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
Aside from the peculiar “guyave” or “piki” baking oven, there is but
little variation in the form of indoor fireplaces in Cibola, while in
Tusayan it appears to have been subjected to about the same mutations
already noted in the outdoor cooking pits. A serious problem was
encountered by the Tusayan builder when he was called upon to construct
cooking-pit fireplaces, a foot or more deep, in a loom of an upper
terrace. As it was impracticable to sink the pit into the floor, the
necessary depth was obtained by walling up the sides, as is shown in
Fig. 68, which illustrates a second-story fireplace in Mashongnavi.
Other examples may be seen in the outdoor chimneys shown in Figs. 72 and
73.
[Illustration: Fig. 67. A fireplace and mantel in Sichumovi.]
[Illustration: Fig. 68. A second-story fireplace in Mashongnavi.]
[Illustration: Plate LXXXV. A Tusayan interior.]
A modification of the interior fireplace designed for cooking the thin,
paper-like bread, known to the Spanish-speaking peoples of this region
as “guyave,” and by the Tusayan as “piki,” is common to both Cibola and
Tusayan, though in the former province the contrivance is more carefully
constructed than in the latter, and the surface of the baking stone
itself is more highly finished. In the guyave oven a tablet of carefully
prepared sandstone is supported in a horizontal position by two slabs
set on edge and firmly imbedded in the floor. A horizontal flue is thus
formed in which the fire is built. The upper stone, whose surface is to
receive the thin guyave batter, undergoes during its original
preparation a certain treatment with fire and piñon gum, and perhaps
other ingredients, which imparts to it a highly polished black finish.
This operation is usually performed away from the pueblo, near a point
where suitable stone is found, and is accompanied by a ceremonial, which
is intended to prevent the stone from breaking on exposure to the fire
when first used. During one stage of these rites the strictest silence
is enjoined, as, according to the native account, a single word spoken
at such a time would crack the tablet.
[Illustration: Fig. 69. Piki stone and chimney hood in Sichumovi.]
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