able that the pueblo builders did not to a greater extent utilize
their skill in working stone in the preparation of some of the irregular
rocky sites that they have at times occupied for the more convenient
reception of their wall foundations; but in nearly all such cases the
buildings have been modified to suit the ground. An example of this
practice is illustrated in Pl. XXIII, from the west side of Walpi. In
some of the ancient examples the labor required to so prepare the sites
would not have exceeded that expended on the massive masonry composed of
numberless small stones. Many of the older works testify to the
remarkable patience and industry of the builders in amassing and
carefully adjusting vast quantities of building materials, and the
modern Indians of Tusayan and Cibola have inherited much of this ancient
spirit; yet this industry was rarely diverted to the excavation of room
or village sites, except in the case of the kivas, in which special
motives led to the practice. In some of the Chaco pueblos, as now seen,
the floors of outer marginal rooms seem to be depressed below the
general level of the surrounding soil; but it is now difficult to
determine whether such was the original arrangement, as much sand and
soil have drifted against the outer walls, raising the surface. In none
of the pueblos within the limits of the provinces under discussion has
there been found any evidence of the existence of underground cellars;
the rooms that answer such purpose are built on the level of the ground.
At Tusayan the ancient practice of using the ground-floor rooms for
storage still prevails. In these are kept the dried fruit, vegetables,
and meats that constitute the principal winter food of the Tusayan.
Throughout Tusayan the walls of the first terrace rooms are not finished
with as much care as those above that face the open courts. A quite
smoothly finished coat of adobe is often seen in the upper stories, but
is much more rarely applied to the rough masonry of the ground-floor
rooms. At Zuni no such difference of treatment is to be seen, a result
of the recent departure from their original defensive use. At the
present day most of the rooms that are built on the ground have external
doors, often of large size, and are regarded by the Zuni as preferable
to the upper terraces as homes. This indicates that the idea of
convenience has already largely overcome the traditional defensive
requirements of pueblo arrangemen