A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
So far as could be ascertained there is no prearranged plan for an
entire house of several stories, or for the arrangement of contiguous
houses. Most of the ruins examined emphasize this absence of a clearly
defined general plan governing the location of rooms added to the
original cluster. Two notable exceptions to this want of definite plan
occur among the ruins described. In Tusayan the Fire House (Fig. 7) is
evidently the result of a clearly defined purpose to give a definite
form to the entire cluster, just as, on a very much larger scale, does
the ruin of Kin-tiel, belonging to the Cibola group (Pl. LXIII). In both
these cases the fixing of the outer wall on a definite line seems to
have been regarded as of more importance than the specific locations of
individual rooms or dwellings within this outline. Throughout that part
of Tusayan which has been examined, however, the single room seems now
to be regarded as the pueblo unit, and is spoken of as a complete house.
It is the construction of such a house unit that is here to be
described.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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