Pieces are occasionally met
with about 18 inches long and 8 or 10 inches wide, but usually they are
much smaller and very irregular in outline. For windows pieces are
selected that approximately fit against each other, and thin, flat
strips of wood are fixed in a vertical position in the openings to serve
as supports for the irregular fragments of selenite, which could not be
retained in place without some such provision. The use of window
openings at the bases of walls probably suggested this use of vertical
sticks as a support to slabs of selenite, as in this position they would
be particularly useful, the windows being generally arranged on a slope,
as shown in Fig. 89. Similar glazing is also employed in the related,
obliquely pierced openings of Zu?i, to be described later.
[Illustration: Fig. 89. Sloping selenite window at base of Zu?i wall
on upper terrace.]
Selenite, in all probability, was not used in pre-Spanish times. No
examples have as yet been met with among ruins in the region where this
material is found and now used. Throughout the south and east portion of
the ancient pueblo region, explored by Mr. A. F. Bandelier, where many
of the remains were in a very good state of preservation, no cases of
the use of this substance were seen. Fig. 90 illustrates a typical
selenite window.
[Illustration: Fig. 90. A Zu?i window glazed with selenite.]
In Zu?i some of the kivas are provided with small external windows
framed with slabs of stone.
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