162 PUEBLO ARCHITECTURE. 
Perhaps in no one detail of pueblo construction are the careless and 
shiftless modern methods so conspicuous as in the stone steps of the 
upper terraces of Tusayan. Here are seen many awkward makeshifts 
by means of which the builders have tried to compensate for their lack 
of foresight in planning. The absence of a definite plan for a house 
cluster of many rooms, already noted in the discussion of dwelling- 
house construction, is rendered conspicuous by the manner in which 
the stone stairways are used. Figs. 48 and 49 illustrate stone steps on 
upper terraces in Oraibi. In both cases the steps have been added 
long after the rooms against which they abut were built. In order to 
contorm to the fixed requirement of placing such means of access at 
the corners of the upper rooms, the builders constructed a clumsy 
platform to afford passage around the previously built chimney. Fig. 
50 shows the result of a similar lack of foresight. The upper portion of 
Fic, 50, Stone steps in Shumopavyi. 
the flight, consisting of three steps, has been abruptly turned at right 
angles to the main flight, and is supported upon rude poles and beams. 
The restriction of this feature to the corners of upper rooms where they 
were most likely to conflict with chimneys is undoubtedly a survival of 
ancient practice, and due to the necessary vertical alignment of walls 
and masonry in this primitive construction. 
COOKING PITS AND OVENS. 
Most of the cooking of the ancient Pueblos was probably done out of 
doors, as among the ruins vestiges of cooking pits, almost identical in 
