140 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
sheets, when cooked, are piled in layers and then folded or rolled. Light 
bread, which is made only at feast times, is baked in adobe ovens outside 
the house When not in use for this purpose the ovens make convenient 
kennels for the dogs and play-houses for the children. Neatness is not one 
of the characteristics of the Zunians. In the late autumn and winter 
months the women do little else than make bread, often in fanciful shapes, 
for the feasts and dances which continually occur. A sweet drink, not at. 
all intoxicating, is made from the sprouted wheat. The men use tobacco, 
procured from white traders, in the form of cigarettes from corn-husks; but 
this is a luxury in which the women do not indulge. 
“The Pueblo mills are among the most interesting things about the 
town. These mills, which are fastened to the floor a few feet from the 
wall, are rectangular in shape, and divided into a number of compartments, 
each about twenty inches wide and deep, the whole series ranging from five 
to ten feet in length, according to the number of divisions. The walls are 
made of sandstone. In each compartment a flat grinding stone is firmly 
set, inclining at an angle of forty-five degrees. ‘These slabs are of different 
degrees of smoothness, graduated successively from coarse to fine. The 
squaws, who alone work at the mills, kneel before them and bend over 
them as a laundress does over the wash-tub, holding in their hands long 
stones of volcanic lava, which they rub up and down the slanting slabs, 
stopping at intervals to place the grain between the stones. As the grind- 
ing proceeds the grist is passed from one compartment to the next until, in 
passing through the series, it becomes of the desired fineness. This tedious 
and laborious method has been practiced without improvement from time 
immemorial, and in some of the arts the Zunians have actually retrograded ” 
The living-rooms are about twelve by eighteen feet and about nine 
feet high, with plastered walls and an earthen floor, and usually a single 
window opening for light. To form a durable ceiling round timbers about 
six inches in diameter are placed three or four feet apart from the outer to 
the inner wall. Upon these, poles are placed transversely in juxtaposition. 
A deep covering of adobe mortar is placed upon them, forming the roof 
terrace in front, and the floor in the apartments above in the receding 
second story. Water-jars of their own manufacture, of fine workmanship, 
and holding several gallons, closely woven osier baskets of their own make, 
