MINDELEFF. ] ROOF DRAINS. 155 
It is said that tubes of clay were used at Awatubi in olden times for 
roof drains, but there remains no positive evidence of this. Three forms 
of this device are attributed to the people of that village. Some are 
Ee 
Fic. 43. Tusayan roof drains; a discarded metate and a gourd. 
said to have been made of wood, others of stone, and some again of sun- 
dried clay. The native explanation of the use in this connection of sun- 
dried clay, instead of the more durable baked product, was that the ap- 
plication of fire to any object that water passes through would be likely 
to dry up the rains. It was stated in this connection that at the 
present day the cobs of the corn used for planting are not burned until 
rain has fallen on the crop. If the clay spout described really existed 
among the people at Awatubi, it was likely to have been an innovation 
introduced by the Spanish missionaries. Among the potsherds picked 
up at this ruin was a small piece of coarsely made clay tube, which 
seemed to be too large and too roughly modeled to have been the 
handle of a ladle, which it roughly resembled, or to have belonged to 
any other known form of domestic pottery. As a roof drain its use 
would not accord with the restrictions referred to in the native account, 
as the piece had been burnt. 
In some cases in Zuni where drains discharge from the roofs of upper 
terraces directly upon those below, the lower roofs and also the adjoin- 
ing vertical walls are protected by thin tablets of stone, as shown in 
Fig. 44. It will be seen that one of these is placed upon the lower roof 
in such a position that the drainage falls directly upon it. Where the 
adobe roof covering is left unprotected its destruction by the rain is 
very rapid, as the showers of the rainy season in these regions, though 
usually of short duration, are often extremely violent. The force of the 
torrents is illustrated in the neighboring country. Here small ruts in 
the surface of the ground are rapidly converted into large arroyos. 
Frequently ordinary wagon tracks along a bit of valley slope serve as 
an initial channel to the rapidly accumulating waters and are eaten 
