72 INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. 



three coinpleted ones and the beginning of another. 

 Shumopovi has one well enclosed court and another 

 partly enclosed but the houses are terraced so as to face 

 the east. Walpi, which has grow^n until it has nearly 

 covered all the available space, has the older portion 

 of the building surrounding a court from which it was 

 terraced back. Oraibi is arranged in long irregular 

 rows. 



Building Material. The pueblos of the Rio Grande 

 region are largely built of adobe brick, the art of making 

 which was pretty certainly learned from the natives 

 of Mexico who came into the Southwest with Oiiate and 

 later. Clay, first mixed with straw and water, is 

 molded in rectangular forms and allow^ed to dry in 

 the sun. These bricks are laid in regular courses with 

 similar material for mortar. Such walls are durable 

 only when they are protected from water by means of 

 extended roofs, or by constant plastering. 



Castafieda gives a description of the older method 

 of preparing adobe. He says fires were made of small 

 brush and sedge-grass upon which, when the sticks 

 were falling to ashes, w^ater and clay were thrown. 

 The material was then molded into balls and laid 

 like stone in courses with mortar of similar material. 

 This masonry work he tells us was performed by the 

 women but that the men did the carpenter work, 

 preparing the timbers and putting them into place. 

 The inner walls were plastered and sometimes painted 

 but he does not tell us what material was used. At the 

 present time burned gypsum is employed but this 



