201-208. The builders of the first mesa
seem also to have imitated their eastern brethren in the free use of the
adobe coating over their masonry, while at the villages of the middle
mesa, and particularly at Oraibi, the practice has been comparatively
rare, imparting an appearance of ruggedness and antiquity to the
architecture.
The stonework of this village, perhaps approaches the ancient types more
closely than that of the others, some of the walls being noticeable for
the frequent use of long bond stones. The execution of the masonry at
the corners of some of the houses enforces this resemblance and
indicates a knowledge of the principles of good construction in the
proper alternation of the long stones. A comparison with the Kin-tiel
masonry (Pl. LXXXIX) will show this resemblance. As a rule in pueblo
masonry an upper house wall was supported along its whole length by a
wall of a lower story, but occasional exceptions occur in both ancient
and modern work, where the builders have dared to trust the weight of
upper walls to wooden beams or girders, supported along part of their
length by buttresses from the walls at their ends or by large, clumsy
pieces of masonry, as was seen in the house of Sichumovi. In an upper
story of Walpi also, partitions occur that are not built immediately
over the lower walls, but on large beams supported on masonry piers.
In the much higher terraces of Zu?i, the strength of many of the inner
ground walls must be seriously taxed to withstand the superincumbent
weight, as such walls are doubtless of only the average thickness and
strength of ground walls.
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