Eighth Annual Report Part 24

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 94. Zui roof-openings.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XCIX. Outside steps at Pescado.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 95. A Zui roof opening, with raised coping.]

In Zui, 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 ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 96.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 96. Zui 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 97. A Zui 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate C. An excavated room at Kin-tiel.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 98. Kiva trapdoor in Zui.]

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 Zui, 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 ill.u.s.tration, 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 a.s.sisted 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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 99. Halved and pinned trapdoor frame of a Zui kiva.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate CI. Masonry chimneys of Zui.]

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 princ.i.p.al 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 Zui 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 Zui, 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 Zui) 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 Zui 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 princ.i.p.ally for light and air.

In large cl.u.s.ters 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 cl.u.s.ters 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 Zui to the utmost, and as a result we see roof openings here a.s.suming a degree of importance not found elsewhere.

In addition to roof openings of the type described, the dense cl.u.s.tering of the Zui 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 Zui, 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 cl.u.s.ters 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 100. Typical sections of Zui 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trated in connection with the Zui interior (Pl.

Lx.x.xVI).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trates 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, ill.u.s.trating 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 Zui, in the house of Jos Pi. 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 102. A Tusayan grain bin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 103. A Zui 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 Zui, 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 ill.u.s.trated 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 104. A Zui plume box.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate CIII. Ancient gateway, Kin-tiel.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 105. A Tusayan mealing trough.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 coa.r.s.eness 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 part.i.tions between the compartments. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 105, ill.u.s.trating a Tusayan mealing trough. Those of Zui are of the same form, as maybe seen in the ill.u.s.tration of a Zui interior, Fig. 105.

Occasionally in recently constructed specimens the thin inclosing walls of the trough are made of planks. In the example ill.u.s.trated 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 cl.u.s.tered 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 ill.u.s.trates 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 Castaedas 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 ma.s.sive 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 Zui, are very generally arranged in this manner. In all cases sufficient floor s.p.a.ce is left behind the mills to accommodate the women who kneel at their work. Pl. Lx.x.xVI ill.u.s.trates 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 Zui 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 Zui, 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, ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 31.

No device of this kind was seen in Zui. 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate CIV. A covered pa.s.sageway in Mashongnavi.]