.FEWKESJ ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VEEDE NATIONAL PARK 35 



pass through them more readily is not wholly satisfactory, nor does 

 the theory that the notch at the lower rim served to keep the ladder 

 from slipping wholly conmiend itself. No satisfactory explanation of 

 the form of the T-shaped doorway hao been yet determined. Generally 

 the tops of both doorways and windows are narrower than the bot- 

 toms, the sides being slightl}^ inclined ; but the lower part is rarely 

 narrower than the top. Sills sometimes project slightly, and evi- 

 dences occur that the sides as well as the upper part of the window 

 and doorway were made of adobe, now no longer in place. The 

 jambs also were probably of clay, and the doors, made of slabs of 

 stone, neatly fitted the orifices. 



The prevailing storms in winter at Cliff Palace sweep up the can- 

 yon from the southwest, but there does not seem to have been a sys- 

 tematic effort to avoid the cold by placing doors and windows on the 

 opposite side of the building; the openings, for instance, of the 

 Speaker-chief's House face this direction and are open to storms of 

 snow and rain. Many of the openings never had doors and windows, 

 but were probably closed wnth sticks tied together, or with matting." 

 Certain windows were half closed, probably to temper the winter 

 blasts. The sills of doors were commonh^ placed a foot or more 

 above the floor;'' transoms above the door opening and peepholes at 

 the side are not common in Cliff Palace. In some cases a stepping- 

 stone projects from the wall below the door opening to facilitate 

 entrance ; in others a foot hole is found in the same relative place. 



As the jambs, sills, and lintels were built hard and fast in the mor- 

 tar, evidently both door openings and windows were constructed 

 when the corresponding wall Avas built. The jambs in some instances 

 and the lintels in others are of split sticks, the surfaces of which are 

 fibrous and were evidently not split by means of iron implements. 

 There is evidence that the size of the door openings was sometimes re- 

 duced by a ridge of mortar which was arched above, as at Spruce-tree 

 House, the intention being to make in this way a jamb to hold in place 

 the stone door. There are no round windows of large size, but both 

 doors and windows are quadrilateral in shape; the small circular 

 openings in some of the walls may have served for lookouts. 



P^ LOOKS AND KOOFS 



Not a single entire roof remained in Cliff Palace, and only one or 

 two rooms retained remnants of rafters. It would seem, however. 

 from the position of the holes in the walls into which the rafters 



" Some of the doorways were filled with rude masonry ; evidently the rooms were thus 

 closed in some instances before the buildings were deserted. 



* The placing of the sill at a level with the floor is a modem innovation at Walpi. The 

 oldest houses still have it elevated, as in Cliff Palace. In some of the clifE-houses of the 

 Navaho Monument sills and floor levels are continuous. 



