A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Part 18

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 55. Dome-shaped oven on a plinth of masonry.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 56. Oven in Pescado exposing stones of masonry.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 57. Oven in Pescado exposing stones of masonry.]

Figs. 56 and 57 ill.u.s.trate 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xI. Eastern rows of Zui.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trates 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. x.x.xVIII may be seen an Oraibi specimen somewhat resembling those seen at Mashongnavi.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 59. A poultry house in Sichumovi resembling an oven.]

Fig. 59 ill.u.s.trates 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 60. Ground plan of an excavated room in Kin-tiel.]

This fireplace, together with the room in which it was found, is ill.u.s.trated 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 furnis.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.sociated 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xII. A Zui 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 Zui 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 Zui interior, Pl. Lx.x.xVI.

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 c.u.mbersome 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 const.i.tutes 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 ill.u.s.trates 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61. A corner chimney hood with two supporting poles (Tusayan).]

In a chimney in a Mashongnavi house, ill.u.s.trated 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 62. A curved chimney hood of Mashongnavi.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xIII. A Zui small house.]

A curious example ill.u.s.trating 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 princ.i.p.al 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trates this hood; the plan indicating the relation of the stones and the forked stick to the corner of the room.

Fig. 71, ill.u.s.trating a terrace fireplace and chimney of Shumopavi, shows the employment of similar supports.

Corner chimney hoods in Zui 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 65. This form of hood, projecting some distance beyond its flue, affords s.p.a.ce 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 65. A semi-detached square chimney hood of Zui.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xIV. 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 ill.u.s.trated in the right-hand diagram of the figure. In constructing such a chimney a thin b.u.t.tress 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 b.u.t.tress. 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 s.p.a.ce 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 Zui 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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 66. Unplastered Zui chimney hoods, ill.u.s.trating 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 princ.i.p.al 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 ill.u.s.trates a second-story fireplace in Mashongnavi.

Other examples may be seen in the outdoor chimneys shown in Figs. 72 and 73.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 67. A fireplace and mantel in Sichumovi.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 68. A second-story fireplace in Mashongnavi.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xV. 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 pion 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ill.u.s.trates 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 ill.u.s.trated in the figure, and were made of a coa.r.s.ely mixed clay thoroughly baked to a stony hardness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 70. Piki stone and primitive andiron in Shumopavi.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xVI. A Zui interior.]