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Fig. 288—Single line with trianglesFig. 288—Single line with triangles
Fig. 289—Single line with alternate triangles and ovalsFig. 289—Single line with alternate triangles and ovals
Fig. 290—Triangles and quadrilateralsFig. 290—Triangles and quadrilaterals
Fig. 291—Triangle with spursFig. 291—Triangle with spurs
Infigure 288the 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. Infigure 289there 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 infigure 290is a new combination comparable with it.
The simple triangular decorative design reaches a high degree of complication infigure 290, where a connecting line is absent, and two triangles having their smallest angles facing each other are separatedby 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. Infigure 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 infigure 292the 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. Infigure 293there 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 infigure 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 lineFig. 292—Rectangle with single line
Fig. 293—Double triangle; multiple linesFig. 293—Double triangle; multiple lines
Fig. 294—Double triangle; terraced edgesFig. 294—Double triangle; terraced edges
Fig. 295—Single line; closed fretFig. 295—Single line; closed fret
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Fig. 296—Single line; open fretFig. 296—Single line; open fret
Fig. 297—Single line; broken fretFig. 297—Single line; broken fret
Fig. 298—Single line; parts displacedFig. 298—Single line; parts displaced
Infigure 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 infigure 296consist 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 297introduces 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 displacedFig. 299—Open fret; attachment displaced
Fig. 300—Simple rectangular designFig. 300—Simple rectangular design
Possibly the least complex form of rectangular ornamentation, next to a simple bar or square, is the combination shown infigure 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 infigure 299, where the figure about the vessel is continuous. An analysis of the elements infigure 300shows squares united at their angles, like the last, but that in addition to parallel bands connecting adjacent figures there are twomarginal 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-formFig. 301—Rectangular reversed S-form
Fig. 302—Rectangular S-form with crooksFig. 302—Rectangular S-form with crooks
Figures 301and302are even simpler than the design shown infigure 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 trianglesFig. 303—Rectangular S-form with triangles
Fig. 304—Rectangular S-form with terraced trianglesFig. 304—Rectangular S-form with terraced triangles
While the same rectangular idea predominates infigure 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 infigure 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 maybe said that there are but two elements involved, the rectangle and the triangle.
Fig. 305—S-form with interdigitating spursFig. 305—S-form with interdigitating spurs
The decoration infigure 305consists 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 linesFig. 306—Square with rectangles and parallel lines
Fig. 307—Rectangles, triangles, stars, and feathersFig. 307—Rectangles, triangles, stars, and feathers
The distinctive feature offigure 306is 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 linesFig. 308—Crook, feathers, and parallel lines
Figure 307shows a complicated design, introducing at least two elements in addition to rectangles and triangles. One of these is acurved 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 inplatecxli,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 inplatecxxix,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 feathersFig. 309—Crooks and feathers
Fig. 310—Rectangle, triangles, and feathersFig. 310—Rectangle, triangles, and feathers
Fig. 311—Terraced crook, triangle, and feathersFig. 311—Terraced crook, triangle, and feathers
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Infigure 308a number of these parallel lines are represented, and the general character of the design is rectangular. Infigure 309isshown 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 infigure 310in which the triangle predominates, andfigure 311evidently represents one-half of a similar device with modifications.
Fig. 312—Double keyFig. 312—Double key
Fig. 313—Triangular terraceFig. 313—Triangular terrace
One of the most common designs on ancient pottery is the stepped figure, a rectangular ornamentation, modifications of which are shown in figures 312-314. This is a very common design on the interior of food vessels, where it is commonly interpreted as a rain-cloud symbol.
Fig. 314—Crook, serrate endFig. 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 trianglesFig. 315—Key pattern; rectangle and triangles
Fig. 316—Rectangle and crookFig. 316—Rectangle and crook
For some unknown reason the majority of the simple designs on the exterior of food bowls from Tusayan are rectangular, triangular, or linear in their character. Many can be reduced to simple or multiple lines. Others were suggested by plaited ware.
Fig. 317—Crook and tail feathersFig. 317—Crook and tail feathers
Infigure 312is 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. Infigure 313is 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 whichare reducible to these types. The simplest form of the key pattern is shown infigure 314, and infigure 315there is a second modification of the same design a little more complicated. This becomes somewhat changed infigure 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 spursFig. 318—Rectangle, triangle, and serrate spurs
Fig. 319—W-pattern; terminal crooksFig. 319—W-pattern; terminal crooks
Fig. 320—W-pattern; terminal rectanglesFig. 320—W-pattern; terminal rectangles
The design infigure 317is 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 (platecxlv,a), which are birds, have the same crook for the head, and two simple tail-feathers, rudely drawn but comparable with the two infigure 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 (platescxliv,cliv, and others). They are regarded as modified crosses of equal arms, which are all but universally present in combinations with birds and feathers (platescxliv,a,b;cliv,a), fromthe 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 offigure 317as 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 ofplateclx,a, have highly conventionalized bird symbols attached to their extremities. In the cross figure shown inplateclviii,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 inplatescxxvi,a, andclx,e.Figure 318may be compared withfigure 317.
Fig. 321—W-pattern; terminal terraces and crooks.Fig. 321—W-pattern; terminal terraces and crooks.
Fig. 322—W-pattern; terminal spursFig. 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 infigure 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.
Infigure 320there 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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Infigure 321there 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 formFig. 323—W-pattern; bird form
Infigure 322the 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 triangleFig. 324—W-pattern; median triangle
Infigure 323the 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 onplatecxlvi,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 infigure 324by 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 blackand white blocks, and the quadrate figure which it incloses is etched with a diagonal and cross.
Fig. 325—Double triangle; two breath feathersFig. 325—Double triangle; two breath feathers
Fig. 326—Double triangle; median trapezoidFig. 326—Double triangle; median trapezoid
The decoration infigure 325consists 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 rectangleFig. 327—Double triangle; median rectangle
Fig. 328—Double compound triangle; median rectangleFig. 328—Double compound triangle; median rectangle
Infigure 326there 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 327shows the same design with the median portion replaced by a rectangle, and in which the keypattern has wholly disappeared from the wings. Infigure 328there 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 triangleFig. 329—Double triangle; median triangle
Fig. 330—Double compound triangleFig. 330—Double compound triangle
Figure 329shows 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 rectangleFig. 331—Double rectangle; median rectangle
Figure 330shows 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 triangleFig. 332—Double rectangle; median triangle
Fig. 333—Double triangle with crooksFig. 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 infigures 331and332. The resemblances are so close that I need not refer to them in detail. The W form is wholly lost, and there is no resemblanceto a bird, even in its most highly conventionalized forms. The median design infigure 331consists of a rectangle and two triangles so arranged as to leave a rectangular white space between them. Infigure 332the median triangle is crossed by parallel and vertical zigzag lines.
Fig. 334—W-shape figure; single line with feathersFig. 334—W-shape figure; single line with feathers
In the design represented infigure 333there 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 feathersFig. 335—Compound rectangle, triangles, and feathers
A somewhat simpler form of the same design is found infigure 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 triangleFig. 336—Double triangle
Figure 335bears 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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Fig. 337—Double triangle and feathersFig. 337—Double triangle and feathers
The design infigure 336is likewise unsymmetrical, but it has two lateral triangles with incurved terrace and dentate patterns. Thesame general form is exhibited infigure 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 trianglesFig. 338—Twin triangles
Fig. 339—Triangle with terraced appendagesFig. 339—Triangle with terraced appendages
Fig. 340—Mosaic patternFig. 340—Mosaic pattern
Figure 338is 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 infigure 339is reducible to triangular and rectangular forms, and while exceptional as to their arrangement, no new decorative feature is introduced.
The specimen represented infigure 340has 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 linesFig. 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 340is 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 341is a perfectly symmetrical design with figures of stars, rectangles, and parallel lines. It may be compared with that shown infigure 340in 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 crooksFig. 342—Continuous crooks
Fig. 343—Rectangular terrace patternFig. 343—Rectangular terrace pattern
An indefinite repetition of the same pattern of rectangular design is shown infigure 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 infigure 343. Infigure 344there 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 infigures 345and346, 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 linesFig. 344—Terrace pattern with parallel lines
Fig. 345—Terrace patternFig. 345—Terrace pattern
Fig. 346—Triangular pattern with feathersFig. 346—Triangular pattern with feathers
In the specimens represented infigures 347and348marginal 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-patternFig. 347—S-pattern
Fig. 348—Triangular and terrace figuresFig. 348—Triangular and terrace figures
So far as decorative elements are concerned the design infigure 349can be compared with some of those preceding, but it differs from them in combination. The motive infigure 350is not unlike the ornamentation of certain oriental vases, except from the presence of the terraced figures. Infigure 351there 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 infigure 353, proving how effectually the original design may be obscured by concentration.
Fig. 349—Crook, terrace, and parallel linesFig. 349—Crook, terrace, and parallel lines
Fig. 350—Triangles, squares, and terracesFig. 350—Triangles, squares, and terraces
In the foregoing descriptions I have endeavored to demonstrate that, notwithstanding the great variety of designs considered, the types used are very limited in number. The geometrical forms are rarely curved lines, and it may be said that spirals, which appear so constantly on pottery from other (and possibly equally ancient or older) pueblos than Sikyatki, are absent in the external decorations of specimens found in the ruins of the latter village.
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 ofat 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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Fig. 351—Bifurcated rectangular designFig. 351—Bifurcated rectangular design
Fig. 352—Lines of life and trianglesFig. 352—Lines of life and triangles
Fig. 353—Infolded trianglesFig. 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 354shows 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 inplatecxxxvii.
Fig. 354—Human handFig. 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 infigure 355.
Fig. 355—Animal paw, limb, and triangleFig. 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 calledcuta, 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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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 inplateclxxii,e. Another, shown inf, 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 calledyayala, and is highly prized by the members of the warrior societies.
Fig. 356—Kaolin disk (natural size)Fig. 356—Kaolin disk (natural size)
Almost every grave at Sikyatki contained stone objects which were found either in the bowls or in the soil in the immediate neighborhood of the skeletons. Some of these implements are pecked or chipped, others are smooth—pebbles apparently chosen for their botryoidal shape, polished surface, or fancied resemblance to some animal or other form.
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 ofthe sun in certain rites calledPowalawû; 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 thetiponibaskets 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 (plateclxxii,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 (plateclxix,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-calledtcamahia(plateclxxi,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.
PL. CLXX— CORN GRINDER FROM SIKYATKIBUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXCORN 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 spheroidalstones with a facet worn at one pole as if used for the same or a similar purpose (plateclxxi,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 (plateclxix,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 inplateclxx. These stones are of differentdegrees 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 akatcina, or rain god. Thesekatcinas, 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.
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 orin 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.