Fig. 75. A barred Zuñi door.
This curious arrangement affords another illustration of the survival of ancient methods in modified forms. It is not employed, however, in closing the doors of the first terrace; these are fastened by barring from the inside, the exit being made by means of internal ladders to the terrace above, the upper doors only being fastened in the manner illustrated. In [Pl. LXXIX] may be seen good examples of the side hole. Fig. 75 shows a barred door. The plastering or sealing of the small side hole instead of the entire opening was brought about by the introduction of the wooden door, which in its present paneled form is of foreign introduction, but in this, as in so many other cases, some analogous feature which facilitated the adoption of the idea probably already existed. Tradition points to the early use of a small door, made of a single slab of wood, that closed the small rectangular wall niches, in which valuables, such as turquoise, shell, etc., were kept. This slab, it is said, was reduced and smoothed by rubbing with a piece of sandstone. A number of beams, rafters, and roofing planks, seen in the Chaco pueblos, were probably squared and finished in this way. The latter examples show a degree of familiarity with this treatment of wood that would enable the builders to construct such doors with ease. As yet, however, no examples of wooden doors have been seen in any of the pre-Columbian ruins.
The pueblo type of paneled door is much more frequently seen in Cibola than in Tusayan, and in the latter province it does not assume the variety of treatment seen in Zuñi, nor is the work so neatly executed. The views of the modern pueblos, given in Chapters [III] and [IV], will indicate the extent to which this feature occurs in the two groups. In the construction of a paneled door the vertical stile on one side is prolonged at the top and bottom into a rounded pivot, which works into cup-like sockets in the lintel and sill, as illustrated in Fig. 76. The hinge is thus produced in the wood itself without the aid of any external appliances.
| Fig. 76.
Wooden pivot hinges of a Zuñi door. |
It is difficult to trace the origin of this device among the pueblos. It closely resembles the pivot hinges sometimes used in mediæval Europe in connection with massive gates for closing masonry passages; in such cases the prolonged pivots worked in cavities of stone sills and lintels. The Indians claim to have employed it in very early times, but no evidence on this point has been found. It is quite possible that the idea was borrowed from some of the earlier Mormon settlers who came into the country, as these people use a number of primitive devices which are undoubtedly survivals of methods of construction once common in the countries from which they came. Vestiges of the use of a pivotal hinge, constructed on a much more massive scale than any of the pueblo examples, were seen at an old fortress-like, stone storehouse of the Mormons, built near the site of Moen-kopi by the first Mormon settlers.
The paneled door now in use among the pueblos is rudely made, and consists of a frame inclosing a single panel. This panel, when of large size, is occasionally made of two or more pieces. These doors vary greatly in size. A few reach the height of 5 feet, but the usual height is from 3½ to 4 feet. As doors are commonly elevated a foot or more above the ground or floor, the use of such openings does not entail the full degree of discomfort that the small size suggests. Doors of larger size, with sills raised but an inch or two above the floor or ground, have recently been introduced in some of the ground stories in Zuñi; but these are very recent, and the idea has been adopted only by the most progressive people.
[Pl. XLI] shows a small paneled door, not more than a foot square, used as a blind to close a back window of a dwelling. The smallest examples of paneled doors are those employed for closing the small, square openings in the back walls of house rows, which still retain the defensive arrangement so marked in many of the ancient pueblos. In some instances doors occur in the second stories of unterraced walls, their sills being 5 or 6 feet above the ground. In such cases the doors are reached by ladders whose upper ends rest upon the sills. Elevated openings of this kind are closed in the usual manner with a rude, single-paneled door, which is often whitened with a coating of clayey gypsum.
Carefully worked paneled doors are much more common in Zuñi than in Tusayan, and within the latter province the villages of the first mesa make more extended use of this type of door, as they have come into more intimate contact with their eastern brethren than other villages of the group. Fig. 77 illustrates a portion of a Hano house in which two wooden doors occur. These specimens indicate the rudeness of Tusayan workmanship. It will be seen that the workman who framed the upper one of these doors met with considerable difficulty in properly joining the two boards of the panel and in connecting these with the frame. The figure shows that at several points the door has been reenforced and strengthened by buckskin and rawhide thongs. The same device has been employed in the lower door, both in fastening together the two pieces of the panel and in attaching the latter to the framing. These doors also illustrate the customary manner of barring the door during the absence of the occupant of the house.
