he exceptional mode of access to Tusayan kiva hatchways by means of
short nights of stone steps has already been noticed. In several
instances the top steps of these short flights cover the thickness of
the wall. The remains of a similar stairway were observed in Pueblo
Bonito, where it evidently reached directly from the ground to an
external doorway. Access by such means, however, is a departure from the
original defensive idea.

[Illustration: Plate LXXVIII. General inside view of Zuni, looking
west.]

Modern practice in Zuni has departed more widely from the primitive
system than at Tusayan. In the former pueblo short nights of stone steps
giving access to doors raised but a short distance above the ground are
very commonly seen. Even in the small farming pueblo of Pescado two
examples of this arrangement are met with. Pl. XCIX illustrates one of
these found on the north outside wall. In the general views of the
Tusayan villages the closer adherence to primitive methods is clearly
indicated, although the modern compare very unfavorably with the ancient
examples in precision of execution. Pl. XXXII illustrates two flights of
stone steps of Shupaulovi. In many cases the workmanship of these stone
steps does not surpass that seen in the Walpi trail, illustrated in Pl.
XXV.

[Illustration: Fig. 48. Stone steps at Oraibi, with platform at
corner.]

[Illustration: Fig. 49. Stone steps, with platform at chimney,
in Oraibi.]

Perhaps in no one detail of pueblo construction are the careless and
shiftless modern methods so conspicuous as in the stone steps of the
upper terraces of Tusayan. Here are seen many awkward makeshifts by
means of which the builders have tried to compensate for their lack of
foresight in planning. The absence of a definite plan for a house
cluster of many rooms, already noted in the discussion of dwelling-house
construction, is rendered conspicuous by the manner in which the stone
stairways are used. Figs. 48 and 49 illustrate stone steps on upper
terraces in Oraibi. In both cases the steps have been added long after
the rooms against which they abut were built. In order to conform to the
fixed requirement of placing such means of access at the corners of the
upper rooms, the builders constructed a clumsy platform to afford
passage around the previously built chimney. Fig. 50 shows the result of
a similar lack of foresight. The upper portion of the flight, consisting
of three steps,