Indian men labored with stone axes to fell the trunks of pines which they used in building roofs to their houses. They gouged holes out of the soft cliff to insert the ends of roof beams and sealed them in tightly with mud mortar. Across these vigas they laid small poles. Many miles were covered to obtain long slender canes and cat-tail stems from the muddy low banks of the Rio Grande for the next roof layer. Then pine needles and brush supplied the next coat. Something leafy had to hold the thick mud coats which were smoothed flat over the top. Sometimes Indian houses had doors in the front walls and sometimes they did not. It all depended upon the wish of the individual builder. Most of the houses had two-pole ladders of pine. Rungs were lashed down tight with willows, pliable reeds or even strings of rawhide or rope made from the yucca fiber. By means of ladders the Indian could climb to his roof-top and go down through a small hatchway or opening. This gave added protection against hostile groups. In any one of many cavate or house rooms was a fireplace. In the ceiling above was an opening for the escape of the smoke. Cliff dwellings were smoky places regardless of the type or style. Time developed the terraced community apartment house for the prehistoric Pueblo Indian in the cliff as well as in the open flats on the floor of the Canyon. Second stories, it seems, came quite late in the evolution of house types at Frijoles. Narrow mud walls of such poor quality as were built in earlier times at Tyuonyi would never have held two stories but the new walls of fashioned rock would hold them because they were more stable. It stands to reason that when stone and mortar were laid into a wall, the process of drying out transformed the wall into a unit. This process reminds me of an expression I remember from my freshman days in college, that: “Pre-Cambrian rocks are homogeneous in their heterogeneity,” and it is certainly true that stone walls built by our prehistoric friends of the sixteenth century could enjoy the same comment. Floors to these houses were plastered with fine adobe mortar. The rough surfaces of walls were plastered over too, from floor to roof timbers. And the cliff dweller was lucky if no water got inside his house. The secret was to keep them dry. It might not have been an uncommon sight to have witnessed the mudding of roofs by Indian women of sixteenth century Tyuonyi. After a good rain they could have taken advantage of water caught in pottery vessels which had been set outside the houses. This would have saved the women many a weary step to water and return. [Illustration: Roofing a house]