In the example illustrated one end of
the series is bounded by a board, all the other walls and divisions
being made of the usual stone slabs. The metates themselves are not
usually more than 3 inches in thickness. They are so adjusted in their
setting of stones and mortar as to slope away from the operator at the
proper angle. This arrangement of the mealing stones is characteristic
of the more densely clustered communal houses of late date. In the more
primitive house the mealing stone was usually a single large piece of
cellular basalt, or similar rock, in which a broad, sloping depression
was carved, and which could be transported from place to place. Fig. 106
illustrates an example of this type from the vicinity of Globe, in
southern Arizona. The stationary mealing trough of the present day is
undoubtedly the successor of the earner moveable form, yet it was in use
among the pueblos at the time of the first Spanish expedition, as the
following extract from Casta?eda's account[9] of Cibola will show. He
says a special room is designed to grind the grain: "This last is apart,
and contains a furnace and three stones made fast in masonry. Three
women sit down before these stones; the first crushes the grain, the
second brays it, and the third reduces it entirely to powder." It will
be seen how exactly this description fits both the arrangement and the
use of this mill at the present time. The perfection of mechanical
devices and the refinement of methods here exhibited would seem to be in
advance of the achievement of this people in other directions.
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