A suitable site having been selected, the builder considers what the dimensions of the house should be, and these he measures by paces, placing a stone or other mark at each corner. He then goes to the woods and cuts a sufficient number of timbers for the roof of a length corresponding to the width of his house. Stones are also gathered and roughly dressed, and in all these operations he is assisted by his friends, usually of his own gens. These assistants receive no compensation except their food, but that of itself entails considerable expense on the builder, and causes him to build his house with as few helpers as possible.
The material having been accumulated, the builder goes to the village chief, who prepares for him four small eagle feathers. The chief ties a short cotton string to the stem of each, sprinkles them with votive meal, and breathes upon them his prayers for the welfare of the proposed house and its occupants. These feathers are called Nakwa kwoci, a term meaning a breathed prayer, and the prayers are addressed to Másauwu, the Sun, and to other deities concerned in house-life. These feathers are placed at the four corners of the house and a large stone is laid over each of them. The builder then decides where the door is to be located, and marks the place by setting some food on each side of it; he then passes around the site from right to left, sprinkling piki crumbs and other particles of food, mixed with native tobacco, along the lines to be occupied by the walls. As he sprinkles this offering he sings to the Sun his Kitdauwi, house song: “Si-ai, a-hai, si-ai, a-hai.” The meaning of these words the people have now forgotten.
Mr. Stephen has been informed by the Indians that the man is a mason and the woman the plasterer, the house belonging to the woman when finished; but according to my own observation this is not the universal practice in modern Tusayan. In the case of the house in Oraibi, illustrated in [Pl. XL] from a photograph, much, if not all, of the masonry was laid, as well as finished and plastered, by the woman of the house and her female relatives. There was but one man present at this house-building, whose grudgingly performed duty consisted of lifting the larger roof beams and lintels into place and of giving occasional assistance in the heavier work. The ground about this house was strewn with quantities of broken stone for masonry, which seemed to be all prepared and brought to the spot before building began; but often the various divisions of the work are carried on by both men and women simultaneously. While the men were dressing the stones, the women brought earth and water and mixed a mud plaster. Then the walls were laid in irregular courses, using the mortar very sparingly.
The house is always built in the form of a parallelogram, the walls being from 7 to 8 feet high, and of irregular thickness, sometimes varying from 15 to 22 inches in different parts of the same wall.
Pine, piñon, juniper, cottonwood, willow, and indeed all the available trees of the region are used in house construction. The main beams for the roof are usually of pine or cottonwood, from which the bark has been stripped. The roof is always made nearly level, and the ends of the beams are placed across the side walls at intervals of about 2 feet. Above these are laid smaller poles parallel with the side walls, and not more than a foot apart. Across these again are laid reeds or small willows, as close together as they can be placed, and above this series is crossed a layer of grass or small twigs and weeds. Over this framework a layer of mud is spread, which, after drying, is covered with earth and firmly trodden down. The making of the roof is the work of the women. When it is finished the women proceed to spread a thick coating of mud for a floor. After this follows the application of plaster to the walls. Formerly a custom prevailed of leaving a small space on the wall unplastered, a belief then existing that a certain Katchina came and finished it, and although the space remained bare it was considered to be covered with an invisible plaster.
The house being thus far completed, the builder prepares four feathers similar to those prepared by the chief, and ties them to a short piece of willow, the end of which is inserted over one of the central roof beams. These feathers are renewed every year at the feast of Soyalyina, celebrated in December, when the sun begins to return north ward. The builder also makes an offering to Másauwu (called “feeding the house”) by placing fragments of food among the rafters, beseeching him not to hasten the departure of any of the family to the under world.
A hole is left in one corner of the roof, and under this the woman builds a fireplace and chimney. The former is usually but a small cavity about a foot square in the corner of the floor. Over this a chimney hood is constructed, its lower rim being about 3 feet above the floor.
As a rule the house has no eaves, the roof being finished with a stone coping laid flush with the wall and standing a few inches higher than the roof to preserve the earth covering from being blown or washed away. Roof-drains of various materials are also commonly inserted in the copings, as will be described later.
All the natives, as far as could be ascertained, regard this single-roomed house as being complete in itself, but they also consider it the nucleus of the larger structure. When more space is desired, as when the daughters of the house marry and require room for themselves, another house is built in front of and adjoining the first one, and a second story is often added to the original house. The same ceremony is observed in building the ground story in front, but there is no ceremony for the second and additional stories.
Anawita (war-chief of Sichumovi) describes the house in Walpi in which he was born as having had five rooms on the ground floor, and as being four stories high, but it was terraced both in front and rear, his sisters and their families occupying the rear portion. The fourth story consisted of a single room and had terraces on two opposite sides. This old house is now very dilapidated, and the greater portion of the walls have been carried away. There is no prescribed position for communicating doorways, but the outer doors are usually placed in the lee walls to avoid the prevailing southwest winds.