Fig. 100. Typical sections
of Zuñi oblique openings.

In addition to roof openings of the type described, the dense clustering of the Zuñi houses has led to the invention of a curious device for lighting inner rooms not reached by ordinary external openings. This consists of an opening, usually of oval or subrectangular form in elevation, placed at the junction of the roof with a vertical wall. This opening is carried down obliquely between the roofing beams, as shown in the sections, [Fig. 100], so that the light is admitted within the room just at the junction of the ceiling and the inner face of the wall. With the meager facilities and rude methods of the Zuñi, this peculiar arrangement often involved weak construction, and the openings, placed so low in the wall, were in danger of admitting water from the roof. The difficulty of obtaining the desired light by this device was much lessened where the outer roof was somewhat lower than the ceiling within.

These oblique openings occur not only in the larger clusters of houses Nos. 1 and 4, but also in the more openly planned portions of the village, though they do not occur either at Acoma or in the Tusayan villages. They afford an interesting example of the transfer and continuance in use of a constructional device developed in one place by unusual conditions to a new field in which it was uncalled for, being less efficient and more difficult of introduction than the devices in ordinary use.

[ FURNITURE.]

The pueblo Indian has little household furniture, in the sense in which the term is commonly employed; but his home contains certain features which are more or less closely embodied in the house construction and which answers the purpose. The suspended pole that serves as a clothes rack for ordinary wearing apparel, extra blankets, robes, etc., has already been described in treating of interiors. Religious costumes and ceremonial paraphernalia are more carefully provided for, and are stored away in some hidden corner of the dark storerooms.

The small wall niches, which are formed by closing a window with a thin filling-in wall, and which answer the purpose of cupboards or receptacles

for many of the smaller household articles, have also been described and illustrated in connection with the Zuñi interior ([Pl. LXXXVI]).

In many houses, both in Tusayan and in Cibola, shelves are constructed for the more convenient storage of food, etc. These are often constructed in a very primitive manner, particularly in the former province. An unusually frail example may be seen in [Fig. 67], in connection with a fireplace. [Fig. 101], showing a series of mealing stones in a Tusayan house, also illustrates a rude shelf in the corner of the room, supported at one end by an upright stone slab and at the other by a projecting wooden peg. Shelves made of sawed boards are occasionally seen, but as a rule such boards are considered too valuable to be used in this manner. A more common arrangement, particularly in Tusayan, is a combination of three or four slender poles placed side by side, 2 or 3 inches apart, forming a rude shelf, upon which trays of food are kept.