MINDELEEF, ] INSIDE WALL FINISH. 145 
The finish of pueblo masonry rarely went far beyond the two leading 
forms, to which attention has been called, the free use of adobe on the 
one hand and the banded arrangement of ancient masonry on the other. 
These types appear to present development along divergent lines. The 
banded feature doubtless reached such a point of development in the 
Chaco pueblos that its decorative value began to be appreciated, for it 
is apparent that its elaboration has extended far beyond the require- 
ments of mere utility. This point would never have been reached had 
the practice prevailed of covering the walls with a coating of mud. 
The cruder examples of banded construction, however—those that still 
kept well within constructional expediency—were doubtless covered with 
a coating of plaster where they occurred inside of therooms. At Tusayan 
and Cibola, on the other hand, the tendency has been rather to elaborate 
the plastic element of the masonry. The nearly universal use of adobe 
is undoubtedly largely responsible for the more slovenly methods of 
building now in vogue, as it effectually conceals careless construction. 
It is not to be expected that walls would be carefully constructed of 
banded stonework when they were to be subsequently covered with 
mud. The elaboration of the use of adobe and its employment as : 
periodical coating for the dwellings, probably developed gradually into 
the use of a whitewash for the house walls, resulting finally in crude 
attempts at wall decoration. 
Many of the interiors in Zuni are washed with a coating of white, 
clayey gypsum, used in the form of a solution made by dissolving in 
hot water the hunps of the raw material, found in many localities. The 
mixture is applied to the walls while hot, and is spread by means of a 
rude glove-like sack, made of sheep or goat skin, with the hair side out. 
With this primitive brush the Zuni housewives succeed in laying on a 
smooth and uniform coating over the plaster. An example of this class 
of work was observed in a room of house No. 2. It is difficult to de- 
termine to what extent this idea is aboriginal; as now employed it has 
doubtless been affected by the methods of the neighboring Spanish 
population, among whom the practice of white-coating the adobe houses 
inside and out is quite common. Several traces of whitewashing have 
been found among the cliff-dwellings of Canyon de Chelly, notably at the 
ruin known as Casa Blanea, but as some of these ruins contained evi- 
dences of post-Spanish occupation, the occurrence there of the white- 
wash does not necessarily imply any great antiquity for the practice. 
External use of this material is much rarer, particularly in Zuni, 
where only a few walls of upper stories are whitened. Where it is not 
protected from the rains by an overhanging coping or other feature, the 
finish is not durable. Occasionally where a doorway or other opening 
has been repaired the evidences of patchwork are obliterated by a sur- 
rounding band of fresh plastering, varying in width from 4 inches to a 
foot or more. Usually this band is laid on as a thick wash of adobe, 
but in some instances a decorative effect is attained by using white. It 
8 ETH——10 
