Before the invention of a chimney hood, and while the primitive
fireplace occupied a central position in the floor of the room, the
smoke probably escaped through the door and window openings. Later a
hole in the roof provided an exit, as in the kivas of to-day, where
ceremonial use has perpetuated an arrangement long since superseded in
dwelling-house construction. The comfort of a dwelling room provided
with this feature is sufficiently attested by the popularity of the
modern kivas as a resort for the men. The idea of a rude hood or flue to
facilitate the egress of the smoke would not be suggested until the
fireplace was transferred from the center of a room to a corner, and in
the first adoption of this device the builders would rely upon the
adjacent walls for the needed support of the constructional members.
Practically all of the chimneys of Tusayan are placed in corners at the
present time, though the Zu?i builders have developed sufficient skill
to construct a rigid hood and flue in the center of a side wall, as may
be seen in the view of a Zu?i interior, Pl. LXXXVI.
Although the pueblo chimney owes its existence to foreign suggestion it
has evidently reached its present form through a series of timid
experiments, and the proper principles of its construction seem to have
been but feebly apprehended by the native builders, particularly in
Tusayan. The early form of hood, shown in Fig. 66, was made by placing a
short supporting pole across the corner of a room at a sufficient
distance from the floor and upon it arranging sticks to form the frame
work of a contracting hood or flue.
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