This friable material must be protected at all
vulnerable points with slabs of stone in order quickly to divert the
water and preserve the roofs and walls from destruction.
LADDERS AND STEPS.
In the inclosed court of the old fortress pueblos the first terrace was
reached only by means of ladders, but the terraces or rooms above this
were reached both by ladders and steps. The removal of the lower tier of
ladders thus gave security against intrusion and attack. The builders of
Tusayan have preserved this primitive arrangement in much greater purity
than those of Cibola.
[Illustration: Plate LXXV. House at Ojo Caliente.]
In Zu?i numerous ladders are seen on every terrace, but the purpose of
these, on the highest terraces, is not to provide access to the rooms of
the upper story, which always have external doors opening on the
terraces, but to facilitate repairs of the roofs. At Tusayan, on the
other hand, ladders are of rare occurrence above the first terrace,
their place being supplied by flights of stone steps. The relative
scarcity of stone at Zu?i, suitable for building material, and its great
abundance at Tusayan, undoubtedly account for this difference of usage,
especially as the proximity of the timber supply of the Zu?i mountains
to the former facilitates the substitution of wood for steps of masonry.
[Illustration: Fig. 45. A modern notched ladder in Oraibi.]
[Illustration: Fig. 46. Tusayan notched ladders from Mashongnavi.
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