| Fig. 106.
An ancient pueblo form of metate. |
The grinding stones of the mealing apparatus are of correspondingly varying degrees of roughness; those of basalt or lava are used for the first crushing of the corn, and sandstone is used for the final grinding on the last metate of the series. By means of these primitive appliances the corn meal is as finely ground as our wheaten flour. The grinding stones now used are always flat, as shown in Fig. 105, and differ from those that were used with the early massive type of metate in being of cylindrical form.
One end of the series of milling troughs is usually built against the wall near the corner of the room. In some cases, where the room is quite narrow, the series extends across from wall to wall. Series comprising four mealing stones, sometimes seen in Zuñi, are very generally arranged in this manner. In all cases sufficient floor space is left behind the mills to accommodate the women who kneel at their work. [Pl. LXXXVI] illustrates an unusual arrangement, in which the fourth mealing stone is set at right angles to the other stones of the series.
Mortars are in general use in Zuñi and Tusayan households. As a rule they are of considerable size, and made of the same material as the rougher mealing stones. They are employed for crushing and grinding the chile or red pepper that enters so largely into the food of the Zuñi, and whose use has extended to the Mexicans of the same region. These mortars have the ordinary circular depressions and are used with a round pestle or crusher, often of somewhat long, cylindrical form for convenience in handling.
Parts of the apparatus for indoor blanket weaving seen in some of the pueblo houses may be included under the heading of furniture. These consist of devices for the attachment of the movable parts of the loom, which need not be described in this connection. In some of the Tusayan houses may be seen examples of posts sunk in the floor provided with holes for the insertion of cords for attaching and tightening the warp, similar to those built into the kiva floors, illustrated in [Fig. 31]. No device of this kind was seen in Zuñi. A more primitive appliance for such work is seen in both groups of pueblos in an occasional stump of a beam or short pole projecting from the wall at varying heights. Ceiling beams are also used for stretching the warp both in blanket and belt weaving.
The furnishings of a pueblo house do not include tables and chairs. The meals are eaten directly from the stone-paved floor, the participants rarely having any other seat than the blanket that they wear, rolled up or folded into convenient form. Small stools are sometimes seen, but the need of such appliances does not seem to be keenly felt by these Indians, who can, for hours, sit in a peculiar squatting position on their haunches, without any apparent discomfort. Though moveable chairs or stools are rare, nearly all of the dwellings are provided with the low ledge or bench around the rooms, which in earlier times seems to have been confined to the kivas. A slight advance on this fixed form of seat was the stone block used in the Tusayan kivas, described on [p. 132], which at the same time served a useful purpose in the adjustment of the warp threads for blanket weaving.
| Fig. 107. Zuñi stools. |
| Fig. 108. A Zuñi chair. |
The few wooden stools observed show very primitive workmanship, and are usually made of a single piece of wood. Fig. 107 illustrates two forms of wooden stool from Zuñi. The small three-legged stool on the left has been cut from the trunk of a piñon tree in such a manner as to utilize as legs the three branches into which the main stem separated. The other stool illustrated is also cut from a single piece of tree trunk, which has been reduced in weight by cutting out one side, leaving the two ends for support.
A curiously worked chair of modern form seen in Zuñi is illustrated in Fig. 108. It was difficult to determine the antiquity of this specimen, as its rickety condition may have been due to the clumsy workmanship quite as much as to the effects of age. Rude as is the workmanship, however, it was far beyond the unaided skill of the native craftsman to join and mortise the various pieces that go to make up this chair. Some decorative effect has been sought here, the ornamentation, made up of notches and sunken grooves, closely resembling that on the window sash illustrated in [Fig. 88], and somewhat similar in effect to the carving on the Spanish beams seen in the Tusayan kivas. The whole construction strongly suggests Spanish influence.
Even the influence of Americans has as yet failed to bring about the use of tables or bedsteads among the pueblo Indians. The floor answers all the purposes of both these useful articles of furniture. The food dishes are placed directly upon it at meal times, and at night the blankets, rugs, and sheep skins that form the bed are spread directly upon it. These latter, during the day, are suspended upon the clothes pole previously described and illustrated.