76 INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. 
top of these walls are laid planks leaving an opening 
four and a half feet long and two feet wide. Through 
this hatchway a ladder top projects ten or twelve feet. 
At Zuni there are six ceremonial rooms known as 
kiwwitstwe where the masked men who represent the 
gods in the ceremonies meet and rehearse. These are 
located in various parts of the town proper, are not 
underground, and do not have the prescribed form and 
structure which characterize the circular kivas of the 
Rio Grande or the rectangular ones of the Hopi. 
Castaneda and other early Spanish writers seem to 
have been amused by these kivas—estufas (stoves) they 
called them. They are described as being situated in 
the yards of the buildings with their roofs level with 
the ground. There were in that day both square and 
round kivas. Those of Taos are mentioned in particu- 
lar, one of which was said to have twelve pine posts of 
large size supporting the roof. The floors were paved 
with large smooth stones with a boxed-in fireplace in 
which small brush was burned for heat enabling the 
occupants to remain in them as in a bath. 
The kivas today are used as clubrooms and lounging 
places as well as workshops, the weaving usually being 
done in them. They are chiefly, however, more or less 
sacred rooms set apart for ceremonial purposes. In 
them those portions of the ceremonies which it is desired 
to keep secret from the uninitiated public are held. 
They also serve as places of retreat for those who, for a 
time, must avoid profane contaminations. 
Foon. 
The method of securing food is always the central 
fact in a people’s existence, around which social life, » 
art, and religion are largely built. There are consider- 
able regions in North America where agriculture was not 
