It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are due
chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this
sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of
a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak,
they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and
driven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was the
influence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt an
almost waterless area for their habitat.
It is apparent at least that they entered the country wherein their
remains occur while comparatively a rude people, and worked out there
almost wholly their incipient civilization. Of this there is important
linguistic evidence.
[Illustration: FIG. 490.--A Navajo hut.]
A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive-shaped or conical structure (see
Fig. 490) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stones
chinked with mud. Yet its modern Zuñi name is _hám´ pon ne_, from _ha
we_, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _pó an ne_, covering, shelter
or roof (_po a_ to place over and _ne_ the nominal suffix); which,
interpreted, signifies a "brush or leaf shelter." This leads to the
inference that the temporary shelter with which the Zuñis were
acquainted when they formulated the name here given, presumably in
their earliest condition, was in shape like the Navajo hogan, but in
_material_, of brush or like perishable substance.
The archaic name for a building or walled inclosure is _hé sho ta_, a
contraction of the now obsolete term, _hé sho ta pon ne_, from _hé
sho_, gum, or resin-like; _shó tai e_, leaned or placed together
convergingly; and _tá po an ne_, a roof of wood or a roof supported by
wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 491.--Perspective view of earliest or Round-house
structure of lava.]
The meaning of all this would be obscure did not the oldest remains of
the Pueblos occur in the almost inaccessible lava wastes bordering the
southwestern deserts and intersecting them and were not the houses of
these ruins built on the plan of shelters, round (see Figs. 491, 492,
493), rather than rectangular. Furthermore, not only does the
lava-rock of which their walls have been rudely constructed resemble
natural asphaltum (_hé sho_) and possess a cleavage exactly like that
of piñon-gum and allied substances (also _hé sho_), but some forms of
lava are actually known as _á he sho_ or gum-rock. From these
considerations inferring that the name _hé sho ta pon ne_ derivatively
signifies something like "a gum-rock shelter with roof supports of
wood," we may also infer that the Pueblos on their coming into the
desert regions dispossessed earlier inhabitants or that they chose the
lava-wastes the better to secure themselves from invasion; moreover
that the oldest form of building known to them was therefore an
inclosure of lava-stones, whence the application of the contraction
_hé sho ta_, and its restriction to mean a walled inclosure.
[Illustration: FIG. 492.--Plan of Pueblo structure of lava.]
[Illustration: FIG. 493.--Section of Pueblo structure of lava.]