~ pees 
MINDELEFF.] USE OF ADOBE IN ZUNI. 139 
of a wall with adobe bricks. This example is very recent, as it has not 
yet been roofed over. The top of the wall, however, is temporarily pro- 
tected by the usual series of thin sandstone slabs used in the finishing 
of wall copings. The very rapid disintegration of native-made adobe 
walls has brought about the 
use in Zuni of many protec- 
tive devices, some of which 
will be noticed in connection 
with the discussion of roof 
drainsand wall copings. Figs. 
32 and 33 illustrate a curious 
employment of pottery frag- 
ments on a mud-plastered wall 
and on the base of a chimney 
to protect the adobe coating 
against rapid erosion by the 
vains. These pieces, usually 
Fig. 32. A Zuni chimney, showing pottery fragments fragments from large vessels, 
robbed ded tniigs adobe: haae: are embedded in the adobe 
with the convex side out, forming an armor of pottery scales well adapted 
to resist disintegration by the elements. 
Fia. 33. A Zuni oven with pottery scales embedded in its surface. 
The introduction of the use of adobe in Zuni should probably be 
attributed to foreign influence, but the position of the village in the 
open plain at a distance of several miles from the nearest outerop of 
suitable building stone naturally led the builders to use stone more 
sparingly when an available substitute was found close at hand. The 
thin slabs of stone, which had to be brought from a great distance, came 
to be used only for the more exposed portions of buildings, such as 
copings on walls and borders around roof openings. Still, the pueblo 
