176 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
Every room in the main building was faced with stone on the four sides, 
having an adobe floor and a wooden ceiling. Each room had, as far as 
walls now remain to show, two doorways through the walls parallel with 
the court, and four openings about twelve inches square, two on the side of 
each doorway, near the ceiling. These openings were for light and venti- 
lation. In a limited sense it may be said that the stones were dressed, and 
also that they were laid in courses, but, in the high and strict meaning of 
these terms, neither is true. The stones used were small and of different 
sizes. Sometimes they were nearly square, from six to eight inches ona 
side; sometimes a foot long by six inches wide. The latter is the size of 
the stones used at Uxmal and Chichen Itza, according to Norman. In some | 
cases longer and thicker stones were used without any attempt to square the 
ends. In some instances thin pieces of stone were employed with parallel 
faces. In all cases the stone was a sandstone, now of a reddish brown 
color. It is the prevailing stone in the bluffs of the Animas River, and of 
all the rivers parallel with it running into the San Juan, as far as personal 
observation enabled me to judge. It is a soft rather than a hard stone, usu- 
ally of a buff color when first quarried, and some of it has decayed in the 
using. The wasted and weatherworn appearance of some of these stones 
would otherwise indicate a very great age for the structure. With stone 
of the size used a good face can be formed by simple fracture, and a joint 
sufficiently close may be made by a few strokes with astone maul. If finer 
work was aimed at, it must have been accomplished by rubbing the stones 
to a face. But this work is sufficiently explained by the former processes. 
In the row of apartments and stories named, both faces of each wall were 
of stone, so that all of the apartments were of stone on the inside. They 
were fair walls, both in masonry and workmanship, and creditable to the 
builders. There was an attempt to lay up these walls in courses of uniform 
thickness, but each course differing from the one above and below it. The 
attempt was only partially successful. They did not hesitate to break in 
upon the regularity of the courses. Some of the standing walls are now 
sprung; but most of them are straight, and fairly vertical, the adobe mor- 
tar being sound and the bond unbroken. 
The Indian had a string from time immemorial. With it he could strike 
