Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 / Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744

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FOOD BOWLS WITH GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM SIKYATKI

Fig. 288—Single line with triangles

Fig. 289—Single line with alternate triangles and ovals

Fig. 290—Triangles and quadrilaterals

Fig. 291—Triangle with spurs

In figure 288 the double triangles, one on each side of the encircling band, are so placed that their line of separation is lost, and a single triangle replaces the pair. These are connected by the line surrounding the bowl and there is a dot at the smallest angle. In figure 289 there is a similar design, except that alternating with each triangle, which bears more decoration than that shown in figure 288, there are hourglass figures composed of ovals and triangles. The dots at the apex of that design are replaced by short parallel lines of varying width. The triangles and ovals last considered are arranged symmetrically in relation to a simple band. By a reduction in the intervening spaces these triangles may be brought together and the line disappears. I have found no specimen of design illustrating the simplest form of the resultant motive, but that shown in figure 290 is a new combination comparable with it.

The simple triangular decorative design reaches a high degree of complication in figure 290, where a connecting line is absent, and two triangles having their smallest angles facing each other are separated by a lozenge shape figure made up of many parallel lines placed obliquely to the axis of the design. The central part is composed of seven parallel lines, the marginal of which, on two opposite sides, is minutely dentate. The median band is very broad and is relieved by two wavy white lines. The axis of the design on each side is continued into two triangular spurs, rising from a rectangle in the middle of each triangle. This complicated design is the highest development reached by the use of simple triangles. In figure 291, however, we have a simpler form of triangular decoration, in which no element other than the rectangle is employed. In the chaste decoration seen in figure 292 the use of the rectangle is shown combined with the triangle on a simple encircling band. This design is reducible to that shown in figure 290, but is simpler, yet not less effective. In figure 293 there is an aberrant form of design in which the triangle is used in combination with parallel and oblique bands. This form, while one of the simplest in its elements, is effective and characteristic. The triangle predominates in figure 294, but the details are worked out in rectangular patterns, producing the terraced designs so common in all Pueblo decorations. Rectangular figures are more commonly used than the triangular in the decoration of the exterior of the bowls, and their many combinations are often very perplexing to analyze.

Fig. 292—Rectangle with single line

Fig. 293—Double triangle; multiple lines

Fig. 294—Double triangle; terraced edges

Fig. 295—Single line; closed fret

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Fig. 296—Single line; open fret

Fig. 297—Single line; broken fret

Fig. 298—Single line; parts displaced

In figure 295, starting with the simple encircling band, it is found divided into alternating rectangles. The line is continuous, and hence one side of each rectangle is not complete. Both this design and its modification in figure 296 consist of an unbroken line of equal breadth throughout. In the latter figure, however, the openings in the sides are larger or the approach to a straight line closer. The forms are strictly rectangular, with no additional elements. Figure 297 introduces an important modification of the rectangular motive, consisting of a succession of lines broken at intervals, but when joined are always arranged at right angles.

Fig. 299—Open fret; attachment displaced

Fig. 300—Simple rectangular design

Possibly the least complex form of rectangular ornamentation, next to a simple bar or square, is the combination shown in figure 298, a type in which many changes are made in interior as well as in exterior decorations of Pueblo ware. One of these is shown in figure 299, where the figure about the vessel is continuous. An analysis of the elements in figure 300 shows squares united at their angles, like the last, but that in addition to parallel bands connecting adjacent figures there are two marginal lines uniting the series. Each of the inner parallel lines is bound to a marginal on the opposite side by a band at right angles to it. The marginal lines are unbroken through the length of the figure. Like the last, this motive also may be regarded as developed from a single line.

Fig. 301—Rectangular reversed S-form

Fig. 302—Rectangular S-form with crooks

Figures 301 and 302 are even simpler than the design shown in figure 300, with appended square key patterns, all preserving rectangular forms and destitute of all others. They are of S-form, and differ more especially in the character of their appendages.

Fig. 303—Rectangular S-form with triangles

Fig. 304—Rectangular S-form with terraced triangles

While the same rectangular idea predominates in figure 303, it is worked out with the introduction of triangles and quadrilateral designs. This fairly compound pattern, however, is still classified among rectangular forms. A combination of rectangular and triangular geometric designs, in which, however, the former predominate, is shown in figure 304, which can readily be reduced to certain of those forms already mentioned. The triangles appear to be subordinated to the rectangles, and even they are fringed on their longer sides with terraced forms. It may be said that there are but two elements involved, the rectangle and the triangle.

Fig. 305—S-form with interdigitating spurs

The decoration in figure 305 consists of rectangular and triangular figures, the latter so closely approximated as to leave zigzag lines in white. These lines are simply highly modified breaks in bands which join in other designs, and lead by comparison to the so-called "line of life" which many of these figures illustrate.

Fig. 306—Square with rectangles and parallel lines

Fig. 307—Rectangles, triangles, stars, and feathers

The distinctive feature of figure 306 is the square, with rectangular designs appended to diagonally opposite angles and small triangles at intermediate corners. These designs have a distant resemblance to figures later referred to as highly conventionalized birds, although they may be merely simple geometrical patterns which have lost their symbolic meaning.

Fig. 308—Crook, feathers, and parallel lines

Figure 307 shows a complicated design, introducing at least two elements in addition to rectangles and triangles. One of these is a curved crook etched on a black ground. In no other exterior decoration have curved lines been found except in the form of circles, and it is worthy of note how large a proportion of the figures are drawn in straight lines. The circular figures with three parallel lines extending from them are found so constantly in exterior decorations, and are so strikingly like some of the figures elsewhere discussed, that I have ventured a suggestion in regard to their meaning. I believe they represent feathers, because the tail-feathers of certain birds are symbolized in that manner, and their number corresponds with those generally depicted in the highly conventionalized tails of birds. With this thought in mind, it may be interesting to compare the two projections, one on each side of the three tail-feathers of this figure, with the extremity of the body of a bird shown in plate cxli, e. On the supposition that a bird figure was intended in this design, it is interesting also to note the rectangular decorations of the body and the association with stars made of three blocks in several bird figures, as already described. It is instructive also to note the fact that the figure of a maid represented in plate cxxix, a, has two of the round designs with appended parallel lines hanging to her garment, and four parallel marks drawn from her blanket. It is still customary in Hopi ceremonials to tie feathers to the garments of those who personate certain mythic beings, and it is possible that such was also the custom at Sikyatki. If so, it affords additional evidence that the parallel lines are representations of feathers.

Fig. 309—Crooks and feathers

Fig. 310—Rectangle, triangles, and feathers

Fig. 311—Terraced crook, triangle, and feathers

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FOOD BOWLS WITH GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM SIKYATKI

In figure 308 a number of these parallel lines are represented, and the general character of the design is rectangular. In figure 309 is shown a combination of rectangular and triangular figures with three tapering points and circles with lines at their tips radiating instead of parallel. Another modification is shown in figure 310 in which the triangle predominates, and figure 311 evidently represents one-half of a similar device with modifications.

Fig. 312—Double key

Fig. 313—Triangular terrace

Fig. 314—Crook, serrate end

Of all patterns on ancient Tusayan ware, that of the terrace figures most closely resemble the geometrical ornamentation of cliff-house pottery, and there seems every reason to suppose that this form of design admits of a like interpretation. The evolution of this pattern from plaited basketry has been ably discussed by Holmes and Nordenskiöld, whose works have already been quoted in this memoir. The terraced forms from the exterior of food bowls here considered are highly aberrent; they may be forms of survivals, motives of decoration which have persisted from very early times. Whatever the origin of the stepped figure in Pueblo art was, it is well to remember, as shown by Holmes, that it is "impossible to show that any particular design of the highly constituted kind was desired through a certain identifiable series of progressive steps."

Fig. 315—Key pattern; rectangle and triangles

Fig. 316—Rectangle and crook

Fig. 317—Crook and tail feathers

In figure 312 is found one of the simplest of rectangular designs, a simple band, key pattern in form, at one end, with a reentrant square depression at the opposite extremity. In figure 313 is an equally simple terrace pattern with stepped figures at the ends and in the middle. These forms are common decorative elements on the exterior of jars and vases, where they occur in many combinations, all of which are reducible to these types. The simplest form of the key pattern is shown in figure 314, and in figure 315 there is a second modification of the same design a little more complicated. This becomes somewhat changed in figure 316, not only by the modifications of the two extremities, but also by the addition of a median geometric figure.

Fig. 318—Rectangle, triangle, and serrate spurs

Fig. 319—W-pattern; terminal crooks

Fig. 320—W-pattern; terminal rectangles

The design in figure 317 is rectangular, showing a key pattern at one end, with two long feathers at the opposite extremity. The five bodies on the same end of the figure are unique and comparable with conventionalized star emblems. The series of designs in the upper left-hand end of this figure are unlike any which have yet been found on the exterior of food bowls, but are similar to designs which have elsewhere been interpreted as feathers. On the hypothesis that these two parts of the figure are tail-feathers, we find in the crook the analogue of the head of a bird. Thus the designs on the equator of the vase (plate cxlv, a), which are birds, have the same crook for the head, and two simple tail-feathers, rudely drawn but comparable with the two in figure 317. The five dentate bodies on the lower left-hand end of the figure also tell in favor of the avian character of the design, for the following reason: These bodies are often found accompanying figures of conventionalized birds (plates cxliv, cliv, and others). They are regarded as modified crosses of equal arms, which are all but universally present in combinations with birds and feathers (plates cxliv, a, b; cliv, a), from the fact that in a line of crosses depicted on a bowl one of the crosses is replaced by a design of similar character. The arms of the cross are represented; their intersection is left in white. The interpretation of figure 317 as a highly conventionalized bird design is also in accord with the same interpretation of a number of similar, although less complicated, figures which appear with crosses. Thus the three arms of plate clx, a, have highly conventionalized bird symbols attached to their extremities. In the cross figure shown in plate clviii, d, we find four bird figures with short, stumpy tail-feathers. These highly conventionalized birds, with the head in the form of a crook and the tail-feathers as parallel lines, are illustrated on many pottery objects, nowhere better, however, than in those shown in plates cxxvi, a, and clx, e. Figure 318 may be compared with figure 317.

Fig. 321—W-pattern; terminal terraces and crooks.

Fig. 322—W-pattern; terminal spurs

Numerous modifications of a key pattern, often assuming a double triangular form, but with rectangular elements, are found on the exterior of many food bowls. These are variations of a pattern the simplest form of which is shown in figure 319. Resolving this figure into two parts by drawing a median line, we find the arrangement is bilaterally symmetrical, the two sides exactly corresponding. Each side consists of a simple key pattern with the shank inclined to the rim of the bowl and a bird emblem at its junction with the other member.

In figure 320 there is a greater development of this pattern by an elaboration of the key, which is continued in a line resembling a square spiral. There are also dentations on a section of the edge of the lines.

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LINEAR FIGURES ON FOOD BOWLS FROM SIKYATKI

In figure 321 there is a still further development of the same design and a lack of symmetry on the two sides. The square spirals are replaced on the left by three stepped figures, and white spaces with parallel lines are introduced in the arms of a W-shape figure.

Fig. 323—W-pattern; bird form

In figure 322 the same design is again somewhat changed by modification of the spirals into three triangles rimmed on one side with a row of dots, which are also found on the outer lines surrounding the lower part of the design.

Fig. 324—W-pattern; median triangle

In figure 323 the same W shape design is preserved, but the space in the lower reentrant angle is occupied by a symmetrical figure resembling two tail-feathers and the extremity of the body of a bird. When this figure is compared with the design on plate cxlvi, a, resemblances are found in the two lateral appendages or wings. The star emblem is also present in the design. The median figure in that design which I have compared to the tail of a bird is replaced in figure 324 by a triangular ornament. The two wings are not symmetrical, but no new decorative element is introduced. It, however, will be noticed that there is a want of symmetry on the two sides of a vertical line in the figure last mentioned. The right-hand upper side is continued into five pointed projections, which fail on the left-hand side. There is likewise a difference in the arrangement of the terraced figures in the two parts. The sides of the median triangles are formed of alternating black and white blocks, and the quadrate figure which it incloses is etched with a diagonal and cross.

Fig. 325—Double triangle; two breath feathers

Fig. 326—Double triangle; median trapezoid

The decoration in figure 325 consists of two triangles side by side, each having marginal serrations, and a median square key pattern. One side of these triangles is continued into a line from which hang two breath feathers, while the other end of the same line ends in a round dot with four radiating, straight lines. The triangles recall the butterfly symbol, the key pattern representing the head.

Fig. 327—Double triangle; median rectangle

Fig. 328—Double compound triangle; median rectangle

In figure 326 there is a still more aberrant form of the W-shape design. The wings are folded, ending in triangles, and prolonged at their angles into projections to which are appended round dots with three parallel lines. The median portion, or that in the reentrant angle of the W, is a four-sided figure in which the triangle predominates with notched edges. Figure 327 shows the same design with the median portion replaced by a rectangle, and in which the key pattern has wholly disappeared from the wings. In figure 328 there are still greater modifications, but the symmetry about a median axis remains. The ends of the wings instead of being folded are expanded, and the three triangles formerly inclosed are now free and extended. The simple median rectangle is ornamented with a terrace pattern on its lower angles.

Fig. 329—Double triangle; median triangle

Fig. 330—Double compound triangle

Figure 329 shows a design in which the extended triangles are even more regular and simple, with triangular terraced figures on their inner edge. The median figure is a triangle instead of a rectangle.

Fig. 331—Double rectangle; median rectangle

Figure 330 shows the same design with modification in the position of the median figure, and a slight curvature in two of its sides.

Fig. 332—Double rectangle; median triangle

Fig. 333—Double triangle with crooks

Somewhat similar designs, readily reduced to the same type as the last three or four which have been mentioned, are shown in figures 331 and 332. The resemblances are so close that I need not refer to them in detail. The W form is wholly lost, and there is no resemblance to a bird, even in its most highly conventionalized forms. The median design in figure 331 consists of a rectangle and two triangles so arranged as to leave a rectangular white space between them. In figure 332 the median triangle is crossed by parallel and vertical zigzag lines.

Fig. 334—W-shape figure; single line with feathers

In the design represented in figure 333 there are two triangular figures, one on each side of a median line, in relation to which they are symmetrical. Each triangle has a simple key pattern in the middle, and the line from which they appear to hang is blocked off with alternating black and white rectangles. At either extremity of this line there is a circular dot from which extend four parallel lines.

Fig. 335—Compound rectangle, triangles, and feathers

A somewhat simpler form of the same design is found in figure 334, showing a straight line above terminating with dots, from which extend parallel lines, and two triangular figures below, symmetrically placed in reference to an hypothetical upright line between them.

Fig. 336—Double triangle

Figure 335 bears a similarity to the last mentioned only so far as the lower half of the design is concerned. The upper part is not symmetrical, but no new decorative element is introduced. Triangles, frets, and terraced figures are inserted between two parallel lines which terminate in round dots with parallel lines.

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GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM AWATOBI

Fig. 337—Double triangle and feathers

The design in figure 336 is likewise unsymmetrical, but it has two lateral triangles with incurved terrace and dentate patterns. The same general form is exhibited in figure 337, with the introduction of two pointed appendages facing the hypothetical middle line. From the general form of these pointed designs, each of which is double, they have been interpreted as feathers. They closely resemble the tail-feathers of bird figures on several bowls in the collection, as will be seen in several of the illustrations.

Fig. 338—Twin triangles

Fig. 339—Triangle with terraced appendages

Fig. 340—Mosaic pattern

Figure 338 is composed of two triangular designs fused at the greatest angles. The regularity of these triangles is broken by a square space at the fusion. At each of the acute angles of the two triangles there are circular designs with radiating lines, a common motive on the exterior of food bowls. Although no new elements appear in figure 338, with the exception of bracket marks, one on each side of a circle, the arrangement of the two parts symmetrically about a line parallel with the rim of the bowl imparts to the design a unique form. The motive in figure 339 is reducible to triangular and rectangular forms, and while exceptional as to their arrangement, no new decorative feature is introduced.

The specimen represented in figure 340 has as its decorative elements, rectangles, triangles, parallel lines, and birds' tails, to which may be added star and crosshatch motives. It is therefore the most complicated of all the exterior decorations which have thus far been considered. There is no symmetry in the arrangement of figures about a central axis, but rather a repetition of similar designs.

Fig. 341—Rectangles, stars, crooks, and parallel lines

The use of crosshatching is very common on the most ancient Pueblo ware, and is very common in designs on cliff-house pottery. This style of decoration is only sparingly used on Sikyatki ware. The crosshatching is provisionally interpreted as a mosaic pattern, and reminds one of those beautiful forms of turquois mosaic on shell, bone, or wood found in ancient pueblos, and best known in modern times in the square ear pendants of Hopi women. Figure 340 is one of the few designs having terraced figures with short parallel lines depending from them. These figures vividly recall the rain-cloud symbol with falling rain represented by the parallel lines. Figure 341 is a perfectly symmetrical design with figures of stars, rectangles, and parallel lines. It may be compared with that shown in figure 340 in order to demonstrate how wide the difference in design may become by the absence of symmetrical relationship. It has been shown in some of the previous motives that the crook sometimes represents a bird's head, and parallel lines appended to it the tail-feathers. Possibly the same interpretation may be given to these designs in the following figures, and the presence of stars adjacent to them lends weight to this hypothesis.

Fig. 342—Continuous crooks

Fig. 343—Rectangular terrace pattern

An indefinite repetition of the same pattern of rectangular design is shown in figure 342. This highly decorative motive may be varied indefinitely by extension or concentration, and while it is modified in that manner in many of the decorations of vases, it is not so changed on the exterior of food bowls.

There are a number of forms which I am unable to classify with the foregoing, none of which show any new decorative design. All possible changes have been made in them without abandoning the elemental ornamental motives already considered. The tendency to step or terrace patterns predominates, as exemplified in simple form in figure 343. In figure 344 there is a different arrangement of the same terrace pattern, and the design is helped out with parallel bands of different length at the ends of a rectangular figure. A variation in the depth of color of these lines adds to the effectiveness of the design. This style of ornamentation is successfully used in the designs represented in figures 345 and 346, in the body of which a crescentic figure in the black serves to add variety to a design otherwise monotonous. The two appendages to the right of figure 346 are interpreted as feathers, although their depart forms widely from that usually assumed by these designs. The terraced patterns are replaced by dentate margins in this figure, and there is a successful use of most of the rectangular and triangular designs.

Fig. 344—Terrace pattern with parallel lines

Fig. 345—Terrace pattern

Fig. 346—Triangular pattern with feathers

In the specimens represented in figures 347 and 348 marginal dentations are used. I have called the design referred to an S-form, which, however, owing to its elongation is somewhat masked. The oblique bar in the middle of the figure represents the body of the letter, the two extremities taking the forms of triangles.

Fig. 347—S-pattern

Fig. 348—Triangular and terrace figures

So far as decorative elements are concerned the design in figure 349 can be compared with some of those preceding, but it differs from them in combination. The motive in figure 350 is not unlike the ornamentation of certain oriental vases, except from the presence of the terraced figures. In figure 351 there are two designs separated by an inclined break the edge of which is dentate. This figure is introduced to show the method of treatment of alternating triangles of varying depth of color and the breaks in the marginal bands or "lines of life." One of the simplest combinations of triangular and rectangular figures is shown in figure 353, proving how effectually the original design may be obscured by concentration.

Fig. 349—Crook, terrace, and parallel lines

Fig. 350—Triangles, squares, and terraces

Every student of ancient and modern Pueblo pottery has been impressed by the predominance of terraced figures in its ornamentation, and the meaning of these terraces has elsewhere been spoken of at some length. It would, I believe, be going too far to say that these step designs always represent clouds, as in some instances they are produced by such an arrangement of rectangular figures that no other forms could result.

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GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM AWATOBI

Fig. 351—Bifurcated rectangular design

Fig. 352—Lines of life and triangles

Fig. 353—Infolded triangles

The material at hand adds nothing new to the theory of the evolution of the terraced ornament from basketry or textile productions, so ably discussed by Holmes, Nordenskiöld, and others. When the Sikyatki potters decorated their ware the ornamentation of pottery had reached a high development, and figures both simple and complicated were used contemporaneously. While, therefore, we can so arrange them as to make a series, tracing modifications from simple to complex designs, thus forming a supposed line of evolution, it is evident that there is no proof that the simplest figures are the oldest. The great number of terraced figures and their use in the representation of animals seem to me to indicate that they antedate all others, and I see no reason why they should not have been derived from basketry patterns. We must, however, look to pottery with decorations less highly developed for evidence bearing on this point. The Sikyatki artists had advanced beyond simple geometric figures, and had so highly modified these that it is impossible to determine the primitive form.

As I have shown elsewhere, the human hand is used as a decorative element in the ornamentation of the interior of several food bowls. It is likewise in one instance chosen to adorn the exterior. It is the only part of the human limbs thus used. Figure 354 shows the hand with marks on the palm probably intended to represent the lines which are used in the measurement of the length of pahos or prayer-sticks. From between the index and the middle finger rises a line which recalls that spoken of in the account of the hand on the interior of the food bowl shown in plate cxxxvii.

Fig. 354—Human hand

The limb of an animal with a paw, or possibly a human arm and hand, appears as a decoration on the outside of another food bowl, where it is combined with the ever-constant stepped figure, as shown in figure 355.

Fig. 355—Animal paw, limb, and triangle

The ancient Sikyatki people were accustomed to deposit in their mortuary vessels fragments of minerals or ground oxides and carbonates, of different colors, used as paints. It thus appears evident that these substances were highly prized in ancient as in modern times, and it may be mentioned that the present native priests regard the pigments found in the graves as so particularly efficacious in coloring their ceremonial paraphernalia that they begged me to give them fragments for that purpose. The green color, which was the most common, is an impure carbonate of copper, the same as that with which pahos are painted for ceremonial use today. Several shallow, saucer-like vessels contained yellow ocher, and others sesquioxide of iron, which afforded both the ancients and the moderns the red pigment called cuta, an especial favorite of the warrior societies. The inner surface of some of the bowls is stained with the pigments which they had formerly contained, and it was not uncommon to find several small paint pots deposited in a single grave. The white used was an impure kaolin, which was found both in masses and in powdered form, and there were unearthed several disks of this material which had been cut into definite shape as if for a special purpose.

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ARROWSHAFT SMOOTHERS, SELENITE, AND SYMBOLIC CORN FROM SIKYATKI

One of these disks or circular plates (figure 356) was found on the head of a skeleton. The rim is rounded, and the opposite faces are concave, with a perforation in the middle. Other forms of this worked kaolin are spherical, oblong, or lamellar, sometimes more or less decorated on the outer surface, as shown in plate clxxii, e. Another, shown in f, of the same plate, is cylindrical, and other fragments of irregular shapes were found. A pigment made of micaceous hematite was found in one of the Sikyatki paint jars. This material is still used as coloring matter by the Tusayan Indians, by whom it is called yayala, and is highly prized by the members of the warrior societies.

Fig. 356—Kaolin disk (natural size)

Many of the smooth stones were probably simply polishing stones, used by the women in rubbing pottery to a gloss before it was fired. Others were charm stones such as are still employed in making medicine, as elsewhere described. There were still other stones which, from their resemblance to animals, may have been personal fetishes. Among the unusual forms of stones found in this association is a quartz crystal. As I have shown in describing several ceremonies still observed, a quartz crystal is used to deflect a ray of sunlight into the medicine bowl, and is placed in the center of a sand picture of the sun in certain rites called Powalawû; the crystal is also used in divining, and for other purposes, and is highly prized by modern Tusayan priests.

A botryoidal fragment of hematite found in a grave reminds me that in the so-called Antelope rock[154] at Walpi, around which the Snake dancers biennially carry reptiles in their mouths, there is in one side a niche in which is placed a much larger mass of that material, to which prayers are addressed on certain ceremonial occasions, and upon which sacred meal and prayer emblems are placed.

One or two mortuary bowls contained fragments of stalactites apparently from the Grand canyon of the Colorado or from some other locality where water is or has been abundant.

The loose shaly deposit which underlies the Tusayan mesas contains many cephalopod fossils, a collection of which was made in former years and deposited in the National Museum. Among these the most beautiful are small cephalopods called by the Hopi, koaitcoko. Among the many sacred objects in the tiponi baskets of the Lalakonti society, as described in my account[155] of the unwrapping of that fetish, there was a specimen of this ammonite; that the shell was preserved in this sacred bundle is sufficient proof that it is highly venerated. As a natural object with a definite form it is regarded as a fetish which is looked upon with reverence by the knowing ones and pronounced bad by the uninitiated. The occurrence of this fossil in one of the mortuary bowls is in harmony with the same idea and shows that it was regarded in a similar light by the ancient occupants of Sikyatki.

But the resemblance of these and other stones to animal fossils[156] is not always so remote as in the instances above mentioned. There was in one grave a single large fetish of a mountain lion, made of sandstone (plate clxxii, b, c), in which legs, ears, tail, and eyes are represented, and the mouth still retains the red pigment with which it was colored, although there was no sign of paint on other parts of the body. This fetish is very similar to the one found at Awatobi, and is identical in form with those made by the Hopi at the present time.

It was customary to bury in Sikyatki graves plates or fragments of selenite or mica, some of which are perforated as if for suspension, while others are in plain sheets (plate clxix, c).

Among the stone implements used as mortuary offerings which were found in the cemeteries, was one made of the same fine lithographic limestone as the so-called tcamahia (plate clxxi, g) which occur on the Antelope altar in the Snake ceremonies. The exceptional character of this fragment is instructive, and its resemblance to the finely polished stone hoes found in other ruins is very suggestive.

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CORN GRINDER FROM SIKYATKI

There were found many disk-shape stones, pecked on the periphery as if used in grinding pigment or in bruising seeds, and spheroidal stones with a facet worn at one pole as if used for the same or a similar purpose (plate clxxi, b, c). A few stone axes and hatchets were also taken from the graves; most of these are rude specimens of stone working, although one of them can hardly be excelled in any other collection. Many arrowpoints were found, but these are in no respect peculiar. They are made of many different kinds of stone, but those of obsidian are the most numerous. They were generally found in numbers, sometimes in bowls. Evidently they had not been attached to shafts when buried, for no sign of the reeds remained. Arrowheads sewed into a bandoleer are still worn as insignia of rank by warriors, and it is probable that such was also true in the past, so that on interment these arrowpoints might have been placed in the mortuary basin deposited by the side of the warrior, as indicative of his standing or rank, and the bandoleer or leather strap to which they were attached decayed during its long burial in the earth. Spearpoints of much coarser make and larger in size than the arrowheads were also found in the graves, and a rare knife, made of chalcedony, showed that the ancient, like the modern Hopi, prized a sharp cutting instrument.

Among the many large stones picked up on the mounds of Sikyatki there was one the use of which has long puzzled me. This is a rough stone, not worked save in an equatorial groove. The object is too heavy to have been carried about, except with the utmost difficulty, and the probability of the former existence of a handle is out of the question. It has been suggested that this and similar but larger grooved stones might have been used as tethers for some domesticated animal, as the eagle or the turkey, which is about the only explanation I can suggest. Both of these creatures, and (if we may trust early accounts) a quadruped about the size of a dog, were domesticated by the ancient Pueblo people, but I have found no survival of tethering in use today. Eagles, however, are tied by the legs and not confined in corrals as at Zuñi, while sheep are kept in stone inclosures. It is probable that this latter custom came with the introduction of sheep, and that these stones were weights to which the Sikyatki people tied by the legs the eagles and turkeys, the feathers of which play an important part in their sacred observances.

Certain small rectangular slabs of stone have been found, with a groove extending across one surface diagonally from one angle to another (plate clxix, a, b.) These are generally called arrowshaft polishers, and were used to rub down the surface of arrowshafts or prayer-sticks. Several of these polishers were taken from Sikyatki graves, and one or two were of such regular form that considerable care must have been used in their manufacture. A specimen from Awatobi is decorated with a bow and an arrow scratched on one side, and one of dark basaltic rock evidently came from a distance. A number of metates and mullers were found in the graves at Sikyatki. One of the best of the latter is shown in plate clxx. These stones are of different degrees of fineness, and vary from simple triangular slabs of fine sandstone to very coarse lava. The specimen figured has depressions on the sides to facilitate handling.[157]

Perhaps the most significant of all the worked stones found in the Sikyatki cemeteries were the flat slabs the edges of which near the surface of the soil marked the presence of the graves. These slabs may be termed headstones, but they have a far different meaning from those that bear the name of the deceased with which we are most familiar, for when they have any marking on their faces, it is not a totem of the dead, but a symbol of the rain-cloud, which is connected with ancestor worship.

One of the best of these mortuary slabs has its edge cut in such a way as to give it a terraced outline, and on one face a similar terrace is drawn in black pigment. These figures are symbols of rain-clouds, and the interpretation of the use of this design in graves is as follows:

The dead, according to current Tusayan thought, become rain-cloud gods, or powerful intercessors with those deities which cause or send the rains. Hence, the religious society to which the deceased belonged, and the members of the clan who survive, place in the mortuary bowls, or in the left hand of their friend, the paho or prayer emblem for rain; hence, also, in prayers at interment they address the breath body of the dead as a katcina, or rain god. These katcinas, as divinized ancestors, are supposed to return to the villages and receive prayers for rain. In strict accord with this conception the rain-cloud symbol is placed, in some instances, on the slab of rock in the graves of the dead at Sikyatki. It proves to me that the cult of ancestor worship, and the conception that the dead have power to bring needed rain, were recognized in Sikyatki when the pueblo was in its prime. One of these slabs is perforated by a small hole, an important fact, but one for which I have only a fanciful explanation, namely, to allow the escape of the breath body. Elsewhere I have found many instances of perforated mortuary stone slabs, which will be considered in a report of my excavations in 1896.

OBSIDIAN

Many fragments of obsidian, varying in size, are found strewn over the surface of the majority of ancient ruins in Tusayan, and the quantity of this material on some mounds indicates its abundance in those early habitations. This material must have been highly prized for knives, arrowpoints, and weapons of various kinds, as several of the graves contained large fragments of it, some more or less chipped, others in natural forms. The fact of its being deemed worthy of deposit in the graves of the Sikyatkians would indicate that it was greatly esteemed. I know of no natural deposit of obsidian near Sikyatki or in the province of Tusayan, so that the probability is that these fragments had been brought a considerable distance before they were buried in the earth that now covers the dead of the ancient pueblos.