6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. JO 



Working in this way, using their bare hands and with no tools 

 other than crude bone and stone implements, the ancient artisans 

 finally brought the new walls to a satisfactory height. A number of 

 wooden beams were then laid a foot or more apart and across the 

 shorter dimensions of the room ; above and at right angles to them, 

 smaller poles were placed, with willows or brush, grass and clay, in 

 succession, completing the roof. The resulting cover was fairly 

 tight, but extremely heavy ; it successfully turned most of the winter's 

 storms and required repair only two or three times a year, following 

 the rainy seasons. Windows for the admission of light and air were 

 unknown — aboriginal peoples seldom worried about ventilation or 

 lack of it — and the only entrance to the room was a hole through 

 the roof, an opening which was closed at times by a large, thin stone 

 disk.' 



The primitive masons of Parowan Valley had adapted to their 

 needs the most available building material of their environment ; 

 they constructed houses which met their principal requirements and 

 yet these houses had at least one defect which their builders seem not 

 to have overcome. It is apparent that the roof beams did not 

 protrude far beyond the outer surface of the sun-dried mud 

 walls and consequently furnished scant protection for them. In 

 seasons of rainfall, the water which accumulated upon the flat 

 earthen roof either soaked through or ran ofif the edges and down 

 the walls. In the latter case, the softened adobe would tend to give 

 way under the weight of the heavy ceiling, causing the walls to 

 collapse. It may safely be assumed that these dwellings were fre- 

 quently destroyed in this manner, even though the opinion be based 

 entirely upon circumstantial evidence, for many travelers in the 

 Southwest have noticed the disintegration of modern adobe houses 

 through the same agency. 



A dwelling once destroyed was probably never wholly rebuilt, 

 although its broken walls may have been partially utilized in the 

 erection of a new structure. Lack of suitable tools made the mere 

 task of removing such wreckage a tedious undertaking. To obviate 

 the necessitv for this and yet render the site suitable for a new 



^ The writer has been informed through several sources that the stone 

 employed in making the round doors found so frequently among the Paragonah 

 ruins could have come only from the West Mountains or Kane Spring Hills, 

 10 miles from the village. Stone of similar texture is unknown elsewhere in 

 the vicinity; the difficulties of its transportation may be appreciated if the 

 reader will recall that these old people had no beasts of burden and that 

 many of the disks weigh as much as 75 and 80 pounds. 



