34 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 51 



I'ooms. It is difficult to distinguish in some instances to >vhich of 

 the above classes some of the rooms belong. The secular houses were 

 probably owned by the oldest women of the clan, and the kivas were 

 the property of the men of their respective clans, but courts, plazas, 

 and pasageways were common property. 



The masonr}^ <» of all secular rooms is practically identical and 

 as a rule is inferior to that of kivas, their walls varying in width 

 and having a uniform thickness from foundation to top. There are 

 instances where the lower part projects somewhat beyond the upper, 

 from which it is separated by a ledge, but this feature is not common. 

 Elinor features of architecture, as floors and roofs, doors and win- 

 doAvs, fireplaces, banks, and cubby-holes, some or all of whicli ma}^ be 

 absent, vary in form and in distribution according to the purpose for 

 which the room was intended. The few timbers that remain show 

 that the beams of the houses were probably cut with stone hatchets 

 aided by the use of fire. The labor of hauling these timbers arrd of 

 stripping them of their branches must have been great, considering 

 the rude appliances at hand. It would seem that the cliif -dwellers 

 were not ignorant of the use of the wedge with which to split logs, 

 since the surfaces of split sticks are always more or less fibrous, never 

 smooth, as would be expected if metal implements had been used. 

 All transportation was manual, Avithout the assistance of beasts of 

 burden or of any but the rudest mechanical contrivances. 



Doors and Windows 



There is difficidty in distinguishing doorways from windows in 

 clifl'-dwellings, on which account they are here treated together. 

 Both are simple openings in the walls, the former as a rule being 

 larger than the latter. As door openings are regularly situated high 

 above the floor, there may have been ladders by which the doorways 

 of the second and third stories Avere reached. The rooms may have 

 been entered by means of balconies, evidences of Avhich still remain. 

 No instance of a hatchway in the roof is now recognizable, although 

 the absence of side entrances in several rooms implies that there were 

 roof entrances, several good examples of which occur at Spruce-tree 

 House. 



Doorways of Cliff Palace have two forms, rectangular and 

 T-shaped, the latter generally opening on the second story or in 

 such a position that they w^ere approached by ladders or notched logs. 

 The theory that these doorways were constructed larger at the top 

 than at the bottom so that persons with packs on their backs might 



" Probiibly both men and women of ono clan worked tosother in the construction of 

 houses, the men being the masons, the women tlie phisterers. Each clan built its 

 own rooms, and there were no diflferentiated groups of mechanics in the community. 



