MINDELEFF. } STOOLS AND CHAIRS. 213 
the need of such appliances does not seem to be keenly felt by these 
Indians, who can, for hours, sit in a peculiar squatting position.on their 
haunches, without any apparent discomfort. Though moveable chairs 
or stools are rare, nearly ali of the dwellings are provided with the low 
ledge or bench around the rooms, which in earlier times seems to have 
been confined to the kivas. A slight advance on this fixed form of seat 
yas the stone block used in the Tusayan kivas, described on p. 132, 
which at the same time served a useful purpose in the adjustment of 
the warp threads for blanket weaving. 
The few wooden stools observed show very primitive workmanship, 
and are usually made of a single piece of wood. Fig. 107 illustrates 
two forms of wooden stool from Zuni. The small three-legged stool on 
Fig. 107. Zuni stools. 
the left has been cut from the trunk of a pinon tree in such, a manner 
as to utilize as legs the three branches into which the main stem sepa- 
rated. The other stool illustrated is also cut from a single piece of tree 
trunk, which has been reduced in weight by cutting out one side, leay- 
ing the two ends for support. 
A curiously worked chair of modern 
form seen in Zuni is illustrated in Fig. 108. 
It was difficult to determine the antiquity 
of this specimen, as its rickety condition 
may have been due to the clumsy work- 
manship quite as much as to the effects of 
age. Rude as is the workmanship, how- 
ever, it was far beyond the unaided skill 
of the native craftsman to join and mor- 
tise the various pieces that go to make up 
this chair. Some decorative effect has 
been sought here, the ornamentation, 
made up of notches and sunken grooves, igo WE, AN ae tthe 
closely resembling that on the window sash illustrated in Fig. 88, and 
somewhat similiar in effect to the carving on the Spanish beams seen 
in the Tusayan kivas. The whole construction strongly suggests Span- 
ish influence. 
