It is difficult to trace the origin of this device among the pueblos. It closely resembles the pivot hinges sometimes used in mediæval Europe in connection with massive gates for closing masonry passages; in such cases the prolonged pivots worked in cavities of stone sills and lintels. The Indians claim to have employed it in very early times, but no evidence on this point has been found. It is quite possible that the idea was borrowed from some of the earlier Mormon settlers who came into the country, as these people use a number of primitive devices which are undoubtedly survivals of methods of construction once common in the countries from which they came. Vestiges of the use of a pivotal hinge, constructed on a much more massive scale than any of the pueblo examples, were seen at an old fortress-like, stone storehouse of the Mormons, built near the site of Moen-kopi by the first Mormon settlers. [Illustration: Plate XC. Adobe garden walls near Zuñi.] The paneled door now in use among the pueblos is rudely made, and consists of a frame inclosing a single panel. This panel, when of large size, is occasionally made of two or more pieces. These doors vary greatly in size. A few reach the height of 5 feet, but the usual height is from 3½ to 4 feet. As doors are commonly elevated a foot or more above the ground or floor, the use of such openings does not entail the full degree of discomfort that the small size suggests. Doors of larger size, with sills raised but an inch or two above the floor or ground, have recently been introduced in some of the ground stories in Zuñi; but these are very recent, and the idea has been adopted only by the most progressive people. [Illustration: Fig. 77. Paneled wooden doors in Hano.] Pl. XLI shows a small paneled door, not more than a foot square, used as a blind to close a back window of a dwelling. The smallest examples of paneled doors are those employed for closing the small, square openings in the back walls of house rows, which still retain the defensive arrangement so marked in many of the ancient pueblos. In some instances doors occur in the second stories of unterraced walls, their sills being 5 or 6 feet above the ground. In such cases the doors are reached by ladders whose upper ends rest upon the sills. Elevated openings of this kind are closed in the usual manner with a rude, single-paneled door, which is often whitened with a coating of clayey gypsum.