos. In some instances

doors occur in the second stories of unterraced walls, their sills being

5 or 6 feet above the ground. In such cases the doors are reached by

ladders whose upper ends rest upon the sills. Elevated openings of this

kind are closed in the usual manner with a rude, single-paneled door,

which is often whitened with a coating of clayey gypsum.

Carefully worked paneled doors are much more common in Zuñi than in

Tusayan, and within the latter province the villages of the first mesa

make more extended use of this type of door, as they have come into more

intimate contact with their eastern brethren than other villages of the

group. Fig. 77 illustrates a portion of a Hano house in which two wooden

doors occur. These specimens indicate the rudeness of Tusayan

workmanship. It will be seen that the workman who framed the upper one

of these doors met with considerable difficulty in properly joining the

two boards of the panel and in connecting these with the frame. The

figure shows that at several points the door has been reenforced and

strengthened by buckskin and rawhide thongs. The same device has been

employed in the lower door, both in fastening together the two pieces of

the panel and in attaching the latter to the framing. These doors also

illustrate the customary manner of barring the door during the absence

of the occupant of the house.

The doorway is usually framed at the time the house is built. The sill

is generally elevated above the ground outside and the floor inside, and

the door openings, with a few exceptions, are thus practically only

large windows. In this respect they follow the arrangement

characteristic of the ancient pueblos, in which all the larger openings

are window-like doorways. These are sometimes seen on the court margin

of house rows, and frequently occur between communicating rooms within

the cluster. They are usually raised about a foot and a half above the

floor, and in some cases are provided with one or two steps. In Zuñi,

doorways between communicating rooms, though now framed in wood,

preserve the same arrangement, as may be seen in Pl. LXXXVI.

[Illustration: Fig. 78. Framing of a Zuñi door-panel.]

The side pieces of a paneled pueblo door are mortised, an achievement

far beyond the aboriginal art of these people. Fig. 78 illustrates the

manner in which the framing is done. All the necessary grooving, and the

preparation of the projecting tenons is laboriously executed with the

most primitive tools, in many cases the whole frame, with all its

joints, being cut out with a small knife.

[Illustration: Plate XCI. A group of stone corrals near Oraibi.]

Doors are usually fastened by a simple wooden latch, the bar of which

turns upon a wooden pin. They are opened from without by lifting the

latch from its wooden catch, by means of a string passed through a small

hole in the door, and hanging outside. Some few doors are, however,

provided with a cumbersome wooden lock, operated by means of a square,

notched stick that serves as a key. These locks are usually fastened to

the inner side of the door by thongs of buckskin or rawhide, passed

through small holes bored or drilled through the edge of the lock, and

through the stile and panel of the door at corresponding points. The

entire mechanism consists of wood and strings joined together in the

rudest manner. Primitive as this device is, however, its conception is

far in advance of the aboriginal culture of the pueblos, and both it and

the string latch must have come from without. The lock was probably a

contrivance of the early Mormons, as it is evidently roughly modeled

after a metallic lock.

Many doors having no permanent means of closure are still in use. These

are very common in Tusayan, and occur also in Cibola, particularly in

the farming pueblos. The open front of the “tupubi” or balcony-like

recess, seen so frequently at the ends of first-terrace roofs in

Tusayan, is often constructed with a transom-like arrangement in

connection with the girder supporting the edge of the roof, in the same

manner in which doorways proper are treated. Pl. XXXII illustrates a

balcony in which one bounding side is formed by a flight of stone steps,

producing a notched or terraced effect. The supporting girder in this

instance is embedded in the wall and coated over with adobe, obscuring

the construction. Fig. 79 shows a rude transom over the supporting beam

of a balcony roof in the principal house of Hano. The upper doorway

shown in this house has been partly walled in, reducing its size

somewhat. It is also provided with a small horizontal opening over the

main lintel, which, like the doorway, has been partly filled with

masonry. This upper transom often seems to have resulted from carrying

such openings to the full height of the story. The transom probably

originated from the spaces left between the ends of beams resting on the

main girder that spanned the principal opening (see Fig. 81). Somewhat

similar balconies are seen in Cibola, both in Zuñi and in the farming

villages, but they do not assume so much importance as in Tusayan. An

example is shown in Pl. CI, in which the construction of this feature is

clearly visible.

In the remains of the ancient pueblos there is no evidence of the use of

the half-open terrace rooms described above. If such rooms existed,

especially if constructed in the open manner of the Tusayan examples,

they must have been among the first to succumb to destruction. The

comparative rarity of this feature in Zuñi does not necessarily indicate

that it is not of native origin, as owing to the exceptional manner of

clustering and to prolonged exposure to foreign influence, this pueblo

exhibits a wider departure from the ancient type than do any of the

Tusayan villages. It is likely that the ancient builders, trusting to

the double protection of the inclosed court and the defensive first

terrace, freely adopted this open and convenient arrangement in

connection with the upper roofs.

[Illustration: Fig. 79. Rude transoms over Tusayan openings.]

[Illustration: Plate XCII. An inclosing wall of upright stones at Ojo

Caliente.]

The transom-like opening commonly accompanying the large opening is also

seen in many of the inclosed doorways of Tusayan, but in some of these

cases its origin can not be traced to the roof constructions, as the

openings do not approach the ceilings of the rooms. In early days such

doorways were closed by means of large slabs of stone set on edge, and

these were sometimes supplemented by a suspended blanket. In severe

winter weather many of the openings were closed with masonry. At the

present time many doorways not provided with paneled doors are closed in

such ways. When a doorway is thus treated its transom is left open for

the admission of light and air. The Indians state that in early times

this transom was provided for the exit of smoke when the main doorway

was closed, and even now such provision is not wholly superfluous. Fig.

80 illustrates a large doorway of Tusayan with a small transom. The

opening was being reduced in size by means of adobe masonry at the time

the drawing was made. Fig. 81 shows a double transom over a lintel

composed of two poles; a section of masonry separating the transom into

two distinct openings rests upon the lintel of the doorway and supports

a roof-beam; this is shown in the figure. Other examples of transoms may

be seen in connection with many of the illustrations of Tusayan

doorways.

[Illustration: Fig. 80. A large Tusayan doorway with small transom

openings.]

[Illustration: Fig. 81. A doorway and double transom in Walpi.]

The transom bars over exterior doorways of houses probably bear some

relation to a feature seen in some of the best preserved ruins and still

surviving to some extent in Tusayan practice. This consists of a

straight pole, usually of the same dimensions as the poles of which the

lintel is made, extending across the opening from 2 to 6 inches below

the main lintel, and fixed into the masonry in a position to serve as a

curtain pole. Originally this pole undoubtedly served as a means of

suspension for the blanket or skin rug used in closing the opening, just

as such means are now used in the huts of the Navajo, as well as

occasionally in the houses of Tusayan. The space above this cross stick

answered the same purpose as the transoms of the present time.

A most striking feature of doorways is the occasional departure from the

quadrangular form, seen in some ruined villages and also in some of the

modern houses of Tusayan. Fig. 82 illustrates a specimen of this type

found in a small cliff ruin, in Canyon de Chelly. Ancient examples of

this form of opening are distinguished by a symmetrical disposition of

the step in the jamb, while the modern doors are seldom so arranged.

A modern example from Mashongnavi is shown in Fig. 83. This opening also

illustrates the double or divided transom. The beam ends shown in the

figure project beyond the face of the wall and support an overhanging

coping or cornice. A door-like window, approximating the symmetrical

form described, is seen immediately over the passage-way shown in Pl.

XXII. This form is evidently the result of the partial closing of a

larger rectangular opening.

[Illustration: Fig. 82. An ancient doorway in Canyon de Chelly cliff

ruin.]

[Illustration: Fig. 83. A symmetrically notched doorway in

Mashongnavi.]

[Illustration: Plate XCIII. Upright blocks of sandstone built into

an ancient pueblo wall.]

[Illustration: Fig. 84. A Tusayan notched doorway.]

Fig. 84 shows the usual type of terraced doorway in Tusayan, in which

one jamb is stepped at a considerably greater height than the other.

In Tusayan large openings occur in which only one jamb is stepped,

producing an effect somewhat of that of the large balcony openings with

flights of stone steps at one side, previously illustrated. An opening

of this form is shown in Fig. 85. Both of the stepped doorways,

illustrated above, are provided with transom openings extending from one

roof beam to another. In the absence of a movable door the openings were

made of the smallest size consistent with convenient use. The stepped

form was very likely suggested by the temporary partial blocking up of

an opening with loose, flat stones in such a manner as to least impair

its use. This is still quite commonly done, large openings being often

seen in which the lower portion on one or both sides is narrowed by

means of adobe bricks or stones loosely piled up. In this connection it

may be noted that the secondary lintel pole, previously described as

occurring in both ancient and modern doorways, serves the additional

purpose of a hand-hold when supplies are brought into the house on the

backs of the occupants. The stepping of the doorway, while diminishing

its exposed area, does not interfere with its use in bringing in large

bundles, etc. Series of steps, picked into the faces of the cliffs, and

affording access to cliff dwellings, frequently have a supplementary

series of narrow and deep cavities that furnish a secure hold for the

hands. The requirements of the precipitous environment of these people

have led to the carrying of loads of produce, fuel, etc., on the back by

means of a suspending band passed across the forehead; this left the

hands free to aid in the difficult task of climbing. These conditions

seem to have brought about the use, in some cases, of handholds in the

marginal frames of interior trapdoors as an aid in climbing the ladder.

[Illustration: Fig. 85. A large Tusayan doorway with one notched

jamb.]

One more characteristic type of the ancient pueblo doorway remains to be

described. During the autumn of 1883, when the ruined pueblo of Kin-tiel

was surveyed, a number of excavations were made in and about the pueblo.

A small room on the east side, near the brink of the arroyo that

traverses the ruin from east to west, was completely cleared out,

exposing its fireplace, the stone paving of its floor, and other details

of construction. Built into an inner partition of this room was found a

large slab of stone, pierced with a circular hole of sufficient size for

a man to squeeze through. This slab was set on edge and incorporated

into the masonry of the partition, and evidently served as a means of

communication with another room. The position of this doorway and its

relation to the room in which it occurs may be seen from the

illustration in Pl. C, which shows the stone in situ. The doorway or

“stone-close” is shown in Fig. 86 on a sufficient scale to indicate the

degree of technical skill in the architectural treatment of stone

possessed by the builders of this old pueblo. The writer visited Zuñi in

October of the same season, and on describing this find to Mr. Frank H.

Cushing, learned that the Zuñi Indians still preserved traditional

knowledge of this device. Mr. Cushing kindly furnished at the time the

following extract from the tale of “The Deer-Slayer and the Wizards,” a

Zuñi folk-tale of the early occupancy of the valley of Zuñi.

[Illustration: Plate XCIV. Ancient wall of upright rocks in

southwestern Colorado.]

“‘How will they enter?’ said the young man to his wife. ‘Through the

stone-close at the side,’ she answered. In the days of the ancients, the

doorways were often made of a great slab of stone with a round hole cut

through the middle, and a round stone slab to close it, which was called

the stone-close, that the enemy might not enter in times of war.”

[Illustration: Fig. 86. An ancient circular doorway or “stone-close”

in Kin-tiel.]

Mr. Cushing had found displaced fragments of such circular stone

doorways at ruins some distance northwest from Zuñi, but had been under

the impression that they were used as roof openings. All examples of

this device known to the writer as having been found in place occurred

in side walls of rooms. Mr. E. W. Nelson, while making collections of

pottery from ruins near Springerville, Arizona, found and sent to the

Smithsonian Institution, in the autumn of 1884, “a flat stone about 18

inches square with a round hole cut in the middle of it. This stone was

taken from the wall of one of the old ruined stone houses near

Springerville, in an Indian ruin. The stone was set in the wall between

two inner rooms of the ruin, and evidently served as a means of

communication or perhaps a ventilator. I send it on mainly as an example

of their stone-working craft.” The position of this feature in the

excavated room of Kin-tiel is indicated on the ground plan, Fig. 60,

which also shows the position of other details seen in the general view

of the room, Pl. C.

A small fragment of a “stone-close” doorway was found incorporated into

the masonry of a flight of outside stone steps at Pescado, indicating

its use in some neighboring ruin, thus bringing it well within the

Cibola district. Another point at which similar remains have been

brought to light is the pueblo of Halona, just across the river from the

present Zuñi. Mr. F. Webb Hodge, recently connected with the Hemenway

Southwestern Archeological Exposition, under the direction of Mr. F. H.

Cushing, describes this form of opening as being of quite common

occurrence in the rooms of this long-buried pueblo. Here the doorways

are associated with the round slabs used for closing them. The latter

were held in place by props within the room. No slabs of this form were

seen at Kin-tiel, but quite possibly some of the large slabs of nearly

rectangular form, found within this ruin, may have served the same

purpose. It would seem more reasonable to use the rectangular slabs

for this purpose when the openings were conveniently near the floors.

No example of the stone-close has as yet been found in Tusayan.

The annular doorway described above affords the only instance known to

the writer where access openings were closed with a rigid device of

aboriginal invention; and from the character of its material this device

was necessarily restricted to openings of small size. The larger

rectangular doorways, when not partly closed by masonry, probably were

covered only with blankets or skin rugs suspended from the lintel.

In the discussion of sealed windows modern examples resembling the

stone-close device will be noted, but these are usually employed in a

more permanent manner.

The small size of the ordinary pueblo doorway was perhaps due as much to

the fact that there was no convenient means of closing it as it was to

defensive reasons. Many primitive habitations, even quite rude ones

built with no intention of defense, are characterized by small doors and

windows. The planning of dwellings and the distribution of openings in

such a manner as to protect and render comfortable the inhabited rooms

implies a greater advance in architectural skill than these builders had

achieved.

The inconveniently small size of the doorways of the modern pueblos is

only a survival of ancient conditions. The use of full-sized doors,

admitting a man without stooping, is entirely practicable at the present

day, but the conservative builders persist in adhering to the early

type. The ancient position of the door, with its sill at a considerable

height from the ground, is also retained. From the absence of any

convenient means of rigidly closing the doors and windows, in early

times external openings were restricted to the smallest practicable

dimensions. The convenience of these openings was increased without

altering their dimensions by elevating them to a certain height above

the ground. In the ruin of Kin-tiel there is marked uniformity in the

height of the openings above the ground, and such openings were likely

to be quite uniform when used for similar purposes. The most common

elevation of the sills of doorways was such that a man could readily

step over at one stride. It will be seen that the same economy of space

has effected the use of windows in this system of architecture.

WINDOWS.

In the pueblo system of building, doors and windows are not always

clearly differentiated. Many of the openings, while used for access to

the dwellings, also answer all the purposes of windows, and, both in

their form and in their position in the walls, seem more fully to meet

the requirements of openings for the admission of light and air than for

access. We have seen in the illustrations in Chapters III and IV,

openings of considerable size so located in the face of the outer wall

as to unfit them for use as doorways, and others whose size is wholly

inadequate, but which are still provided with the typical though

diminutive single-paneled door. Many of these small openings, occurring

most frequently in the back walls of house rows, have the jambs,

lintels, etc., characteristic of the typical modern door. However,

as the drawings above referred to indicate, there are many openings

concerning the use of which there can be no doubt, as they can only

provide outlook, light, and air.

[Illustration: Plate XCV. Ancient floor-beams at Kin-tiel.]

In the most common form of window in present use in Tusayan and Cibola

the width usually exceeds the height. Although found often in what

appear to be the older portions of the present pueblos, this shape

probably does not date very far back. The windows of the ancient pueblos

were sometimes square, or nearly so, when of small size, but when larger

they were never distinguishable from doorways in either size or finish,

and the height exceeded the width. This restriction of the width of

openings was due to the exceptionally small size of the building stone

made use of. Although larger stones were available, the builders had not

sufficient constructive skill to successfully utilize them. The failure

to utilize this material indicates a degree of ignorance of mechanical

aids that at first thought seems scarcely in keeping with the

massiveness of form and the high degree of finish characterizing many of

the remains; but as already seen in the discussion of masonry, the

latter results were attained by the patient industry of many hands,

although laboring with but little of the spirit of cooperation. The

narrowness of the largest doors and windows in the ancient pueblos

suggests timidity on the part of the ancient builders. The apparently

bolder construction of the present day, shown in the prevailing use of

horizontal openings, is not due to greater constructive skill, but

rather to the markedly greater carelessness of modern construction.

[Illustration: Fig. 87. Diagram illustrating symmetrical arrangement

of small openings in Pueblo Bonito.]

The same contrast between modern and ancient practice is seen in the

disposition of openings in walls. In the modern pueblos there does not

seem to be any regularity or system in their introduction, while in some

of the older pueblos, such as Pueblo Bonito on the Chaco, and others of

the same group, the arrangement of the outer openings exhibits a certain

degree of symmetry. The accompanying diagram, Fig. 87, illustrates a

portion of the northern outer wall of Pueblo Bonito, in which the small

windows of successive rooms, besides being uniform in size, are grouped

in pairs. The degree of technical skill shown in the execution of the

masonry about these openings is in keeping with the precision with which

the openings themselves are placed. Pl. CV, gives a view of a portion of

the wall containing these openings.

In marked contrast to the above examples is the slovenly practice of the

modern pueblos. There are rarely two openings of the same size, even in

a single room, nor are these usually placed at a uniform height from the

floor. The placing appears to be purely a matter of individual taste,

and no trace of system or uniformity is to be found. Windows occur

sometimes at considerable height, near or even at the ceiling in some

cases, while others are placed almost at the base of the wall; examples

may be found occupying all intermediate heights between these extremes.

Many of the illustrations show this characteristic irregularity, but

Pls. LXXIX and LXXXII of Zuñi perhaps represent it most clearly.

The framing of these openings differs but little from that of the

ancient examples. The modern opening is distinguished principally by the

more careless method of combining the materials, and by the introduction

in many instances of a rude sash. A number of small poles or sticks,

usually of cedar, with the bark peeled off, are laid side by side in

contact, across the opening, to form a support for the stones and earth

of the superposed masonry. Frequently a particularly large tablet of

stone is placed immediately upon the sticks, but this stone is never

long enough or thick enough to answer the purpose of a lintel for larger

openings. The number of small sticks used is sufficient to reach from

the face to the back of the wall, and in the simplest openings the

surrounding masonry forms jambs and sill. American or Spanish influence

occasionally shows itself in the employment of sawed boards for lintels,

sills, and jambs. The wooden features of the windows exhibit a curiously

light and flimsy construction.

A large percentage of the windows, in both Tusayan and Cibola, are

furnished with glass at the present time. Occasionally a primitive sash

of several lights is found, but frequently the glass is used singly; in

some instances it is set directly into the adobe without any intervening

sash or frame. In several cases in Zuñi the primitive sash or frame has

been rudely decorated with incised lines and notches. An example of this

is shown in Fig. 88. The frame or sash is usually built solidly into the

wall. Hinged sashes do not seem to have been adopted as yet. Often the

introduction of lights shows a curious and awkward compromise between

aboriginal methods and foreign ideas.

[Illustration: Fig. 88. Incised decoration on a rude window sash in

Zuñi.]

[Illustration: Plate XCVI. Adobe walls in Zuñi.]

Characteristic of Zuñi windows, and also of those of the neighboring

pueblo of Acoma, is the use of semitranslucent slabs of selenite, about

1 inch in thickness and of irregular form. Pieces are occasionally met

with about 18 inches long and 8 or 10 inches wide, but usually they are

much smaller and very irregular in outline. For windows pieces are

selected that approximately fit against each other, and thin, flat

strips of wood are fixed in a vertical position in the openings to serve

as supports for the irregular fragments of selenite, which could not be

retained in place without some such provision. The use of window

openings at the bases of walls probably suggested this use of vertical

sticks as a support to slabs of selenite, as in this position they would

be particularly useful, the windows being generally arranged on a slope,

as shown in Fig. 89. Similar glazing is also employed in the related,

obliquely pierced openings of Zuñi, to be described later.

[Illustration: Fig. 89. Sloping selenite window at base of Zuñi wall

on upper terrace.]

Selenite, in all probability, was not used in pre-Spanish times. No

examples have as yet been met with among ruins in the region where this

material is found and now used. Throughout the south and east portion of

the ancient pueblo region, explored by Mr. A. F. Bandelier, where many

of the remains were in a very good state of preservation, no cases of

the use of this substance were seen. Fig. 90 illustrates a typical

selenite window.

[Illustration: Fig. 90. A Zuñi window glazed with selenite.]

In Zuñi some of the kivas are provided with small external windows

framed with slabs of stone. It is likely that the kivas would for a long

time perpetuate methods and practices that had been superseded in the

construction of dwellings. The use of stone jambs, however, would

necessarily be limited to openings of small size, as such use for large

openings was beyond the mechanical skill of the pueblo builders.

Fig. 91 illustrates the manner of making small openings in external

exposed walls in Zuñi. Stone frames occur only occasionally in what seem

to be the older and least modified portions of the village. At Tusayan,

however, this method of framing windows is much more noticeable, as the

exceptional crowding that has exercised such an influence on Zuñi

construction has not occurred there. The Tusayan houses are arranged

more in rows, often with a suggestion of large inclosures resembling the

courts of the ancient pueblos. The inclosures have not been encroached

upon, the streets are wider, and altogether the earlier methods seem to

have been retained in greater purity than in Zuñi. The unbroken outer

wall, of two or three stories in height, like the same feature of the

old villages, is pierced at various heights with small openings that do

not seriously impair its efficiency for defense. Tusayan examples of

these loop-hole-like openings maybe seen in Pls. XXII, XXIII, and XXXIX.

[Illustration: Fig. 91. Small openings in the back wall of a Zuñi

house-cluster.]

In some of the ancient pueblos such openings were arranged on a

distinctly defensive plan, and were constructed with great care.

Openings of this type, not more than 4 inches square, pierced the second

story outer wall of the pueblo of Wejegi in the Chaco Canyon. In the

pueblo of Kin-tiel (Pl. LXIII) similar loop-hole-like openings were very

skillfully constructed in the outer wall at the rounded northeastern

corner of the pueblo. The openings pierced the wall at an oblique angle,

as shown on the plan. Two of these channel-like loopholes maybe seen in

Pl. LXV. This figure also shows the carefully executed jamb corners and

faces of three large openings of the second story, which, though greatly

undermined by the falling away of the lower masonry, are still held in

position by the bond of thin flat stones of which the wall is built.

[Illustration: Plate XCVII. Wall coping and oven at Zuñi.]

It is often the practice in the modern pueblos to seal up the windows of

a house with masonry, and sometimes the doors also during the temporary

absence of the occupant, which absence often takes place at the seasons

of planting and harvesting. At such times many Zuñi families occupy

outlying farming pueblos, such as Nutria and Pescado, and the Tusayans,

in a like manner, live in rude summer shelters close to their fields.

Such absence from the home pueblo often lasts for a month or more at a

time. The work of closing the opening is done sometimes in the roughest

manner, but examples are seen in which carefully laid masonry has been

used. The latter is sometimes plastered. Occasionally the sealing is

done with a thin slab of sandstone, somewhat larger than the opening,

held in place with mud plastering, or propped from the inside after the

manner of the “stone close” previously described. Fig. 92 illustrates

specimens of sealed openings in the village of Hano of the Tusayan

group. The upper window is closed with a single large slab and a few

small chinking stones at one side. The masonry used in closing the lower

opening is scarcely distinguishable from that of the adjoining walls.

Pl. CVI illustrates a similar treatment of an opening in a detached

house of Nutria, whose occupants had returned to the home pueblo of Zuñi

at the close of the harvesting season. The doorway in this case is only

partly closed, leaving a window-like aperture at its top, and the stones

used for the purpose are simply piled up without the use of adobe

mortar.

[Illustration: Fig. 92. Sealed openings in Tusayan.]

Windows and doors closed with masonry are often met with in the remains

of ancient pueblos, suggesting, perhaps, that some of the occupants were

absent at the time of the destruction of the village. When large

door-like openings in upper external walls were built up and plastered

over in this way, as in some ruins, the purpose was to economize heat

during the winter, as blankets or rugs made of skins would be

inadequate.

Besides the closing and reopening of doors and windows just described,

the modern pueblo builders frequently make permanent changes in such

openings. Doors are often converted into windows, and windows are

reduced in size or enlarged, or new ones are broken through the walls,

apparently, with the greatest freedom, so that they do not, from their

finish or method of construction, furnish any clue to the antiquity of

the mud-covered wall in which they are found. Occasionally surface

weathering of the walls, particularly in Zuñi, exposes a bit of

horizontal pole embedded in the masonry, the lintel of a window long

since sealed up and obliterated by successive coats of mud finish. It is

probable that many openings are so covered up as to leave no trace of

their existence on the external wall. In Zuñi particularly, where the

original arrangement for entering and lighting many of the rooms must

have been wholly lost in the dense clustering of later times, such

changes are very numerous. It often happens that the addition of a new

room will shut off one or more old windows, and in such cases the latter

are often converted into interior niches which serve as open cupboards.

Such niches were sometimes of considerable size in the older pueblos.

Changes in the character of openings are quite common in all of the

pueblos. Usually the evidences of such changes are much clearer in the

rougher and more exposed work of Tusayan than in the adobe-finished

houses of Zuñi. Pl. CVII illustrates a large, balcony-like opening in

Oraibi that has been reduced to the size of an ordinary door by filling

in with rough masonry. A small window has been left immediately over the

lintel of the newer door. Pl. CVIII illustrates two large openings in

this village that have been treated in a somewhat similar manner, but

the filling has been carried farther. Both of these openings have been

used as doorways at one stage of their reduction, the one on the right

having been provided with a small transom; the combined opening was

arranged wholly within the large one and under its transom. In the

further conversion of this doorway into a small window, the secondary

transom was blocked up with stone slabs, set on edge, and a small

loophole window in the upper lefthand corner of the large opening was

also closed. The masonry filling of the large opening on the left in

this illustration shows no trace of a transom over the smaller doorway.

A small loophole in the corner of this large opening is still left open.

It will be noted that the original transoms of the large openings have

in all these cases been entirely filled up with masonry.

[Illustration: Plate XCVIII. Cross-pieces on Zuñi ladders.]

[Illustration: Fig. 93. A Zuñi doorway converted into a window.]

The clearness with which all the steps of the gradual reduction of these

openings can be traced in the exposed stone work is in marked contrast

with the obscurity of such features in Zuñi. In the latter group,

however, examples are occasionally seen where a doorway has been partly

closed with masonry, leaving enough space at the top for a window. Often

in such cases the filled-in masonry is thinner than that of the

adjoining wall, and consequently the form of the original doorway is

easily traced. Fig. 93, from an adobe wall in Zuñi, gives an

illustration of this. The entrance doorway of the detached Zuñi house

illustrated in Pl. LXXXIII, has been similarly reduced in size, leaving

traces of the original form in a slight offset. In modern times, both in

Tusayan and Cibola, changes in the form and disposition of openings seem

to have been made with the greatest freedom, but in the ancient pueblos

altered doors or windows have rarely been found. The original placing of

these features was more carefully considered, and the buildings were

rarely subjected to unforeseen and irregular crowding.

In both ancient and modern pueblo work, windows, used only as such, seem

to have been universally quadrilateral, offsets and steps being confined

exclusively to doorways.

ROOF OPENINGS.

The line of separation between roof openings and doors and windows is,

with few exceptions, sharply drawn. The origin of these roof-holes,

whose use at the present time is widespread, was undoubtedly in the

simple trap door which gave access to the rooms of the first terrace.

Pl. XXXVIII, illustrating a court of Oraibi, shows in the foreground a

kiva hatchway of the usual form seen in Tusayan. Here there is but

little difference between the entrance traps of the ceremonial chambers

and those that give access to the rooms of the first terrace; the former

are in most cases somewhat larger to admit of ingress of costumed

dancers, and the kiva traps are usually on a somewhat sharper slope,

conforming to the pitch of the small dome-roof of the kivas, while those

of the house terraces have the scarcely perceptible fall of the house

roofs in which they are placed. In Zuñi, however, where the development

and use of openings has been carried further, the kiva hatchways are

distinguished by a specialized form that will be described later. An

examination of the plans of the modern villages in Chapters II and III

will show the general distribution of roof openings. Those used as

hatchways are distinguishable by their greater dimensions, and in many

cases by the presence of the ladders that give access to the rooms

below. The smaller roof openings in their simplest form are constructed

in essentially the same manner as the trap doors, and the width is

usually regulated by the distance between two adjacent roof beams. The

second series of small roof poles is interrupted at the sides of the

opening, which sides are finished by means of carefully laid small

stones in the same manner as are projecting copings. This finish is

often carried several inches above the roof and crowned with narrow

stone slabs, one on each of the four sides, forming a sort of frame

which protects the mud plastered sides of the opening from the action of

the rains. Examples of this simple type may be seen in many of the

figures illustrating Chapters II and III, and in Pl. XCVII. Fig. 94 also

illustrates common types of roof openings seen in Zuñi. Two of the

examples in this figure are of openings that give access to lower rooms.

Occasional instances are seen in this pueblo in which an exaggerated

height is given to the coping, the result slightly approaching a square

chimney in effect. Fig. 95 illustrates an example of this form.

[Illustration: Fig. 94. Zuñi roof-openings.]

[Illustration: Plate XCIX. Outside steps at Pescado.]

[Illustration: Fig. 95. A Zuñi roof opening, with raised coping.]

In Zuñi, where many minor variations in the forms of roof openings

occur, certain of these variations appear to be related to roof

drainage. These have three sides crowned in the usual manner with coping

stones laid flat, but the fourth side is formed by setting a thin slab

on edge, as illustrated in Fig. 96.

[Illustration: Fig. 96. Zuñi roof-openings, with one elevated end.]

Fig. 94 also embodies two specimens of this form.

The special object of this arrangement is in some cases difficult to

determine; the raised end in all the examples on any one roof always

takes the same direction, and in many cases its position relative to

drainage suggests that it is a provision against flooding by rain on the

slightly sloping roof; but this relation to drainage is by no means

constant. Roof holes on the west side of the village in such positions

as to be directly exposed to the violent sand storms that prevail here

during certain months of the year seem in some cases to have in view

protection against the flying sand. We do not meet with evidence of any

fixed system to guide the disposition of this feature. In many cases

these trap holes are provided with a thin slab of sandstone large enough

to cover the whole opening, and used in times of rain. During fair

weather these are laid on the roof, near the hole they are designed to

cover, or lie tilted against the higher edge of the trap, as shown in

Fig. 97.

[Illustration: Fig. 97. A Zuñi roof hole with cover.]

When the cover is placed on one of these holes, with a high slab at one

end, it has a steep pitch, to shed water, and at the same time light and

air are to some extent admitted, but it is very doubtful if this is the

result of direct intention on the part of the builder. The possible

development of this roof trap of unusual elevation into a rudimentary

chimney has already been mentioned in the discussion of chimneys.

A development in this direction would possibly be suggested by the

desirability of separating the access by ladder from the inconvenient

smoke hole. This must have been brought very forcibly to the attention

of the Indian when, at the time a fire was burning in the fireplace,

they were compelled to descend the ladder amidst the smoke and heat.

[Illustration: Plate C. An excavated room at Kin-tiel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 98. Kiva trapdoor in Zuñi.]

The survival to the present time of such an inconvenient arrangement in

the kivas can be explained only on the ground of the intense

conservatism of these people in all that pertains to religion. In the

small roof holes methods of construction are seen which would not be so

practicable on the larger scale of the ladder holes after which they

have been modeled. In these latter the sides are built up of masonry or

adobe, but the framing around them is more like the usual coping over

walls. The stone that, set on edge in the small openings built for the

admission of light, forms a raised end never occurs in these. The ladder

for access rests against the coping.

When occurring in connection with kivas, ladder holes have certain

peculiarities in which they differ from the ordinary form used in

dwellings. The opening in such cases is made of large size to admit

dancers in costume with full paraphernalia. These, the largest roof

openings to be found in Zuñi, are framed with pieces of wood. The

methods of holding the pieces in place vary somewhat in minor detail.

It is quite likely that recent examples, while still preserving the form

and general appearance of the earlier ones, would bear evidence that the

builders had used their knowledge of improved methods of joining and

finishing.

As may readily be seen from the illustration, Fig. 98, this framing,

by the addition of a cross piece, divides the opening unequally. The

smaller aperture is situated immediately above the fireplace (which

conforms to the ancient type without chimney and located in the open

floor of the room) and is very evidently designed to furnish an outlet

to the smoke. In a chamber having no side doors or windows, or at most

very small square windows, and consequently no drafts, the column of

smoke and flame can often on still nights be seen rising vertically from

the roof. The other portion of the opening containing the ladder is used

for ingress and egress. This singular combination strongly suggests that

at no very remote period one opening was used to answer both purposes,

as it still does in the Tusayan kivas. It also suggests the direction in

which differentiation of functions began to take place, which in the

kiva was delayed and held back by the conservative religious feeling,

when in the civil architecture it may have been the initial point of a

development that culminated in the chimney, a development that was

assisted in its later steps by suggestions from foreign sources. In the

more primitively constructed examples the cross pieces seem to be simply

laid on without any cutting in. The central piece is held in place by a

peg set into each side piece, the weight and thrust of the ladder

helping to hold it. The primitive arrangement here seen has been

somewhat improved upon in some other cases, but it was not ascertained

whether these were of later date or not.

In the best made frames for kiva entrances the timbers are “halved” in

the manner of our carpenters, the joint being additionally secured by a

pin as shown in Fig. 99.

The use of a frame of wood in these trapdoors dates back to a

comparatively high antiquity, and is not at all a modern innovation,

as one would at first be inclined to believe. Their use in so highly

developed a form in the ceremonial chamber is an argument in favor of

antiquity. Only two examples were discovered by Mr. L. H. Morgan in a

ruined pueblo on the Animas. “One of these measured 16 by 17 inches and

the other was 16 inches square. Each was formed in the floor by pieces

of wood put together. The work was neatly done.”[8]

[Footnote 8: Contributions to N.A. Ethnology, vol. 4. House Life,

etc., p. 182.]

[Illustration: Fig. 99. Halved and pinned trapdoor frame of a Zuñi

kiva.]

[Illustration: Plate CI. Masonry chimneys of Zuñi.]

Unfortunately, Mr. Morgan does not describe in detail the manner in

which the joining was effected, or whether the pieces were halved or cut

to fit. It seems hardly likely, considering the rude facilities

possessed by the ancients, that the enormous labor of reducing large

pieces of wood to such interfitting shapes would have been undertaken.

A certain neatness of finish would undoubtedly be attained by arranging

the principal roof beams and the small poles that cross them at right

angles, in the usual careful manner of the ancient builders. The kiva

roof opening, with the hole serving for access and smoke exit, is

paralleled in the excavated lodges of the San Francisco Mountains, where

a single opening served this double purpose. A slight recess or

excavation in the side of the entrance shaft evidently served for the

exit of smoke.

At the village of Acoma the kiva trapdoors differ somewhat from the Zuñi

form. The survey of this village was somewhat hasty, and no opportunity

was afforded of ascertaining from the Indians the special purpose of the

mode of construction adopted. The roof hole is divided, as in Zuñi, but

the portion against which the ladder leans, instead of being made into a

smoke vent, is provided with a small roof. These roof holes to the

ceremonial chamber are entered directly from the open air, while in the

dwelling rooms it seems customary (much more customary than at Zuñi) to

enter the lower stories through trapdoors within upper rooms. In many

instances second-story rooms have no exterior rooms but are entered from

rooms above, contrary to the usual arrangement in both Tusayan and

Cibola. All six of the kivas in this village are provided with this

peculiarly constructed opening.

In Zuñi close crowding of the cells has led to an exceptionally frequent

use of roof-lights and trapdoors. The ingenuity of the builders was

greatly taxed to admit sufficient light to the inner rooms. The roof

hole, which was originally used only to furnish the means of access and

light for the first terrace, as is still the case in Tusayan, is here

used in all stories indiscriminately, and principally for light and air.

In large clusters there are necessarily many dark rooms, which has led

to the employment of great numbers of roof holes, more or less directly

modeled after the ordinary trapdoor. Their occurrence is particularly

frequent in the larger clusters of the village, as in house No. 1. The

exceptional size of this pile, and of the adjoining house No. 4, with

the consequent large proportion of dark rooms, have taxed the ingenuity

of the Zuñi to the utmost, and as a result we see roof openings here

assuming a degree of importance not found elsewhere.

In addition to roof openings of the type described, the dense clustering

of the Zuñi houses has led to the invention of a curious device for

lighting inner rooms not reached by ordinary external openings. This

consists of an opening, usually of oval or subrectangular form in

elevation, placed at the junction of the roof with a vertical wall. This

opening is carried down obliquely between the roofing beams, as shown in

the sections, Fig. 100, so that the light is admitted within the room

just at the junction of the ceiling and the inner face of the wall. With

the meager facilities and rude methods of the Zuñi, this peculiar

arrangement often involved weak construction, and the openings, placed

so low in the wall, were in danger of admitting water from the roof. The

difficulty of obtaining the desired light by this device was much

lessened where the outer roof was somewhat lower than the ceiling

within.

These oblique openings occur not only in the larger clusters of houses

Nos. 1 and 4, but also in the more openly planned portions of the

village, though they do not occur either at Acoma or in the Tusayan

villages. They afford an interesting example of the transfer and

continuance in use of a constructional device developed in one place by

unusual conditions to a new field in which it was uncalled for, being

less efficient and more difficult of introduction than the devices in

ordinary use.

[Illustration: Fig. 100. Typical sections of Zuñi oblique openings.]

FURNITURE.

The pueblo Indian has little household furniture, in the sense in which

the term is commonly employed; but his home contains certain features

which are more or less closely embodied in the house construction and

which answers the purpose. The suspended pole that serves as a clothes

rack for ordinary wearing apparel, extra blankets, robes, etc., has

already been described in treating of interiors. Religious costumes and

ceremonial paraphernalia are more carefully provided for, and are stored

away in some hidden corner of the dark storerooms.

[Illustration: Plate CII. Remains of a gateway in Awatubi.]

The small wall niches, which are formed by closing a window with a thin

filling-in wall, and which answer the purpose of cupboards or

receptacles for many of the smaller household articles, have also been

described and illustrated in connection with the Zuñi interior (Pl.

LXXXVI).

[Illustration: Fig. 101. Arrangement of mealing stones in a Tusayan

house.]

In many houses, both in Tusayan and in Cibola, shelves are constructed

for the more convenient storage of food, etc. These are often

constructed in a very primitive manner, particularly in the former

province. An unusually frail example may be seen in Fig. 67, in

connection with a fireplace. Fig. 101, showing a series of mealing

stones in a Tusayan house, also illustrates a rude shelf in the corner

of the room, supported at one end by an upright stone slab and at the

other by a projecting wooden peg. Shelves made of sawed boards are

occasionally seen, but as a rule such boards are considered too valuable

to be used in this manner. A more common arrangement, particularly in

Tusayan, is a combination of three or four slender poles placed side by

side, 2 or 3 inches apart, forming a rude shelf, upon which trays of

food are kept.

Another device for the storage of food, occasionally seen in the pueblo

house, is a pocket or bin built into the corner of a room. Fig. 101,

illustrating the plan of a Tusayan house, indicates the position of one

of these cupboard-like inclosures. A sketch of this specimen is shown in

Fig. 102. This bin, used for the storage of beans, grain, and the like,

is formed by cutting off a corner of the room by setting two stone slabs

into the floor, and it is covered with the mud plastering which extends

over the neighboring walls.

A curious modification of this device was seen in one of the inner rooms

in Zuñi, in the house of José Pié. A large earthen jar, apparently an

ordinary water vessel, was built into a projecting masonry bench near

the corner of the room in such a manner that its rim projected less than

half an inch above its surface. This jar was used for the same purpose

as the Tusayan corner bin.

[Illustration: Fig. 102. A Tusayan grain bin.]

[Illustration: Fig. 103. A Zuñi plume box.]

Some of the Indians of the present time have chests or boxes in which

their ceremonial blankets and paraphernalia are kept. These of course

have been introduced since the days of American boards and boxes. In

Zuñi, however, the Indians still use a small wooden receptacle for the

precious ceremonial articles, such as feathers and beads. This is an

oblong box, provided with a countersunk lid, and usually carved from a

single piece of wood. Typical specimens are illustrated in Figs. 103 and

104. The workmanship displayed in these objects is not beyond the

aboriginal skill of the native workman, and their use is undoubtedly

ancient.

[Illustration: Fig. 104. A Zuñi plume box.]

[Illustration: Plate CIII. Ancient gateway, Kin-tiel.]

[Illustration: Fig. 105. A Tusayan mealing trough.]

[Illustration: Fig. 106. An ancient pueblo form of metate.]

Perhaps the most important article of furniture in the home of the

pueblo Indian is the mealing trough, containing the household milling

apparatus. This trough usually contains a series of three metates of

varying degrees of coarseness firmly fixed in a slanting position most

convenient for the workers. It consists of thin slabs of sandstone set

into the floor on edge, similar slabs forming the separating partitions

between the compartments. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 105,

illustrating a Tusayan mealing trough. Those of Zuñi are of the same

form, as maybe seen in the illustration of a Zuñi interior, Fig. 105.

Occasionally in recently constructed specimens the thin inclosing walls

of the trough are made of planks. In the example illustrated one end of

the series is bounded by a board, all the other walls and divisions

being made of the usual stone slabs. The metates themselves are not

usually more than 3 inches in thickness. They are so adjusted in their

setting of stones and mortar as to slope away from the operator at the

proper angle. This arrangement of the mealing stones is characteristic

of the more densely clustered communal houses of late date. In the more

primitive house the mealing stone was usually a single large piece of

cellular basalt, or similar rock, in which a broad, sloping depression

was carved, and which could be transported from place to place. Fig. 106

illustrates an example of this type from the vicinity of Globe, in

southern Arizona. The stationary mealing trough of the present day is

undoubtedly the successor of the earner moveable form, yet it was in use

among the pueblos at the time of the first Spanish expedition, as the

following extract from Castañeda’s account[9] of Cibola will show. He

says a special room is designed to grind the grain: “This last is apart,

and contains a furnace and three stones made fast in masonry. Three

women sit down before these stones; the first crushes the grain, the

second brays it, and the third reduces it entirely to powder.” It will

be seen how exactly this description fits both the arrangement and the

use of this mill at the present time. The perfection of mechanical

devices and the refinement of methods here exhibited would seem to be in

advance of the achievement of this people in other directions.

[Footnote 9: Given by W. W. H. Davis in El Gringo, p. 119.]

The grinding stones of the mealing apparatus are of correspondingly

varying degrees of roughness; those of basalt or lava are used for the

first crushing of the corn, and sandstone is used for the final grinding

on the last metate of the series. By means of these primitive appliances

the corn meal is as finely ground as our wheaten flour. The grinding

stones now used are always flat, as shown in Fig. 105, and differ from

those that were used with the early massive type of metate in being of

cylindrical form.

One end of the series of milling troughs is usually built against the

wall near the corner of the room. In some cases, where the room is quite

narrow, the series extends across from wall to wall. Series comprising

four mealing stones, sometimes seen in Zuñi, are very generally arranged

in this manner. In all cases sufficient floor space is left behind the

mills to accommodate the women who kneel at their work. Pl. LXXXVI

illustrates an unusual arrangement, in which the fourth mealing stone is

set at right angles to the other stones of the series.

Mortars are in general use in Zuñi and Tusayan households. As a rule

they are of considerable size, and made of the same material as the

rougher mealing stones. They are employed for crushing and grinding the

chile or red pepper that enters so largely into the food of the Zuñi,

and whose use has extended to the Mexicans of the same region. These

mortars have the ordinary circular depressions and are used with a round

pestle or crusher, often of somewhat long, cylindrical form for

convenience in handling.

Parts of the apparatus for indoor blanket weaving seen in some of the

pueblo houses may be included under the heading of furniture. These

consist of devices for the attachment of the movable parts of the loom,

which need not be described in this connection. In some of the Tusayan

houses may be seen examples of posts sunk in the floor provided with

holes for the insertion of cords for attaching and tightening the warp,

similar to those built into the kiva floors, illustrated in Fig. 31.

No device of this kind was seen in Zuñi. A more primitive appliance for

such work is seen in both groups of pueblos in an occasional stump of a

beam or short pole projecting from the wall at varying heights. Ceiling

beams are also used for stretching the warp both in blanket and belt

weaving.

[Illustration: Plate CIV. A covered passageway in Mashongnavi.]

The furnishings of a pueblo house do not include tables and chairs. The

meals are eaten directly from the stone-paved floor, the participants

rarely having any other seat than the blanket that they wear, rolled up

or folded into convenient form. Small stools are sometimes seen, but the

need of such appliances does not seem to be keenly felt by these

Indians, who can, for hours, sit in a peculiar squatting position on

their haunches, without any apparent discomfort. Though moveable chairs

or stools are rare, nearly all of the dwellings are provided with the

low ledge or bench around the rooms, which in earlier times seems to

have been confined to the kivas. A slight advance on this fixed form of

seat was the stone block used in the Tusayan kivas, described on p. 132,

which at the same time served a useful purpose in the adjustment of the

warp threads for blanket weaving.

[Illustration: Fig. 107. Zuñi stools.]

The few wooden stools observed show very primitive workmanship, and are

usually made of a single piece of wood. Fig. 107 illustrates two forms

of wooden stool from Zuñi. The small three-legged stool on the left has

been cut from the trunk of a piñon tree in such a manner as to utilize

as legs the three branches into which the main stem separated. The other

stool illustrated is also cut from a single piece of tree trunk, which

has been reduced in weight by cutting out one side, leaving the two ends

for support.

[Illustration: Fig. 108. A Zuñi chair.]

A curiously worked chair of modern form seen in Zuñi is illustrated in

Fig. 108. It was difficult to determine the antiquity of this specimen,

as its rickety condition may have been due to the clumsy workmanship

quite as much as to the effects of age. Rude as is the workmanship,

however, it was far beyond the unaided skill of the native craftsman to

join and mortise the various pieces that go to make up this chair. Some

decorative effect has been sought here, the ornamentation, made up of

notches and sunken grooves, closely resembling that on the window sash

illustrated in Fig. 88, and somewhat similar in effect to the carving on

the Spanish beams seen in the Tusayan kivas. The whole construction

strongly suggests Spanish influence.

Even the influence of Americans has as yet failed to bring about the use

of tables or bedsteads among the pueblo Indians. The floor answers all

the purposes of both these useful articles of furniture. The food dishes

are placed directly upon it at meal times, and at night the blankets,

rugs, and sheep skins that form the bed are spread directly upon it.

These latter, during the day, are suspended upon the clothes pole

previously described and illustrated.

CORRALS AND GARDENS.

The introduction of domestic sheep among the pueblos has added a new and

important element to their mode of living, but they seem never to have

reached a clear understanding as to how these animals should be cared

for. No forethought is exercised to separate the rams so that the lambs

will be born at a favorable season. The flocks consist of sheep and

goats which are allowed to run together at all tunes. Black sheep and

some with a grayish color of wool are often seen among them. No attempt

is made to eliminate these dark-fleeced members of the flock, since the

black and gray wool is utilized in its natural color in producing many

of the designs and patterns of the blankets woven by these people. The

flocks are usually driven up into the corrals or inclosures every

evening, and are taken out again in the morning, frequently at quite a

late hour. This, together with the time consumed in driving them to and

from pasture, gives them much less chance to thrive than those of the

nomadic Navajo. In Tusayan the corrals are usually of small size and

inclosed by thin walls of rude stone work. This may be seen in the

foreground of Pl. XXI. Pl. CIX illustrates several corrals just outside

the village of Mashongnavi similarly constructed, but of somewhat larger

size. Some of the corrals of Oraibi are of still larger size,

approaching in this respect the corrals of Cibola. The Oraibi pens are

rudely rectangular in form, with more or less rounded angles, and are

also built of rude masonry.

[Illustration: Plate CV. Small square openings in Pueblo Bonito.]

In the less important villages of Cibola stone is occasionally used for

inclosing the corrals, as in Tusayan, as may be seen in Pl. LXX,

illustrating an inclosure of this character in the court of the farming

pueblo of Pescado. Pl. CX illustrates in detail the manner in which

stone work is combined with the use of rude stakes in the construction

of this inclosure. On the rugged sites of the Tusayan villages corrals

are placed wherever favorable nooks happen to be found in the rocks, but

at Zuñi, built in the comparatively open plain, they form a nearly

continuous belt around the pueblo. Here they are made of stakes and

brush held in place by horizontal poles tied on with strips of rawhide.

The rudely contrived gateways are supported in natural forks at the top

and sides of posts. Often one or two small inclosures used for burros or

horses occur near these sheep corrals. The construction is identical

with those above described and is very rude. It is illustrated in Fig.

109, which shows the manner in which the stakes are arranged, and also

the method of attaching the horizontal tie-pieces. The construction of

these inclosures is frail, and the danger of pushing the stakes over by

pressure from within is guarded against by employing forked braces that

abut against horizontal pieces tied on 4 or 5 feet from the ground.

Reference to Pl. LXXIV will illustrate this construction.

[Illustration: Fig. 109. Construction of a Zuñi corral.]

Within the village of Zuñi inclosures resembling miniature corrals are

sometimes seen built against the houses; these are used as cages for

eagles. A number of these birds are kept in Zuñi for the sake of their

plumage, which is highly valued for ceremonial purposes. Pl. CXI

illustrates one of these coops, constructed partly with a thin adobe

wall and partly with stakes arranged like those of the corrals.

In both of the pueblo groups under discussion, small gardens contiguous

to the villages are frequent. Those of Tusayan are walled in with stone.

Within the pueblo of Zuñi a small group of garden patches is inclosed by

stake fences, but the majority of the gardens in the vicinity of the

principal villages are provided with low walls of mud masonry. The small

terraced gardens here are near the river bank on the southwest and

southeast sides of the village. The inclosed spaces, averaging in size

about 10 feet square, are used for the cultivation of red peppers,

beans, etc., which, during the dry season, are watered by hand. These

inclosures, situated close to the dwellings, suggest a probable

explanation for similar inclosures found in many of the ruins in the

southern and eastern portions of the ancient pueblo region. Mr.

Bandelier was informed by the Pimas[10] that these inclosures were

ancient gardens. He concluded that since acequias were frequent in the

immediate vicinity these gardens must have been used as reserves in case

of war, when the larger fields were not available, but the manner of

their occurrence in Zuñi suggests rather that they were intended for

cultivation of special crops, such as pepper, beans, cotton, and perhaps

also of a variety of tobacco--corn, melons, squashes, etc., being

cultivated elsewhere in larger tracts. There is a large group of gardens

on the bank of the stream at the southeastern corner of Zuñi, and here

there are slight indications of terracing. A second group on the steeper

slope at the southwestern corner is distinctly terraced. Small walled

gardens of the same type as these Zuñi examples occur in the vicinity of

some of the Tusayan villages on the middle mesa. They are located near

the springs or water pockets, apparently to facilitate watering by hand.

Some of them contain a few small peach trees in addition to the

vegetable crops ordinarily met with. The clusters here are, as a rule,

smaller than those of Zuñi, as there is much less space available in the

vicinity of the springs. At one point on the west side of the first

mesa, a few miles above Walpi, a copious spring serves to irrigate quite

an extensive series of small garden patches distributed over lower

slopes.

[Footnote 10: Fifth Ann. Rept. Arch. Inst. Am., p. 92.]

[Illustration: Fig. 110. Gardens of Zuñi.]

[Illustration: Plate CVI. Sealed openings in a detached house of

Nutria.]

At several points around Zuñi, usually at a greater distance than the

terrace gardens, are fields of much larger area inclosed in a similar

manner. Their inclosure was simply to secure them against the

depredations of stray burros, so numerous about the village. When the

crops are gathered in the autumn, several breaches are made in the low

wall and the burros are allowed to luxuriate on the remains. Pl. LIX

indicates the position of the large cluster of garden patches on the

southeastern side of Zuñi. Fig. 110, taken from photographs made in

1873, shows several of these small gardens with their growing crops and

a large field of corn beyond. The workmanship of the garden walls as

contrasted with that of the house masonry has been already described and

is illustrated in Pl. XC.

“KISI” CONSTRUCTION.

Lightly constructed shelters for the use of those in charge of fields

were probably a constant accompaniment of pueblo horticulture. Such

shelters were built of stone or of brush, according to which material

was most available.