♦. ^ , ^^ 



Photograph by N. C. Nelson 

 Portion of the floor and wall of the circular and subterranean kiva, or ceremonial chamber, marked 

 KA on the ground plan, page 86. In the immediate foreground is the fire pit, and beyond it the fresh 

 air intake shaft, the smoke having to escape through the entrance in the roof directly above the fire. 

 On the left may be seen the uncovered burial of a wolf, the precise significance of which in the cere- 

 monial chamber is unknown at present 



Photograph by N. C. Nelson 

 Many ceilings in the rooms of tlie lower story of the Aztec ruin are as perfect in all respects 

 as the day they were constructed, probably some five or six hundred years ago. The beams are of 

 spruce or pine, measuring up to twelve inches in diameter; transversely over these lie secondary tim- 

 bers two to three inches thick, usually of cottonwood, spaced evenly or by threes ; above these again 

 is a layer of split rails, cedar bark, and twigs, the whole being finally covered witli a four to six 

 inch coat of clay (adobe), which constitutes the floor for the dweller in the story above. The same 

 general method of ceiling construction is still used by the Pueblo Indians, and in fact by the Mexicans 

 or Spanish Americans as well, but seldom with such neatness and skill 



93 



