FEWKEs] ANTIQUITIES OP MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 37 . 



operations, was conducted either on the house-tops or in the plazas. 

 Under living rooms are included the women's rooms," or those in 

 which centered the family life ; and, in a general way, we may suppose 

 the large rooms and those with banquettes were sleeping rooms. 

 The popular misconception that the clitf-dwellers were of small 

 stature has undoubtedly arisen from the diminutive size of all the 

 secular rooms, but it must be remembered that the life of the clirt- 

 dwellers was really an out-of-door one, the roof of the cave affording 

 the necessary protection. 



Milling Rooms 



There are several rooms in Cliff Palace which appear to have been 

 given up solely to the operation of grinding corn. The mills are 

 box-like structures, constructed of slabs of stone set on edge, each con- 

 taining a slanting stone called a metate, from which the mill is called 

 by the Hopi the metataki, or " metate house." The following descrip- 

 tion of a metataki in pueblos seen by Castaiieda in 15-40 applies, in a 

 general way, to the small milling troughs in Cliff Palace : 



One room is appointed for culinary purposes, another for the grinding of 

 corn ; the latter is isolated [not so in Cliff Palace] and contains an oven and 

 three stones [one, two. three, or four in Cliff Palace], cemented finely together. 

 Three women sit [kneel] before these stones; the first crushes the corn, the 

 second grinds it, and the third reduces it quite to a powder. 



In grinding corn, which was generally the work of the girls or 

 young women, the grinder knelt before the metataki and used a flat 

 stone, which was rubbed back and forth on the metate. The corn 

 meal thus ground fell into a squarish depression, made of smooth 

 stones, at the lower end of the metate. Commonly the corners of this 

 receptacle for the meal that had been ground were filled in with clay, 

 and on each side of the metate were inserted fragments of potterj^, 

 which rounded the corners and made it easier to brush the meal 

 into a heap. In room 92, where there are four metates, occupying 

 almost the whole milling room, there are upright stones on the side 

 of the wall, back of the place where the women knelt, against which 

 they braced their feet. 



Most of the grinding boxes were destroyed, but those in the Speaker- 

 chief's house and others west of kiva V, especially the latter, were 

 still in good condition, the metates being in place. Evidences of 

 former metatakis were apparent in the floor of several other rooms, as 

 in a room back of kiva K. It is evident from the number of metates 

 found in Cliff' Palace that several milling rooms, not now recogniza- 

 ble, formerly existed, and it is probable that every large dan had its 



" .\mong the Hopi the oldest woman, as a clan representative, owns the livint; rooms, but 

 kivas are the property of the men, the kiva chief of certain fraternities being the direct 

 descendant of the clan chief of the ceremony when limited to his clan. 



