It is said that tubes of clay were used at Awatubi in olden times for roof drains, but there remains no positive evidence of this. Three forms of this device are attributed to the people of that village. Some are said to have been made of wood, others of stone, and some again of sun-dried clay. The native explanation of the use in this connection of sun-dried clay, instead of the more durable baked product, was that the application of fire to any object that water passes through would be likely to dry up the rains. It was stated in this connection that at the present day the cobs of the corn used for planting are not burned until rain has fallen on the crop. If the clay spout described really existed among the people at Awatubi, it was likely to have been an innovation introduced by the Spanish missionaries. Among the potsherds picked up at this ruin was a small piece of coarsely made clay tube, which seemed to be too large and too roughly modeled to have been the handle of a ladle, which it roughly resembled, or to have belonged to any other known form of domestic pottery. As a roof drain its use would not accord with the restrictions referred to in the native account, as the piece had been burnt. [Illustration: Fig. 43. Tusayan roof drains; a discarded metate and a gourd.] In some cases in Zuñi where drains discharge from the roofs of upper terraces directly upon those below, the lower roofs and also the adjoining vertical walls are protected by thin tablets of stone, as shown in Fig. 44. It will be seen that one of these is placed upon the lower roof in such a position that the drainage falls directly upon it. Where the adobe roof covering is left unprotected its destruction by the rain is very rapid, as the showers of the rainy season in these regions, though usually of short duration, are often extremely violent. The force of the torrents is illustrated in the neighboring country. Here small ruts in the surface of the ground are rapidly converted into large arroyos. Frequently ordinary wagon tracks along a bit of valley slope serve as an initial channel to the rapidly accumulating waters and are eaten away in a few weeks so that the road becomes wholly impassable, and must be abandoned for a new one alongside. [Illustration: Fig. 44. Zuñi roof drain, with splash stones on roof below.]