[Native explanations of position.]—Notwithstanding the present practice in the location of kivas, illustrated in the plans, the ideal village plan is still acknowledged to have had its house-clusters so distributed as to form inclosed and protected courts, the kivas being located within these courts or occupying marginal positions in the house-clusters on the edge of the inclosed areas. But the native explanations of the traditional plan are vague and contradictory.

In the floor of the typical kiva is a sacred cavity called the sipapuh, through which comes the beneficent influence of the deities or powers invoked. According to the accounts of some of the old men the kiva was constructed to inclose this sacred object, and houses were built on every side to surround the kiva and form its outer wall. In earlier times, too, so the priests relate, people were more devout, and the houses were planned with their terraces fronting upon the court, so that the women and children and all the people, could be close to the masked dancers (katchinas) as they issued from the kiva. The spectators filled the terraces, and sitting there they watched the katchinas dance in the court, and the women sprinkled meal upon them, while they listened to their songs. Other old men say the kiva was excavated in imitation of the original house in the interior of the earth, where the human family were created, and from which they climbed to the surface of the ground by means of a ladder, and through just such an opening as the hatchway of the kiva. Another explanation commonly offered is that they are made underground because they are thus cooler in summer, and more easily warmed in winter.

All these factors may have had some influence in the design, but we have already seen that excavation to the extent here practiced is wholly exceptional in pueblo building and the unusual development of this requirement of kiva construction has been due to purely local causes. In the habitual practice of such an ancient and traditional device, the Indians have lost all record of the real causes of the perpetuation of this requirement. At Zuñi, too, a curious explanation is offered for the partial depression of the kiva floor below the general surrounding level. Here it is naively explained that the floor is excavated in order to attain a liberal height for the ceiling within the kiva, this being a room of great importance. Apparently it does not occur to the Zuñi architect that the result could be achieved in a more direct and much less laborious manner by making the walls a foot or so higher at the time of building the kiva, after the manner in which the same problem is solved when it is encountered in their ordinary dwelling house construction. Such explanations, of course, originated long after the practice became established.

[ METHODS OF KIVA BUILDING AND RITES.]

The external appearance of the kivas of Tusayan has been described and illustrated; it now remains to examine the general form and method of construction of these subterranean rooms, and to notice the attendant rites and ceremonies.

[Typical plans.]—All the Tusayan kivas are in the form of a parallelogram, usually about 25 feet long and half as wide, the ceiling, which is from 5½ to 8 feet high, being slightly higher in the middle than at either end. There is no prescribed rule for kiva dimensions, and seemingly the size of the chamber is determined according to the number who are to use it, and who assume the labor of its construction. A list of typical measurements obtained by Mr. Stephen is appended ([p. 136]).

An excavation of the desired dimensions having been made, or an existing one having been discovered, the person who is to be chief of the kiva performs the same ceremony as that prescribed for the male head of a family when the building of a dwelling house is undertaken. He takes a handful of meal, mixed with piki crumbs, and a little of the crumbled herb they use as tobacco, and these he sprinkles upon the ground, beginning on the west side, passing southward, and so around, the sprinkled line he describes marking the position to be occupied by the walls. As he thus marks the compass of the kiva, he sings in a droning tone “Si-ai, a-hai, a-hai, si-ai, a-hai”—no other words but these. The meaning of these words seems to be unknown, but all the priests agree in saying that the archaic chant is addressed to the sun, and it is called Kitdauwi—the House Song. The chief then selects four good-sized stones of hard texture for corner stones, and at each corner he lays a baho, previously prepared, sprinkles it with the mixture with which he has described the line of the walls, and then lays the corner stone upon it. As he does this, he expresses his hope that the walls “will take good root hold,” and stand firm and secure.

The men have already quarried or collected a sufficient quantity of stone, and a wall is built in tolerably regular courses along each side of the excavation. The stones used are roughly dressed by fracture; they are irregular in shape, and of a size convenient for one man to handle. They are laid with only a very little mud mortar, and carried up, if the ground be level, to within 18 inches of the surface. If the kiva is built on the edge of the cliff, as at Walpi, the outside wall connects the sides of the gap, conforming to the line of the cliff. If the surface is sloping, the level of the roof is obtained by building up one side of the kiva above the ground to the requisite height as illustrated in [Fig. 21]. One end of the “Goat” kiva at Walpi is 5 feet above ground, the other end being level with the sloping surface. When the ledge on the precipitous face of the mesa is uneven it is filled in with rough masonry to obtain a level for the floor, and thus the outside wall of some of the Walpi kivas is more than 12 feet high, although in the interior the measurement from floor to ceiling is much less.

Both cottonwood and pine are used for the roof timbers; they are roughly dressed, and some of them show that an attempt has been made to hew them with four sides, but none are square. In the roof of the “Goat” kiva, at Walpi, are four well hewn pine timbers, measuring exactly 6 by 10 inches, which are said to have been taken from the mission house built near Walpi by the Spanish priests some three centuries ago. The ceiling plan of the mungkiva of Shupaulovi ([Fig. 23]) shows that four of these old Spanish squared beams have been utilized in its construction. One of these is covered with a rude decoration of gouged grooves and bored holes, forming a curious line-and-dot ornament. The other kiva of this village contains a single undecorated square Spanish roof beam. This beam contrasts very noticeably with the rude round poles of the native work, one of which, in the case of the kiva last mentioned, is a forked trunk of a small tree. Some of the Indians say that the timbers were brought by them from the Shumopavi spring, where the early Spanish priests had established a mission. According to these accounts, the home mission was established at Walpi, with another chapel at Shumopavi, and a third and important one at Awatubi.

One man, Sikapiki by name, stated that the squared and carved beams were brought from the San Francisco Mountains, more than a hundred miles away, under the direction of the priests, and that they were carved and finished prior to transportation. They were intended for the chapel and cloister, but the latter building was never finished. The roof timbers were finally distributed among the people of Shumopavi and Shupaulovi. At Shumopavi one of the kivas, known, as the Nuvwatikyuobi (The-high-place-of-snow—San Francisco Mountains) kiva, was built only 8 years ago. The main roof timbers are seven in number. Four of them are hewn with flat sides, 8 by 12 inches to 9 by 13 inches; the other three are round, the under sides slightly hewn, and they are 12 inches in diameter. These timbers were brought from the San Francisco Mountains while the Spaniards were here. The Shumopavi account states that the people were compelled to drag most of the timbers with ropes, although oxen were also used in some cases, and that the Spaniards used them to roof their mission buildings. After the destruction of the mission these timbers were used in the construction of a dwelling house, which, falling into ruin, was abandoned and pulled down. Subsequently they were utilized as described above. In the Teosobi, Jay, the main timbers were taken out of it many years ago and used in another kiva. The timbers now in the roof are quite small and are laid in pairs, but they are old and much decayed. In the Gyarzobi, Paroquet, are six squared timbers from the Spanish mission buildings, measuring 9 by 13 inches, 8 by 12 inches, etc. These have the same curious grooved and dotted ornamentation that occurs on the square beam of Shupaulovi, above described. At the other end of the kiva are also two unusually perfect round timbers that may have come from the mission ruin. All of these show marks of fire, and are in places deeply charred.