d and
acknowledged by the artisan; on the contrary, experiments, resulting in
improvement, are largely prompted by practical requirements.
Particularly is this the case in the art of house-building.

SHUMOPAVI.

This village, although not so isolated as Oraibi, has no near neighbors
and is little visited by whites or Indians. The inhabitants are rarely
seen at the trading post to which the others resort, and they seem to be
pretty well off and independent as compared with their neighbors of the
other villages (Pl. XXXIV). The houses and courts are in keeping with
the general character of the people and exhibit a degree of neatness and
thrift that contrasts sharply with the tumble-down appearance of some of
the other villages, especially those of the Middle Mesa and Oraibi.
There is a general air of newness about the place, though it is
questionable whether the architecture is more recent than that of the
other villages of Tusayan. This effect is partly due to the custom of
frequently renewing the coating of mud plaster. In most of the villages
little care is taken to repair the houses until the owner feels that to
postpone such action longer would endanger its stability. Many of the
illustrations in this chapter indicate the proportion of rough masonry
usually exposed in the walls. At Shumopavi (Pl. XXXV), however, most of
the walls are smoothly plastered. In this respect they resemble Zuni and
the eastern pueblos, where but little naked masonry can be seen. Another
feature that adds to the effect of neatness and finish in this village
is the frequent use of a whitewash of gypsum on the outer face of the
walls. This wash is used partly as an ornament and partly as protection
against the rain. The material, called by the Mexicans "yeso," is very
commonly used in the interior of their houses throughout this region,
both by Mexicans and Indians. More rarely it is used among the pueblos
as an external wash. Here, however, its external use forms quite a
distinctive feature of the village. The same custom in several of the
cliff houses of Canyon de Chelly attests the comparative antiquity of
the practice, though not necessarily its pre-Columbian origin.

Shumopavi, compared with the other villages, shows less evidence of
having been built on the open court idea, as the partial inclosures
assume such elongated forms in the direction of the long, straight rows
of the rooms; yet examination shows that the idea was present to a