ing the mortar
very sparingly.

The house is always built in the form of a parallelogram, the walls
being from 7 to 8 feet high, and of irregular thickness, sometimes
varying from 15 to 22 inches in different parts of the same wall.

Pine, pinon, juniper, cottonwood, willow, and indeed all the available
trees of the region are used in house construction. The main beams for
the roof are usually of pine or cottonwood, from which the bark has been
stripped. The roof is always made nearly level, and the ends of the
beams are placed across the side walls at intervals of about 2 feet.
Above these are laid smaller poles parallel with the side walls, and not
more than a foot apart. Across these again are laid reeds or small
willows, as close together as they can be placed, and above this series
is crossed a layer of grass or small twigs and weeds. Over this
framework a layer of mud is spread, which, after drying, is covered with
earth and firmly trodden down. The making of the roof is the work of the
women. When it is finished the women proceed to spread a thick coating
of mud for a floor. After this follows the application of plaster to the
walls. Formerly a custom prevailed of leaving a small space on the wall
unplastered, a belief then existing that a certain Katchina came and
finished it, and although the space remained bare it was considered to
be covered with an invisible plaster.

The house being thus far completed, the builder prepares four feathers
similar to those prepared by the chief, and ties them to a short piece
of willow, the end of which is inserted over one of the central roof
beams. These feathers are renewed every year at the feast of Soyalyina,
celebrated in December, when the sun begins to return north ward. The
builder also makes an offering to Masauwu (called "feeding the house")
by placing fragments of food among the rafters, beseeching him not to
hasten the departure of any of the family to the under world.

A hole is left in one corner of the roof, and under this the woman
builds a fireplace and chimney. The former is usually but a small cavity
about a foot square in the corner of the floor. Over this a chimney hood
is constructed, its lower rim being about 3 feet above the floor.

As a rule the house has no eaves, the roof being finished with a stone
coping laid flush with the wall and standing a few inches higher than
the roof to preserve the earth covering from being blown or washed away.
Roof