These doors also
illustrate the customary manner of barring the door during the absence
of the occupant of the house.
The doorway is usually framed at the time the house is built. The sill
is generally elevated above the ground outside and the floor inside, and
the door openings, with a few exceptions, are thus practically only
large windows. In this respect they follow the arrangement
characteristic of the ancient pueblos, in which all the larger openings
are window-like doorways. These are sometimes seen on the court margin
of house rows, and frequently occur between communicating rooms within
the cluster. They are usually raised about a foot and a half above the
floor, and in some cases are provided with one or two steps. In Zu?i,
doorways between communicating rooms, though now framed in wood,
preserve the same arrangement, as may be seen in Pl. LXXXVI.
[Illustration: Fig. 78. Framing of a Zu?i door-panel.]
The side pieces of a paneled pueblo door are mortised, an achievement
far beyond the aboriginal art of these people. Fig. 78 illustrates the
manner in which the framing is done. All the necessary grooving, and the
preparation of the projecting tenons is laboriously executed with the
most primitive tools, in many cases the whole frame, with all its
joints, being cut out with a small knife.
[Illustration: Plate XCI. A group of stone corrals near Oraibi.]
Doors are usually fastened by a simple wooden latch, the bar of which
turns upon a wooden pin.
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