In the preceding examples the passageway was covered throughout its length by rooms, but cases occur in both Tusayan and Cibola in which only portions of the roof form the floor of superstructures. [Pl. CIV] shows a passage roofed over beyond the two-story portion of the building for a sufficient distance to form a small terrace, upon which a ladder stands. [Pl. XXIII] illustrates a similar arrangement on the west side of Walpi. The outer edges of these terraces are covered with coping stones and treated in the same manner as outer walls of lower rooms. In Zuñi an example of this form of passage roof occurs between two of the eastern house rows, where the rooms have not been subjected to the close crowding characteristic of the western clusters of the pueblo.
Plate CIV. A covered passageway in Mashongnavi.
[ DOORS.]
In Zuñi many rooms of the ground story, which in early times must have been used largely for storage, have been converted into well-lighted, habitable apartments by the addition of external doors. In Tusayan this modification has not taken place to an equal extent, the distinctly defensive character of the first terrace reached by removable ladders being still preserved. In this province a doorway on the ground is always provided in building a house, but originally this space was not designed to be permanent; it was left merely for convenience of passing in and out during the construction, and was built up before the walls were completed. Of late years, however, such doorways are often preserved, and additional small openings are constructed for windows.
In ancient times the larger doorways of the upper terraces were probably never closed, except by means of blankets or rabbit-skin robes hung over them in cold weather. Examples have been seen that seem to have been constructed with this object in view, for a slight pole, of the same kind as those used in the lintels, is built into the masonry of the jambs a few inches below the lintel proper. Openings imperfectly closed against the cold and wind were naturally placed in the lee walls to avoid the prevailing southwest winds, and the ground plans of the exposed mesa villages were undoubtedly influenced by this circumstance,
the tendency being to change them from the early inclosed court type and to place the houses in longitudinal rows facing eastward. This is noticeable in the plans given in Chapter II.
Doorways closed with masonry are seen in many ruins. Possibly these are an indication of the temporary absence of the owner, as in the harvest season, or at the time of the destruction or abandonment of the village; but they may have been closed for the purpose of economizing warmth and fuel during the winter season. No provision was made for closing them with movable doors. The practice of fastening up the doors during the harvesting season prevails at the present time among the Zuñi, but the result is attained without great difficulty by means of rude cross bars, now that they have framed wooden doors. One of these is illustrated in [Fig. 75]. These doors are usually opened by a latch-string, which, when not hung outside, is reached by means of a small round hole through the wall at the side of the door. Through this hole the owner of the house, on leaving it, secures the door by props and braces on the inside of the room, the hole being sealed up and plastered in the same manner that other openings are treated.