Fig. 98. Kiva trapdoor in Zuñi.

As may readily be seen from the illustration, [Fig. 98], this framing, by the addition of a cross piece, divides the opening unequally. The smaller aperture is situated immediately above the fireplace (which conforms to the ancient type without chimney and located in the open floor of the room) and is very evidently designed to furnish an outlet to the smoke. In a chamber having no side doors or windows, or at most

very small square windows, and consequently no drafts, the column of smoke and flame can often on still nights be seen rising vertically from the roof. The other portion of the opening containing the ladder is used for ingress and egress. This singular combination strongly suggests that at no very remote period one opening was used to answer both purposes, as it still does in the Tusayan kivas. It also suggests the direction in which differentiation of functions began to take place, which in the kiva was delayed and held back by the conservative religious feeling, when in the civil architecture it may have been the initial point of a development that culminated in the chimney, a development that was assisted in its later steps by suggestions from foreign sources. In the more primitively constructed examples the cross pieces seem to be simply laid on without any cutting in. The central piece is held in place by a peg set into each side piece, the weight and thrust of the ladder helping to hold it. The primitive arrangement here seen has been somewhat improved upon in some other cases, but it was not ascertained whether these were of later date or not.

In the best made frames for kiva entrances the timbers are “halved” in the manner of our carpenters, the joint being additionally secured by a pin as shown in [Fig. 99].

Fig. 99. Halved and pinned
trapdoor frame
of a Zuñi kiva.

The use of a frame of wood in these trapdoors dates back to a comparatively high antiquity, and is not at all a modern innovation, as one would at first be inclined to believe. Their use in so highly developed a form in the ceremonial chamber is an argument in favor of antiquity. Only two examples were discovered by Mr. L. H. Morgan in a ruined pueblo on the Animas. “One of these measured 16 by 17 inches and the other was 16 inches square. Each was formed in the floor by pieces of wood put together. The work was neatly done.”[8]

Unfortunately, Mr. Morgan does not describe in detail the manner in which the joining was effected, or whether the pieces were halved or cut to fit. It seems hardly likely, considering the rude facilities possessed by the ancients, that the enormous labor of reducing large pieces of wood to such interfitting shapes would have been undertaken. A certain neatness of finish would undoubtedly be attained by arranging the principal roof beams and the small poles that cross them at right angles, in the usual careful manner of the ancient builders. The kiva roof opening, with the hole serving for access and smoke exit, is paralleled

in the excavated lodges of the San Francisco Mountains, where a single opening served this double purpose. A slight recess or excavation in the side of the entrance shaft evidently served for the exit of smoke.

At the village of Acoma the kiva trapdoors differ somewhat from the Zuñi form. The survey of this village was somewhat hasty, and no opportunity was afforded of ascertaining from the Indians the special purpose of the mode of construction adopted. The roof hole is divided, as in Zuñi, but the portion against which the ladder leans, instead of being made into a smoke vent, is provided with a small roof. These roof holes to the ceremonial chamber are entered directly from the open air, while in the dwelling rooms it seems customary (much more customary than at Zuñi) to enter the lower stories through trapdoors within upper rooms. In many instances second-story rooms have no exterior rooms but are entered from rooms above, contrary to the usual arrangement in both Tusayan and Cibola. All six of the kivas in this village are provided with this peculiarly constructed opening.

In Zuñi close crowding of the cells has led to an exceptionally frequent use of roof-lights and trapdoors. The ingenuity of the builders was greatly taxed to admit sufficient light to the inner rooms. The roof hole, which was originally used only to furnish the means of access and light for the first terrace, as is still the case in Tusayan, is here used in all stories indiscriminately, and principally for light and air. In large clusters there are necessarily many dark rooms, which has led to the employment of great numbers of roof holes, more or less directly modeled after the ordinary trapdoor. Their occurrence is particularly frequent in the larger clusters of the village, as in house No. 1. The exceptional size of this pile, and of the adjoining house No. 4, with the consequent large proportion of dark rooms, have taxed the ingenuity of the Zuñi to the utmost, and as a result we see roof openings here assuming a degree of importance not found elsewhere.