of the masonry are neatly filled in
with smaller fragments, in the manner of some of the best work of the
Canyon de Chelly ruins.

The knoll farther south shows similar traces, and on the southeast slope
is the complete ground plan of a round structure 161/2 feet in diameter.
At one point of the curved wall, which is about 22 inches thick, occurs
the characteristic recessed katchinkihu (described later in discussing
the interior of kivas) indicating the use of this chamber for ceremonial
purposes.

Although these remains probably antedate any of the Tusayan ruins
discussed above (Chapter II), they suggest a connection and relationship
between the typical kiva of the older ruins and the radically different
form in use at the present time.

_Native explanations of position._--Notwithstanding the present practice
in the location of kivas, illustrated in the plans, the ideal village
plan is still acknowledged to have had its house-clusters so distributed
as to form inclosed and protected courts, the kivas being located within
these courts or occupying marginal positions in the house-clusters on
the edge of the inclosed areas. But the native explanations of the
traditional plan are vague and contradictory.

In the floor of the typical kiva is a sacred cavity called the sipapuh,
through which comes the beneficent influence of the deities or powers
invoked. According to the accounts of some of the old men the kiva was
constructed to inclose this sacred object, and houses were built on
every side to surround the kiva and form its outer wall. In earlier
times, too, so the priests relate, people were more devout, and the
houses were planned with their terraces fronting upon the court, so that
the women and children and all the people, could be close to the masked
dancers (katchinas) as they issued from the kiva. The spectators filled
the terraces, and sitting there they watched the katchinas dance in the
court, and the women sprinkled meal upon them, while they listened to
their songs. Other old men say the kiva was excavated in imitation of
the original house in the interior of the earth, where the human family
were created, and from which they climbed to the surface of the ground
by means of a ladder, and through just such an opening as the hatchway
of the kiva. Another explanation commonly offered is that they are made
underground because they are thus cooler in summer, and more easily
warmed in winter.

All these facto