s. The workers
in stone could not wish for material more suitably fashioned for the
purpose than these specimens. Two of these curious stone channels are
illustrated in Fig. 42. Two more examples of Tusayan roof drains are
illustrated in Fig. 43. The first of the latter shows the use of a
discarded metate, or mealing stone, and the second of a gourd that has
been walled into the coping.

[Illustration: Fig. 41. Wooden roof drains.]

[Illustration: Fig. 42. Curved roof drains of stone in Tusayan.]

[Illustration: Plate LXXIV. General view of Ojo Caliente.]

It is said that tubes of clay were used at Awatubi in olden times for
roof drains, but there remains no positive evidence of this. Three forms
of this device are attributed to the people of that village. Some are
said to have been made of wood, others of stone, and some again of
sun-dried clay. The native explanation of the use in this connection of
sun-dried clay, instead of the more durable baked product, was that the
application of fire to any object that water passes through would be
likely to dry up the rains. It was stated in this connection that at the
present day the cobs of the corn used for planting are not burned until
rain has fallen on the crop. If the clay spout described really existed
among the people at Awatubi, it was likely to have been an innovation
introduced by the Spanish missionaries. Among the potsherds picked up at
this ruin was a small piece of coarsely made clay tube, which seemed to
be too large and too roughly modeled to have been the handle of a ladle,
which it roughly resembled, or to have belonged to any other known form
of domestic pottery. As a roof drain its use would not accord with the
restrictions referred to in the native account, as the piece had been
burnt.

[Illustration: Fig. 43. Tusayan roof drains; a discarded metate and
a gourd.]

In some cases in Zuni where drains discharge from the roofs of upper
terraces directly upon those below, the lower roofs and also the
adjoining vertical walls are protected by thin tablets of stone, as
shown in Fig. 44. It will be seen that one of these is placed upon the
lower roof in such a position that the drainage falls directly upon it.
Where the adobe roof covering is left unprotected its destruction by the
rain is very rapid, as the showers of the rainy season in these regions,
though usually of short duration, are often extremely violent. The force
of the torrents is il