They are opened from without by lifting the
latch from its wooden catch, by means of a string passed through a small
hole in the door, and hanging outside. Some few doors are, however,
provided with a cumbersome wooden lock, operated by means of a square,
notched stick that serves as a key. These locks are usually fastened to
the inner side of the door by thongs of buckskin or rawhide, passed
through small holes bored or drilled through the edge of the lock, and
through the stile and panel of the door at corresponding points. The
entire mechanism consists of wood and strings joined together in the
rudest manner. Primitive as this device is, however, its conception is
far in advance of the aboriginal culture of the pueblos, and both it and
the string latch must have come from without. The lock was probably a
contrivance of the early Mormons, as it is evidently roughly modeled
after a metallic lock.
Many doors having no permanent means of closure are still in use. These
are very common in Tusayan, and occur also in Cibola, particularly in
the farming pueblos. The open front of the "tupubi" or balcony-like
recess, seen so frequently at the ends of first-terrace roofs in
Tusayan, is often constructed with a transom-like arrangement in
connection with the girder supporting the edge of the roof, in the same
manner in which doorways proper are treated. Pl. XXXII illustrates a
balcony in which one bounding side is formed by a flight of stone steps,
producing a notched or terraced effect.
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