FEWKEs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 51 



ceremonial opening, (3) an entrance, (4) a ventilator. There is no 

 sign of smoke on the interior of the vertical passage, which, being too 

 small to admit a person, would seem, to prove the first and third 

 theories untenable. In the Navaho National ]\Ioniiment, where there 

 are square rooms, or kiJuis^ with banks similar to the deflectors of the 

 circular kivas, a door takes the place of the flue and the vertical pas- 

 sage, and affords the only means for admitting fresh air to the room. 

 Although it may have originated as a simple entrance to the room, it 

 became so modified that it could no longer have served that purpose, 

 ceremonially or otherwise. 



The position of the entrance to the Cliff Palace kiva is yet to be 

 definitely determined. Analogy, together with the structure of the 

 roof, would indicate that it was by means of a hatchway, but no re- 

 mains of a ladder were found, and no indication in the floor where a 

 ladder formerly rested is visible. It may be that the large banquette 

 indicates the position of the hatchway.'' 



The subterranean passageway under the flue and beneath the floor 

 of kiva V should not be overlooked in a study of the origin and func- 

 tion of the ventilator. This structure is without apparent connection 

 with the ventilator, and yet it is so carefully constructed under it 

 that it may have had some relation, a knowledge of which will even- 

 tually enlighten us regarding the meaning of both structures. 



The kivas of the Mesa Verde are much smaller than those of Walpi 

 and other Hopi pueblos, one of them being barely 9 feet in diameter 

 and the largest measuring not more than" 19 feet, whereas the chief 

 kiva at Walpi is 25 feet long by 15 feet wide. Evidently kivas of 

 such diminutive size as those found at Cliff Palace could accommo- 

 date only a few at a time, and it is probable that they were not 

 occupied by fraternities of priests but by a few chiefs ; indeed, the re- 

 ligious fraternit}^, as we understand its composition in modern 

 pueblos, had in all probability not yet been developed. Nevertheless 

 the smallest kiva in Cliff' Palace is as large as the room in Walpi in 

 which the Sun priests, mainly of one clan, celebrate their rites. 



Kiva A (pi. IT) is the most southerly kiva of Cliff Palace, the first 

 of the series excavated in the talus, its roof having been on the level 

 of the cave floor, or the fourth terrace. The walls of this kiva re- 

 quired little repair. Its height from the floor to the top of the walls 

 is 8 feet 6 inches, and from the floor to the top of the pilasters 7 feet; 

 the height of the banquette is 3 feet 6 inches. The interior diameter 

 is 11 feet. There are six pilasters, with an average breadth of 20 

 inches ; the distance between them averages 4 feet 6 inches. 



« On this supposition the large banquette may have been the forerunner of the S{»ecta- 

 tor's section in the modern rectangular Hopi kivas, of which it is a modification. 



