142 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [erH. ANN. 28 
although rain ceremonies were no doubt common, the river cult may 
have been more prominent. There are reasons to believe that the 
plumed serpent was to them symbolic of the Gila and it is possible 
that zigzag figures employed in decorating their pottery have refer- 
ence to this animal.! 
BEAMS AND RAFTERS 
The roof of a section (room H) of the Northeast Building having 
fallen in almost entire, the writer was enabled to ascertain the man- 
ner in which roofs and floors were constructed. The construction of 
the former seems to have been not unlike that of Pueblo houses. 
On the rafters, transversely, were placed cedar poles over which were 
laid sticks supporting clay firmly stamped down. Several fragments 
of adobe from roofs and floors, showing impressions of logs, branches, 
and reeds, are in the collection brought back to Washington. Many 
of the poles and rafters in this building show the effects of fire, being 
superficially charred or, in some cases, converted completely into 
charcoal. 
While the roof was supported for the greater part by beams laid 
from wall to wall, it was strengthened by perpendicular logs set in 
the floors of the rooms. The holes in which these supports were 
placed were found to be filled with decayed remnants of the logs. 
Some of these logs must have been dragged from the forests on dis- 
tant hills. 
CANE CIGARETTES 
Along the Gila River in prehistoric times and long after the dis- 
covery of Casa Grande there grew great quantities of a species of 
reed out of which the ancient Gilefos made cigarettes, by filling 
short sections, generally between nodes, with tobacco. Some of 
these sections are found wrapped with fragments of cotton and in 
most instances they are charred. It would appear that when these 
cigarettes were used, the smoke was blown through them. An unus- 
ually large number of these canes was found in one of the six cere- 
monial rooms that extend from the northeast corner of Casa Grande 
to the north wall of Compound A. Cigarettes were unearthed also 
in rooms of Compound A, but not in Compounds B,C, and D. They 
are found also in shrines, in the hills north of Casa Grande, not far 
from Superstition Mountains. They may be considered sacrificial 
1 The Hopi cult of the plumed serpent is said to have been derived from Palatkwabi, the land of the 
giant cactus. The writer has seen vases from Casas Grandes in Chihuahua on which are depicted 
serpents bearing horns and feathers on their heads, like those introduced into Walpi by the Patkiclans 
of the Hopi. 
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