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diff --git a/17170.txt b/17170.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..630cd33 --- /dev/null +++ b/17170.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2163 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative +of Zuni Culture Growth., by Frank Hamilton Cushing + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuni Culture Growth. + Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the + Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, + Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 467-522 + +Author: Frank Hamilton Cushing + +Release Date: November 28, 2005 [EBook #17170] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUEBLO POTTERY *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Victoria Woosley and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + +SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. + + * * * * * + + A STUDY + + of + + PUEBLO POTTERY + + + AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF + ZUNI CULTURE GROWTH. + + BY + FRANK HAMILTON CUSHING. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Habitations affected by environment 473 + Rectangular forms developed from circular 475 + Flat and terraced roofs developed from sloping mesa-sites 477 + Added stories developed from limitations of cliff-house sites 479 + Communal pueblos developed from congregation of cliff-house tribes 480 + + Pottery affected by environment 482 + Anticipated by basketry 483 + Suggested by clay-lined basketry 485 + Influenced by local minerals 493 + Influenced by materials and methods used in burning 495 + + Evolution of forms 497 + + Evolution of decoration 506 + + Decorative symbolism 510 + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + FIG. Page. + 490.--A Navajo hut or hogan 473 + 491.--Perspective view of earliest or Round-house structures of + lava 474 + 492.--Plan of same 475 + 493.--Section of same 475 + 494.--Evolution of rectangular forms in primitive architecture 476 + 495.--Section illustrating evolution of flat roof and terrace 477 + 496.--Perspective view of a typical solitary-house 478 + 497.--Plan of a typical solitary-house 478 + 498.--Typical cliff-dwelling 479 + 499.--Typical terraced-pueblo--communal type 480 + 500.--Ancient gourd-vessel encased in wicker 483 + 501.--Havasupai roasting-tray, with clay lining 484 + 502.--Zuni roasting-tray of earthenware 485 + 503.--Havasupai boiling-basket 486 + 504.--Sketch illustrating the first stage in manufacture of latter 486 + 505.--Sketch illustrating the second stage in manufacture of latter 486 + 506.--Sketch illustrating the third stage in manufacture of latter 486 + 507.--Typical example of basket decoration 487 + 508.--Typical example of basket decoration 487 + 509.--Typical example of basket decoration 487 + 510.--Terraced lozenge decoration or "Double-splint-stitch-form." + (Shu k'u tu lia tsi nan) 488 + 511.--Terraced lozenge decoration or "Double-splint-stitch-form." + (Shu k'u tu lia tsi nan) 488 + 512.--Double-splint-stitch, from which same was elaborated 488 + 513.--Double-splint-stitch, from which same was elaborated 488 + 514.--Diagonal parallel-line decoration. (Shu k'ish pa tsi nan) 488 + 515.--Study of splints at neck of unfinished basket illustrating + evolution of latter 489 + 516.--Example of indented decoration on corrugated ware 490 + 517.--Example of indented decoration on corrugated ware 490 + 518.--Cooking pot of spirally built or corrugated ware, showing + conical projections near rim 490 + 519.--The same, illustrating modification of latter 491 + 520.--Wicker water-bottle, showing double loops for suspension 491 + 521.--Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing double handle 492 + 522.--The same, showing also plain bottom 492 + 523.--Food trencher or bowl of impervious wicker-work 497 + 524.--Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls 497 + 525.--Ancient bowl of corrugated ware, showing comparative + shallowness 498 + 526.--Basket-bowl as base-mold for large vessels 499 + 527.--Clay nucleus illustrating beginning of a vessel 499 + 528.--The same shaped to form the base of a vessel 499 + 529.--The same as first placed in base-mold, showing beginning of + spiral building 500 + 530.--First form of vessel 500 + 531.--Secondary form in mold, showing origin of spheroidal type of + jar 501 + 532.--Scrapers or trowels of gourd and earthen-ware for smoothing + pottery 501 + 533.--Finished form of a vessel in mold, showing amount of + contraction in drying 501 + 534.--Profile of olla or modern water-jar 502 + 535.--Base of same, showing circular indentation at bottom 502 + 536.--Section of same, showing central concavity and circular + depression 502 + 537.--"Milkmaid's boss," or annular mat of wicker for supporting + round vessels on the head in carrying 503 + 538.--Use of annular mat illustrated 503 + 539.--Section of incipient vessel in convex-bottomed basket-mold 504 + 540.--Section of same as supported on annular mat and wad of soft + substance, for drying 504 + 541.--Modern base-mold as made from the bottom of water jar 504 + 542.--Example of Pueblo painted-ornamentation illustrating + decorative value of open spaces 506 + 543 and 544.--Amazonian basket-decorations, illustrating evolution + of the above characteristic 507 + 545.--Bowl, showing open or unjoined space in lines near rim 510 + 546.--Water-jar, showing open or unjoined space in lines near rim 510 + 547.--Conical or flat-bellied canteen 512 + 548 and 549.--The same, compared with human mammary gland 513 + 550.--Double-lobed or hunter canteen (Me' wi k'i lik ton ne), + showing teat-like projections and open spaces of contiguous + lines 514 + 551.--Native painting of deer, showing space-line from mouth to + heart 515 + 552.--Native painting of sea serpent, showing space-line from mouth + to heart 515 + 553.--The fret of basket decoration 516 + 554.--The fret of pottery decoration 516 + 555.--Scroll as evolved from fret in pottery decoration 516 + 556.--Ancient Pueblo "medicine-jar" 517 + 557.--Decoration of above compared with modern Moki rain symbol 517 + 558.--Zuni prayer-meal bowl illustrating symbolism in form and + decoration 518 + 559.--Native paintings of sacred butterfly 519 + 560.--Native painting of sacred migratory "summer bird" 519 + 561.--Rectangular or Iroquois type of earthen vessel 519 + 562.--Kidney-shaped type of vessel of Nicaragua 520 + 563.--Iroquois bark vessel, showing angles of juncture 520 + 564.--Porcupine quill decoration on bark vessel, for comparison + with Fig. 561 521 +~~~ + * * * * * + + + + + A STUDY OF PUEBLO POTTERY AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF + ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH. + + * * * * * + + BY FRANK H. CUSHING. + + * * * * * + + + + +HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. + + +It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are due +chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this +sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of +a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak, +they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and +driven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was the +influence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt an +almost waterless area for their habitat. + +It is apparent at least that they entered the country wherein their +remains occur while comparatively a rude people, and worked out there +almost wholly their incipient civilization. Of this there is important +linguistic evidence. + +[Illustration: FIG. 490.--A Navajo hut.] + +A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive-shaped or conical structure (see +Fig. 490) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stones +chinked with mud. Yet its modern Zuni name is _ham' pon ne_, from _ha +we_, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _po an ne_, covering, shelter +or roof (_po a_ to place over and _ne_ the nominal suffix); which, +interpreted, signifies a "brush or leaf shelter." This leads to the +inference that the temporary shelter with which the Zunis were +acquainted when they formulated the name here given, presumably in +their earliest condition, was in shape like the Navajo hogan, but in +_material_, of brush or like perishable substance. + +The archaic name for a building or walled inclosure is _he sho ta_, a +contraction of the now obsolete term, _he sho ta pon ne_, from _he +sho_, gum, or resin-like; _sho tai e_, leaned or placed together +convergingly; and _ta po an ne_, a roof of wood or a roof supported by +wood. + +[Illustration: FIG. 491.--Perspective view of earliest or Round-house +structure of lava.] + +The meaning of all this would be obscure did not the oldest remains of +the Pueblos occur in the almost inaccessible lava wastes bordering the +southwestern deserts and intersecting them and were not the houses of +these ruins built on the plan of shelters, round (see Figs. 491, 492, +493), rather than rectangular. Furthermore, not only does the +lava-rock of which their walls have been rudely constructed resemble +natural asphaltum (_he sho_) and possess a cleavage exactly like that +of pinon-gum and allied substances (also _he sho_), but some forms of +lava are actually known as _a he sho_ or gum-rock. From these +considerations inferring that the name _he sho ta pon ne_ derivatively +signifies something like "a gum-rock shelter with roof supports of +wood," we may also infer that the Pueblos on their coming into the +desert regions dispossessed earlier inhabitants or that they chose the +lava-wastes the better to secure themselves from invasion; moreover +that the oldest form of building known to them was therefore an +inclosure of lava-stones, whence the application of the contraction +_he sho ta_, and its restriction to mean a walled inclosure. + +[Illustration: FIG. 492.--Plan of Pueblo structure of lava.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 493.--Section of Pueblo structure of lava.] + + +RECTANGULAR FORMS DEVELOPED FROM CIRCULAR. + +It may be well in this connection to cite a theory entertained by Mr. +Victor Mindeleff, of the Bureau of Ethnology, whose wide experience +among the southwestern ruins entitles his judgment to high +consideration. In his opinion the rectangular form of architecture, +which succeeds the type under discussion, must have been evolved from +the circular form by the bringing together, within a limited area, of +many houses. This would result in causing the wall of one circular +structure to encroach upon that of another, suggesting the partition +instead of the double wall. This partition would naturally be built +straight as a twofold measure of economy. Supposing three such houses +to be contiguous to a central one, each separated from the latter by a +straight wall, it may be seen that (as in the accompanying plan) the +three sides of a square are already formed, suggesting the +parallelogramic as a convenient style of sequent architecture. + +[Illustration: FIG. 494.--Evolution of rectangular forms in primitive +architecture.] + +All this, I need scarcely add, agrees not only with my own +observations in the field but with the kind of linguistic research +above recorded. It would also apparently explain the occurrence of the +circular semisubterranean _ki wi tsi we_, or estufas. These being +sacred have retained the pristine form long after the adoption of a +modified type of structure for ordinary or secular purposes, according +to the well known law of survival in ceremonial appurtenances. + +In a majority of the lava ruins (for example those occurring near +Prescott, Arizona), I have observed that the sloping sides rather than +the level tops of _mesa_ headlands have been chosen by the ancients as +building-sites. Here, the rude, square type of building prevails, not, +however, to the entire exclusion of the circular type, which, is +represented by loosely constructed walls, always on the _outskirts_ of +the main ruins. The rectangular rooms are, as a rule, built row above +row. Some of the houses in the upper rows give evidence of having +overlapped others below. (See section, Fig. 495.) + + +FLAT AND TERRACED ROOFS DEVELOPED FROM SLOPING MESA-SITES. + +We cannot fail to take notice of the indications which this brings +before us. + +(1) It is quite probable that the overlapping resulted from an +increase in the numbers of the ancient builders relative to available +area, this, as in the first instance, leading to a further massing +together of the houses. (2) It suggested the employment of rafters and +the formation of the _flat_ roof, as a means of supplying a level +entrance way and floor to rooms which, built above and to the rear of +a first line of houses, yet extended partially over the latter. (3) +This is I think the earliest form of the terrace. + +[Illustration: FIG. 495.--Section illustrating evolution of flat roof +and terrace] + +It is therefore not surprising that the flat roof of to-day is named +_te k'os kwin ne_, from _te_, space, region, extension, _k'os kwi e_, +to cut off in the sense of closing or shutting in from one side, and +_kwin ne_, place of. Nor is it remarkable that no type of ruin in the +Southwest _seems_ to connect these first terraced towns with the later +not only terraced but also literally cellular buildings, which must be +regarded nevertheless as developed from them. The reason for this will +become evident on further examination. + +[Illustration: FIG. 496.--Perspective view of a typical solitary +house.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 497.--Plan of a typical solitary house.] + +The modern name for house is _k'ia kwin ne_, from _k'ia we_, water, +and _kwin ne_, place of, literally "watering place;" which is evidence +that the first properly so called houses known to the Pueblos were +solitary and built near springs, pools, streams, or well-places. The +universal occurrence of the vestiges of single houses throughout the +less forbidding tracts of the Pueblo country (see Figs. 496 and 497) +leads to this inference and to the supposition that the necessity for +protection being at last overcome, the denizens of the lava-fields, +where planting was well-nigh impossible, descended, building wherever +conditions favored the horticulture which gradually came to be their +chief means of support. As irrigation was not known until long +afterwards, arable areas were limited, hence they were compelled to +divide into families or small clans, each occupying a single house. +The traces of these solitary farm-houses show that they were at first +single-storied. The name of an upper room indicates how the idea of +the second or third story was developed, as it is _osh ten u thlan_, +from _osh ten_, a shallow cave, or rock-shelter, and _u thla nai e_, +placed around, embracing, inclusive of. This goes to show that it was +not until after the building of the first small farm-houses (which +gave the name to houses) that the caves or rock-shelters of the +cliffs were occupied. If predatory border-tribes, tempted by the +food-stores of the horticultural farm-house builders, made incursions +on the latter, they would find them, scattered as they were, an easy +prey. + + +ADDED STORIES FOR CLIFF DWELLINGS DEVELOPED FROM LIMITATIONS OF +CLIFF-HOUSE SITES. + +[Illustration: FIG. 498.--A typical cliff-dwelling.] + +This condition of things would drive the people to seek security in +the neighboring cliffs of fertile canons, where not only might they +build their dwelling places in the numerous rock-shelters, but they +could also cultivate their crops in comparative safety along the +limited tracts which these eyries overlooked. The narrow foothold +afforded by many of these elevated cliff-shelves or shelters would +force the fugitives to construct house over house; that is, build a +second or upper story around the roof of the cavern. What more +natural than that this upper room should take a name most descriptive +of its situation--as that portion built around the cavern-shelter or +_osh ten_--or that, when the intervention of peace made return to the +abandoned farms of the plains or a change of condition possible, the +idea of the second story should be carried along and the name first +applied to it survive, even to the present day? That the upper story +took its name from the rock-shelter may be further illustrated. The +word _osh ten_ comes from _o sho nan te_, the condition of being +dusky, dank, or mildewy; clearly descriptive of a cavern, but not of +the most open, best lighted, and driest room in a Pueblo house. + +To continue, we may see how the necessity for protection would drive +the petty clans more and more to the cliffs, how the latter at every +available point would ultimately come to be occupied, and thus how the +"_Cliff-dwelling_" (see Fig. 498), was confined to no one section but +was as universal as the farm-house type of architecture itself, so +widespread, in fact, that it has been heretofore regarded as the +monument of a great, now extinct _race_ of people! + + +COMMUNAL PUEBLOS DEVELOPED FROM CONGREGATION OF CLIFF-HOUSE TRIBES. + +[Illustration: FIG. 499.--Typical terraced communal pueblo.] + +We may see, finally, how at last the canons proved too limited and in +other ways undesirable for occupation, the result of which was the +confederation of the scattered cliff-dwelling clans, and the +construction, first on the overhanging cliff-tops, then on _mesas_, +and farther and farther away, of great, many-storied towns, any one of +which was named, in consequence of the bringing together in it of many +houses and clans, _thlu el lon ne_, from _thlu a_, many springing up, +and _el lon a_, that which stands, or those which stand; in other +words, "many built standing together." This cannot be regarded as +referring to the simple fact that a village is necessarily composed of +many houses standing together. The name for any other village than a +communal pueblo is _ti na kwin ne_, from _ti na_--many sitting around, +and _kwin ne_, place of. This term is applied by the Zunis to all +villages save their own and those of ourselves, which latter they +regard as Pueblos, in their acceptation of the above native word. + +Here, then, in strict accordance with, the teachings of myth, +folk-lore and tradition, I have used the linguistic argument as +briefest and most convincing in indicating the probable sequence of +architectural types in the evolution of the Pueblo; from the brush +lodge, of which only the name survives, to the recent and present +terraced, many-storied, communal structures, which we may find +throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and contiguous parts of the +neighboring Territories.[1] + + [1] See for confirmation the last Annual Report to the + Archaeological Institute of America, by Adolph F. Bandelier, one + of the most indefatigable explorers and careful students of early + Spanish history in America. + + + + +POTTERY AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. + + +There is no other section of the United States where the potter's art +was so extensively practiced, or where it reached such a degree of +perfection, as within the limits of these ancient Pueblo regions. To +this statement not even the prolific valleys of the Mississippi and +its tributaries form an exception. + +On examining a large and varied collection of this pottery, one would +naturally regard it either as the product of four distinct peoples or +as belonging to four different eras, with an inclination to the +chronologic division. + +When we see the reasonable probability that the architecture, the +primeval arts and industries, and the culture of the Pueblos are +mainly indigenous to the desert and semi-desert regions of North +America, we are in the way towards an understanding of the origin and +remarkable degree of development in the ceramic art. + +In these regions water not only occurs in small quantities, but is +obtainable only at points separated by great distances, hence to the +Pueblos the first necessity of life is the transportation and +preservation of water. The skins and paunches of animals could be used +in the effort to meet this want with but small success, as the heat +and aridity of the atmosphere would in a short time render water thus +kept unfit for use, and the membranes once empty would be liable to +destruction by drying. So far as language indicates the character of +the earliest water vessels which to any extent met the requirements of +the Zuni ancestry, they were tubes of wood or sections of canes. The +latter, in ritualistic recitation, are said to have been the +receptacles that the creation-priests filled with the sacred water +from the ocean of the cave-wombs of earth, whence men and creatures +were born, and the name for one of these cane water vessels is _sho +tom me_, from _sho e_, cane or canes, and _tom me_, a wooden tube. +Yet, although in the extreme western borders of the deserts, which +were probably the first penetrated by the Pueblos, the cane grows to +great size and in abundance along the two rivers of that country, its +use, if ever extensive, must have speedily given way to the use of +gourds, which grew luxuriantly at these places and were of better +shapes and of larger capacity. The name of the gourd as a vessel is +_shop tom me_, from _sho e_, canes, _po pon nai e_, bladder-shaped, +and _tom me_, a wooden tube; a seeming derivation (with the exception +of the interpolated sound significant of form) from _sho tom me_. The +gourd itself is called _mo thla a_, "hard fruit." The inference is +that when used as a vessel, and called _shopi tom me_, it must have +been named after an older form of vessel, instead of after the plant +or fruit which produced it. + +While the gourd was large and convenient in form, it was difficult of +transportation owing to its fragility. To overcome this it was encased +in a coarse sort of wicker-work, composed of fibrous yucca leaves or +of flexible splints. Of this we have evidence in a series of +gourd-vessels among the Zunis, into which the sacred water is said to +have been transferred from the tubes, and a pair of which one of the +priests, who came east with me two years ago, brought from New Mexico +to Boston in his hands--so precious were they considered as +relics--for the purpose of replenishing them with water from the +Atlantic. These vessels are encased rudely but strongly in a meshing +of splints (see Fig. 500), and while I do not positively claim that +they have been piously preserved since the time of the universal use +of gourds as water-vessels by the ancestry of this people, they are +nevertheless of considerable antiquity. Their origin is attributed to +the priest-gods, and they show that it must have once been a common +practice to encase gourds, as above described, in osiery. + +[Illustration: FIG. 500.--Gourd vessel enclosed in wicker.] + + +POTTERY ANTICIPATED BY BASKETRY. + +This crude beginning of the wicker-art in connection with +water-vessels points toward the development of the wonderful +water-tight basketry of the southwest, explaining, too, the +resemblance of many of its typical forms to the shapes of +gourd-vessels. Were we uncertain of this, we might again turn to +language, which designates the impervious wicker water-receptacle of +whatever outline as _tom ma_, an evident derivation from the +restricted use of the word _tom me_ in connection with gourd or cane +vessels, since a basket of any other kind is called _tsi i le_. + +It is readily conceivable that water-tight osiery, once known, however +difficult of manufacture, would displace the general use of +gourd-vessels. While the growth of the gourd was restricted to limited +areas, the materials for basketry were everywhere at hand. Not only +so, but basket-vessels were far stronger and more durable, hence more +readily transported full of water, to any distance. By virtue of their +rough surfaces, any leakage in such vessels was instantly stopped by a +daubing of pitch or mineral asphaltum, coated externally with sand or +coarse clay to harden it and overcome its adhesiveness. + +[Illustration: FIG. 501.--Havasupai clay-lined roasting-tray.] + +We may conclude, then, that so long as the Pueblo ancestry were +semi-nomadic, basketry supplied the place of pottery, as it still does +for the less advanced tribes of the Southwest, except in cookery. +Possibly for a time basketry of this kind served in place of pottery +even for cookery, as with one of the above-mentioned tribes, the _Ha +va su pai_ or Coconinos, of Cataract Canon, Arizona. These people, +until recently, were cut off from the rest of the world by their +almost impenetrable canon, nearly half a mile in depth at the point +where they inhabit it. For example, when I visited them in 1881, they +still hafted sharpened bits of iron, like celts, in wood. They had not +yet forgotten how to boil food in water-tight basketry, by means of +hot stones, and continued to roast seeds, crickets, and bits of meat +in wicker-trays, coated inside with gritty clay. (See Fig. 501.) The +method of preparing and using these roasting-trays has an important +bearing on several questions to which reference will be made further +on. A round basket-tray, either loosely or closely woven, is evenly +coated inside with clay, into which has been kneaded a very large +proportion of sand, to prevent contraction and consequent cracking +from drying. This lining of clay is pressed, while still soft, into +the basket as closely as possible with the hands and then allowed to +dry. The tray is thus made ready for use. The seeds or other +substances to be parched are placed inside of it, together with a +quantity of glowing wood-coals. The operator, quickly squatting, +grasps the tray at opposite edges, and, by a rapid spiral motion up +and down, succeeds in keeping the coals and seeds constantly shifting +places and turning over as they dance after one another around and +around the tray, meanwhile blowing or puffing, the embers with every +breath to keep them free from ashes and glowing at their hottest. + +That this clay lining should grow hard from continual heating, and in +some instances separate from its matrix of osiers, is apparent. The +clay form thus detached would itself be a perfect roasting-vessel. + + +POTTERY SUGGESTED BY CLAY-LINED BASKETRY. + +This would suggest the agency of gradual heat in rendering clay fit +for use in cookery and preferable to any previous makeshift. The +modern Zuni name for a parching-pan, which is a shallow bowl of +black-ware, is _thle mon ne_, the name for a basket-tray being _thlae' +lin ne_. The latter name signifies a shallow vessel of twigs, or _thla +we_; the former etymologically interpreted, although of earthenware, +is a hemispherical vessel of the same kind and _material_. All this +would indicate that the _thlae' lin ne_, coated with clay for roasting, +had given birth to the _thle mon ne_, or parching-pan of earthenware. +(See Fig. 502.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 502.--Zuni earthenware roasting tray.] + +Among the Havasupai, still surviving as a sort of bucket, is the +basket-pot or boiling-basket, for use with hot stones, which form I +have also found in some of the cave deposits throughout the ancient +Zuni country. These vessels (see Fig. 503) were bottle-shaped and +provided near the rims of their rather narrow mouths with a sort of +cord or strap-handle, attached to two loops or eyes (Fig. 503 _a_) +woven into the basket, to facilitate handling when the vessel was +filled with hot water. In the manufacture of one of these vessels, +which are good examples of the helix or spirally-coiled type of +basket, the beginning was made at the center of the bottom. A small +wisp of fine, flexible grass stems or osiers softened in water was +first spirally wrapped a little at one end with a flat, limber splint +of tough wood, usually willow (see Fig. 504). This wrapped portion was +then wound upon itself; the outer coil thus formed (see Fig. 505) +being firmly fastened as it progressed to the one already made by +passing the splint wrapping of the wisp each time it was wound around +the latter through some strands of the contiguous inner coil, with the +aid of a bodkin. (See Fig. 506.) The bottom was rounded upward and the +sides were made by coiling the wisp higher and higher, first outward, +to produce the bulge of the vessel, then inward, to form the tapering +upper part and neck, into which, the two little twigs or splint +loop-eyes were firmly woven. (See again Fig. 503 _a_.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 503.--Havasupai boiling-basket.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 504. FIG. 505. FIG. 506. + Sketches illustrating manufacture of + spirally-coiled basketry.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 507.--Typical basket decoration.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 508.--Typical basket decoration.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 509.--Typical basket decoration.] + +These and especially kindred forms of basket-vessels were often quite +elaborately ornamented, either by the insertion at proper points of +dyed wrapping-splints, singly, in pairs, or in sets, or by the +alternate painting of pairs, sets, or series of stitches. Thus were +produced angular devices, like serrated bands, diagonal or zigzag +lines, chevrons, even terraces and frets. (See Figs. 507, 508, 509.) +There can be no doubt that these styles and ways of decoration were +developed, along with the weaving of baskets, simply by elaborating on +suggestions of the lines and figures unavoidably produced in +wicker-work of any kind when strands of different colors happened to +be employed together. Even slight discolorations in occasional splints +would result in such suggestions, for the stitches would here show, +there disappear. The probability of this view of the accidental origin +of basket-ornamentation may be enhanced by a consideration of the +etymology of a few Zuni decorative terms, more of which might be given +did space admit. A terraced lozenge (see Figs. 510, 511), instead of +being named after the abstract word _a wi thlui ap i pae tchi na_, +which signifies a double terrace or two terraces joined together at +the base, is designated _shu k'u tu li a tsi' nan_, from _shu e_, +splints or fibers; _k'u tsu_, a double fold, space, or stitch (see +Figs. 512, 513); _li a_, an interpolation referring to form; and _tsi' +nan_, mark; in other words, the "double splint-stitch-form mark." +Likewise, a pattern, composed principally of a series of diagonal or +oblique parallel lines _en masse_ (see Fig. 514), is called _shu' +k'ish pa tsi nan_, from _shu e_, splints; _k'i'sh pai e_, tapering +(_k'ish pon ne_, neck or smaller part of anything); and _tsi nan_, +mark; that is, "tapering" or "neck-splint mark." Curiously enough, in +a bottle-shaped basket as it approaches completion the splints of the +tapering part or neck all lean spirally side by side of one another +(see Fig. 515), and a term descriptive of this has come to be used as +that applied to lines resembling it, instead of a derivative from _ae's +sel lai e_, signifying an oblique or leaning line. Where splints +variously arranged, or stitches, have given names to decorations--applied +even to painted and embroidered designs--it is not difficult for us to +see that these same combinations, at first unintentional, must have +suggested the forms to which they gave names as decorations. + +[Illustration: FIG. 510. FIG. 511. + Terraced lozenge decoration, or + "double-splint-stitch-forms."] + +[Illustration: FIG. 512. FIG. 513. + Double-splint-stitch.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 514.--Diagonal parallel-line decoration.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 515.--Splints at neck of unfinished basket.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 516. FIG. 517. + Examples of indented decoration on corrugated ware.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 518.--Cooking-pot of corrugated ware, showing + conical projections near rim. + +_Pueblo coiled pottery developed from basketry._--Seizing the +suggestion afforded by the rude tray-molded parching-bowls, +particularly after it was discovered that if well burned they resisted +the effects of water as well as of heat, the ancient potter would +naturally attempt in time to reproduce the boiling-basket in clay. She +would find that to accomplish this she could not use as a mold the +inside of the boiling-basket, as she had the inside of the tray, +because its neck was smaller than its body. Nor could she form the +vase by plastering the clay outside of the vessel, not only for the +same reason, but also because the clay in drying would contract so +much that it would crack or scale off. Naturally, then, she pursued +the process she was accustomed to in the manufacture of the +basket-bottle. That is, she formed a thin rope of soft clay, which, +like the wisp of the basket, she coiled around and around a center to +form the bottom, then spirally upon itself, now widening the diameter +of each coil more and more, then contracting as she progressed upward +until the desired height and form were attained. As the clay was +adhesive, each coil was attached to the one already formed by +pinching or pressing together the connecting edges at short intervals +as the winding went on. This produced corrugations or indentations +marvelously resembling the stitches of basket-work. Hence accidentally +the vessel thus built up appeared so similar to the basket which had +served as its model that evidently it did not seem complete until this +feature had been heightened by art. At any rate, the majority of +specimens belonging to this type of pottery--especially those of the +older periods during which it was predominant--are distinguished by an +indented or incised decoration exactly reproducing the zigzags, +serrations, chevrons, terraces, and other characteristic devices of +water-tight basketry. (Compare Figs. 516, 517 with Figs. 507, 508.) +Evidently with a like intention two little cone-like projections were +attached to the neck near the rim of the vessel (see Fig. 518) which +may hence be regarded as survivals of the loops whereby it has been +seen the ends of the strap-handle were attached to the boiling-basket. +(See again Fig. 503, _a_.) Although varied in later times to form +scrolls, rosettes, and other ornate figures (see Fig. 519), they +continued ever after quite faithful features of the spiral type of +pot, and may even sometimes be seen on the cooking-vessels of modern +Zuni. To add yet another link to this chain of connection between the +coiled boiling-basket and the spirally-built cooking-pot, the names of +the two kinds of vessels may be given. The boiling-basket was known as +_wo li a k'ia ni tu li a tom me_, the corrugated cooking pot as _wo li +a k'ia te' ni tu li a ton ne_, the former signifying "coiled +cooking-basket," the latter "coiled earthenware cooking-basket." + +[Illustration: FIG. 519--Cooking-pot of corrugated ware, showing + modified projections near rim.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 520.--Wicker water-bottle, showing double loops for + suspension.] + +Other very important types of vessels were made in a similar way. I +refer especially to canteens and water-bottles. The water-bottle of +wicker differed little from the boiling-basket. It was generally +rounder-bodied, longer and narrower necked, and provided at one side +near the shoulders or rim with two loops of hair or strong fiber, +usually braided. (See Fig. 520.) The ends of the burden-strap passed +through these loops made suspension of the vessel easy, or when the +latter was used simply as a receptacle, the pair of loops served as a +handle. Sometimes these basket-bottles were strengthened at the bottom +with rawhide or buckskin, stuck on with gum. When, in the evolution of +the pitcher, this type of basket was reproduced in clay, not only was +the general form preserved, but also the details above described. That +is, without reference to usefulness--in fact at no small expense of +trouble--the handles were almost always made double (see Fig. 521); +indeed, often braided, although of clay. Frequently, especially as +time went on, the bottoms were left plain, as if to simulate the +smooth skin-bottoming of the basket-bottles. (See Fig. 522.) At first +it seems odd that with all these points of similarity the two kinds of +water-vessel should have totally dissimilar names; the basket-bottle +being known as the _k'ia pu k'ia tom me_, from _k'ia pu kia_, "for +carrying or placing water in," and _tom me_; the handled earthen +receptacle, as the _i mush ton ne_. Yet when we consider that the +latter was designed not for transporting water, for which it was less +suited than the former, but for holding it, for which it was even +preferable, the discrepancy is explained, since the name _i mush ton +ne_ is from _i' mu_, to sit, and _tom me_, a tube. This indicates, +too, why the basket-bottle was not displaced by the earthen bottle. +While the former continued in use for bringing water from a distance, +the latter was employed for storing it. As the fragile earthen vessels +were much more readily made and less liable to become tainted, they +were exclusively used as receptacles, removing the necessity of the +tedious manufacture of a large number of the basket-bottles. Again, as +the pitcher was thus used exclusively as a receptacle, to be set aside +in household or camp, the name _i' mush ton ne_ sufficed without the +interpolation _te_--"earthenware"--to distinguish it as of _terra +cotta_, instead of osiery. + +[Illustration: FIG. 521.--Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing + double handle.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 522.--Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing + plain bottom.] + + + +POTTERY INFLUENCED BY LOCAL MINERALS. + +Before discussing the origin of other forms, it may be well to +consider briefly some influences, more or less local, which, in +addition to the general effect of gourd-forms in suggesting +basket-types and of the latter in shaping earthenware, had +considerable bearing on the development of ceramic art in the +Southwest, pushing it to higher degrees of perfection and diversity in +some parts than in others. + +Perhaps first in importance among these influences was the mineral +character of a locality. Where clay occurred of a fine tough texture, +easily mined and manipulated, the work in _terra cotta_ became +proportionately more elaborate in variety and finer in quality. There +are to be found about the sites of some ancient pueblos, potsherds +incredibly abundant and indicating great advancement in decorative +art, while near others, architecturally similar, even where evidence +of ethnic connection is not wanting, only coarse, crudely-molded, and +painted fragments are discoverable, and these in limited quantity. + +An example in point is the ruined pueblo of _A' wat u i_ or +_Aguatobi_, as it was known to the Spaniards at the time of the +conquest, when it was the leading "city of the Province of Tusayan," +now Moki. Over the entire extent of this ruin, and to a considerable +distance around it, fragments of the greatest variety in color, shape, +size, and finish of ware occur in abundance. In the immediate +neighborhood, however, are extensive, readily accessible formations +producing several kinds of clay and nearly all the color minerals +used in the Pueblo potter's art. Yet at the greatest ruin on the upper +Colorado Chiquito (in an arm of the valley of which river _A' wat u i_ +itself occurs), where the fallen walls betoken equal advancement in +the status of the ancient builders and indicate by their vast extent +many times the population of _A' wat u i_, the potsherds are coarse, +irregular in curvature, badly decayed, and exceptionally scarce. In +the immediate neighborhood of this ruin, I need not add, clay is of +rare occurrence and poor in quality. + +A more reliable example is furnished by the farming pueblos of Zuni. +At _He sho ta tsi nan_ or Ojo del Pescado, fifteen miles east of Zuni, +clays of several varieties and color minerals are abundant. The finest +pottery of the tribe is made there in great quantity, while, +notwithstanding the facilities for transportation which the Zunis now +possess, at the opposite farming town of _K'iap kwai na kwin_, or Los +Ojos Calientes, where clay is scarce and of poor texture, the pottery, +although somewhat abundant, is of miserable quality and of bad shape. + +In quality of art quite as much as in that of material this local +influence was great. In the neighborhood of ruined pueblos which occur +near mineral deposits furnishing a great variety of pigment-material, +the decoration of the ceramic remains is so surprisingly and +universally elaborate, beautiful, and varied as to lead the observer +to regard the people who dwelt there as different from the people who +had inhabited towns about the sites of which the sherds show not only +meager skill and less profuse decorative variety, but almost typical +dissimilarity. Yet tradition and analogy, even history in rare +instances, may declare that the inhabitants of both sections were of +common derivation, if not closely related and contemporaneous. +Probably, at no one point in the Southwest was ceramic decoration +carried to a higher degree of development than at _A' wat u i_, yet +the Oraibes, by descent the modern representatives of the _A' wat u i +ans_ are the poorest potters and painters among the Mokis. Near their +pueblo the clay and other mineral deposits mentioned as abundant at +_A' wat u i_ are meager and inaccessible. Still, it may be urged that +time may have introduced other than natural causes for change; this +could not be said of another example pertaining to one period and a +single tribe. I refer again to the Zunis. The manufactures of Pescado +probably surpass in decorative excellence all other modern Pueblo +pottery, while both in their lack of variety and in delicacy of +execution of their painted patterns the fictiles of Ojo Caliente are +so inferior and diverse from the other Zuni work that the future +archaeologist will have need to beware, or (judging alone from the +ceramic remains which he finds at the two pueblos) he will attribute +them at least to distinct periods, perhaps to diverse peoples. + + +POTTERY INFLUENCED BY MATERIALS AND METHODS USED IN BURNING. + +Other influences, to a less extent local, had no inconsiderable effect +on primitive Pueblo pottery: materials employed and methods resorted +to in burning. + +Only one kind of fuel, except for a single class of vessels, is now +used in pottery-firing; namely, dried cakes or slabs of sheep-dung. +Anciently, several varieties, such as extremely dry sage-brush or +grease-wood, pinon and other resinous woods, dung of herbivora when +obtainable, charcoal, and also bituminous or cannel-coal were +employed. The principal agent seems, however, to have been dead-wood +or spunk, pulverized and moistened with some adhesive mixture so that +flat cakes could be formed of it. I infer this not alone from Zuni +tradition, which is not ample, but from the fact that the sheep-dung +now used is called, in the condition of fuel, _ku ne a_, while its +name in the abstract or as sheep-dung simply is _ma he_. Dry-rot wood +or spunk is known as _ku me_. In the shape of flat cakes it would be +termed _ku mo we_ or _ku me a_, whence I doubt not the modern word _ku +ne a_ is derived. + +Of methods, four were in vogue. The simplest and worst consisted in +burying the vessel to be burned under hot ashes and building a fire +around it, or inverting it over a bed of embers and encircling it with +a blazing fire of brush-wood, as is still the practice of the +Maricopas and other sedentary tribes of the Gila. The most common was +building a little cone or dome of fuel over the articles to be baked +and firing; the most perfect was to dig or construct under ground a +little cist or kiln, line it evenly with fuel, leaving a central space +for the green ware, and slowly fire the whole mass. + +Irrespective of the kind of fuel used, the baking by ash-burial made +the ware gray, cloudy, or dingy, and not very durable. Pottery burned +with sage or grease-wood was firm, light gray unless of ocherous clay, +less cloudy than if ash-baked, yet mottled. Turf and dung, although +easily managed, did not thoroughly harden the pottery, but burned it +very evenly; dead wood or spunk-cakes baked as evenly as any of the +materials thus far mentioned, and more thoroughly than the others. +Resinous or pitchy woods, while they produced a much higher degree of +heat, could be used only when color was unimportant, as they still are +used to some extent in the firing of black-ware or cooking pots. The +latter, while still hot from a preliminary burning, if coated +externally with the mucilaginous juice of green cactus, internally +with pinon gum or pitch, and fired a second or even a third time with +resinous wood-fuel, are rendered absolutely fire-proof, semi-glazed +with a black gloss inside, and wonderfully durable. Tradition +represents that by far the most perfect fuel was found to be cannel +coal, and that, where abundant, accessible, and of an extremely +bituminous quality, it was much used. The traces of little pit-kilns +filled with, cinders of mineral coal about many of the ruins in the +northwestern portion of the Pueblo region, coupled with the +semi-fusion and well-preserved condition of most of the ancient jars +found associated with them, certainly give support to this tradition. +Happily I have additional confirmation. When, two years ago, I was +engaged in making ethnologic collections at Moki for the United States +National Museum, some Indians of the _Te wa_ pueblo brought me a +quantity of pottery. It had been made with the purpose of deceiving +me, in careful imitation of ancient types, and was certainly equal to +the latter in lightness and the condition of the burning. I paid these +enterprising Indians as good a price as they had been accustomed to +getting for genuine ancient specimens, but told them that, being a +Zuni, I was almost one of themselves, hence they could not deceive me, +and asked them how they had so cleverly succeeded in burning the ware. +They laughingly replied that they had simply dug some bituminous coal +(_u a ko_) and used it in little pits. When I further asked them why +they did not burn their household utensils thus, they said it was too +uncertain; representing that the pots did not like to be burned in the +_u a ko_, probably because it was so hot, hence they broke more +frequently than if fired in the common way with dried sheep-dung; +furthermore the latter was less troublesome, requiring only to be dug +from the corrals near at hand and dried to make it ready for use. + +This partially explains why the art of water-tight basket-making has +here gradually declined since the Spanish conquest, as the ceramic +industry has increased with the introduction of the sheep, which +furnishes fuel for the burning, and the horse, before unknown, has +facilitated transportation, whereby trade for this class of basketry +with the distant nomadic tribes who still make it is rendered easy. +Withal, however, the quality of pottery has not improved, but has +deteriorated; as sheep-dung is but an inferior fuel for firing. + + + + +EVOLUTION OF FORMS. + + +[Illustration: FIG. 523.--Food trencher of wicker-work.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 524.--Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls] + +Bearing these statements in mind, the discussion of the evolution as +well as of the distribution of form, and later of the evolution of +decoration, in pottery will become easier. By lingering steps there +was early developed a method of building up vessels by a process +differing in part from the spiral. As the parching-bowl had been +evolved from the roasting-tray, so, we may infer, the food-bowl was +suggested by the hemispherical food-trencher of wicker-work. (See Fig. +523.) Yet, curiously enough, the inside of the latter seems not at +first to have been used in molding the food-bowl, as, it will be +remembered, the tray had been in forming the parching-pan. On the +contrary, the clay was coiled around and around the _outside_ of the +bottom of an inverted basket bowl (see Fig. 524), instead of being +pressed evenly into it. As with the cooking pot, so with this; as the +coiling progressed it was corrugated, not so much, however from +necessity, as from habit. In consequence of the difficulty experienced +in removing these bowl-forms from the bottoms of the baskets--which +had to be done while they were still plastic, to keep them from +cracking--they were made very shallow. Hence the specimens found among +the older ruins and graves are not only corrugated outside, but are +also very wide in proportion to their height. (See Fig. 525.) As time +went on it was found that bowls might be made deeper, and yet readily +be taken off from the basket bottoms, if slightly moistened outside +and pressed evenly all around, or, better still, scraped; for, being +plastic, this proceeding caused them to grow thinner, consequently +larger, thereby to loosen from the basket over which they had been +molded. As a result of this scraping, however, the corrugated surface +was destroyed, nor could it easily be restored. Therefore bowls when +made deep were, as a rule, smooth on the outside as well as on the +interior surface. When by a perfectly natural sequence of events--as +will be shown further on--ornamentation by painting came to be applied +first to the plain interiors of the bowls, the smooth outer surface +was found preferable to the corrugated surface, not only because it +took paint more readily, but also because the bowl, when painted +outside as well as inside, formed a far handsomer utensil for +household use than if simply decorated by the older methods. As a +consequence, we find that, while the larger vessels continued to be +corrugated and indented, the smoothed and painted bowl came into +general use. Associated later on with this secondary type of bowls +occurred the larger vessels plain at the bottoms, still corrugated at +the sides. Nor is this surprising, as the bowl, molded on the basket +bottom and there smoothed, could be afterward built up by the spiral +process. When in time the huge hemispherical canteens or water +carriers of earthen-ware replaced the basket bottles, so also the +water jar or _olla_ replaced the handled sitter or pitcher, since it +could be made larger to receive more copious supplies of water than +the strength of the frail handles on the pitchers would warrant. + +[Illustration: FIG. 525.--Ancient bowl of corrugated ware.] + +The water jar, like the food-bowl, is a conspicuous household article; +for which reason the Zuni woman expends all her ability to render them +handsome. Judging by this, the desire to decorate the water-vessel +with paint, like its constant companion the food-bowl, would early +lead to the attempt to make its surface smooth. This would need to be +effected while the article was still soft; which necessity probably +led to the discovery that ajar of the corrugated or simply coiled type +may be smoothed while still plastic without danger of distortion, no +matter what its size, if supported at the bottom in a basket or other +mold so that it may be shifted or turned about without direct +handling. (See Fig. 526.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 526.--Basket-bowl as base-mold for large vessels.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 527.--Clay nucleus for a vessel.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 528.--Clay nucleus shaped to form the base of a + vessel.] + +After this discovery was made, the molding of large vessels was no +longer accomplished by the spiral method exclusively. A lump of clay, +hollowed out (see Fig. 527), was shaped how rudely so ever on the +bottom of the basket or in the hand (see Fig. 528), then placed inside +of a hemispherical basket-bowl and stroked until pressed outward to +conform with the shape, and to project a little above the edges of its +temporary mold, whence it was built up spirally (see Fig. 529) until +the desired form had been attained, after which it was smoothed by +scraping (see Fig. 530). + +[Illustration: FIG. 529.--Clay nucleus in base-mold, with beginning + of spiral building.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 530.--First form of vessel.] + +The necks and apertures of these earliest forms of the water jar were +made very small in proportion to their other dimensions, presumably on +account of the necessity of often carrying them full of water over +steep and rough _mesa_ paths, coupled perhaps with the imitation of +other forms. To render them as light as possible they were also made +very thin. One of the consequences of all this was that when large +they could not be stroked inside, as the shoulders or uttermost upper +peripheries of the vessel could not be reached with the hand or +scraper through the small openings. The effect of the pressure exerted +in smoothing them on the outside, therefore, naturally caused the +upper parts to sink down, generating the spheroidal shape of the jar. +(see Fig. 531), one of the most beautiful types of the olla ever known +to the Pueblos. At Zuni, wishing to have an ancient jar of this form +which I had seen, reproduced, I showed a drawing of it to a woman +expert in the manufacture of pottery. Without any instructions from me +beyond a mere statement of my wishes, she proceeded at once to +sprinkle the inside of a basket-bowl with sand, managing the clay in +a way above described and continuing the vessel-shaping upward by +spiral building. She did not at first make the shoulders low or +sloping, but rounded or arched them upward and outward (see again Fig. +529). At this I remonstrated, but she gave no heed other than to +ejaculate "_wa na ni, ana!_" which meant "just wait, will you!" When +she had finished the rim, she easily caused the shoulders to sink, +simply by stroking them--more where uneven than elsewhere--with a wet +scraper of gourd (see Fig. 532, _a_) until she had exactly reproduced +the form of the drawing. She then set the vessel aside _in_ the +basket. Within two days it shrank by drying at the rate of about one +inch in twelve, leaving the basket far too large. (See Fig. 533.) It +could hence be removed without the slightest difficulty. + +[Illustration: FIG. 531.--Secondary form, in the mold.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 532.--Scrapers of gourd and earthenware for + smoothing pottery.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 533.--Finished form of vessel in mold, showing + amount of contraction in drying.] + +The sand had prevented contact with the basket which would have caused +the clay vessel to crack as the latter was very thin. This process +exists in full force to-day with the Oraibes in the modeling of +convex-bottomed vessels, and the Zunis thus make their large bowls and +huge drum-jars. + +Upon the bottoms of many jars of these forms, I have observed the +impressions of the wicker bowls in which they had been molded--not +entirely to be removed, it seems, by the most assiduous smoothing +before burning; for, however smooth any exceptional specimen may +appear, a squeeze in plaster will still reveal traces of these +impressions. + +[Illustration: FIG. 534.--Profile of olla, or modern water-jug.] + +A characteristic of these older forms of the water-jar is that they +are invariably flat or round-bottomed, while more recent and all +modern types of the olla (see Fig. 534) are concave or hollowed at the +base (see Fig. 535) to facilitate balancing on the head. Outside of +this concavity and entirely surrounding it (Fig. 536, _a_) is often to +be observed an indentation (see Fig. 536, _b_) usually slight although +sometimes pronounced. + +[Illustration: FIG. 535.--Base of olla.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 536.--Section of olla.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 537.--Annular mat of wicker, or "milkmaid's boss."] + +[Illustration: FIG. 538.--Use of annular mat illustrated.] + +This has no use, but there is of course a reason for its occurrence +which, if investigated, may throw light on the origin of the modern +type of the olla itself. The older or round-bottomed jars were +balanced on the head in carrying, by means of a wicker-work ring, a +kind of "milk-maid's boss." (See Fig. 537.) These annular mats are +still found among the ruins and cave-deposits, and continue in use +with the modern Pueblos for supporting convex-bottom cooking pots on +the floor as well as for facilitating the balancing of large +food-bowls on the head. (See Fig. 538.) Obviously the latter dishes +have never been hollowed as the ollas have been, because, since they +were used as eating-bowls, the food could be removed from a plain +bottom more easily than from a convex surface, which would result from +the hollowing underneath. Supposing that a water-jar chanced to be +modeled in one of the convex-bottom bread-baskets (see Fig. 539), it +would become necessary, on account of the thickness of these wicker +bowls, to remove the form from the mold before it dried. By absorption +it would dry so rapidly that it would crack, especially in contracting +against the convexity in the center of the basket-bottom. (See Fig. +539, _a_.) In order that this form might be supported in an upright +position until dry, it would naturally be placed on one of the +wicker-rings. Moreover, that the bottom might not sink down or fall +out, a wad of some soft substance would be placed within the ring. +(See Fig. 540, _a_.) As a consequence the weight of the plastic vessel +would press the still soft bottom against the central wad, (Fig. 540, +_a_) and the wicker ring (Fig. 540, _c_) sufficiently to cause the +rounding upward of the cavity (Fig. 540, _b_) first made by the +convex-bottom of the basket-mold, as well as form the encircling +indentation (Fig. 540, _c_). Thus by accident, probably, only possibly +by intention, was evolved the most useful and distinctive feature of +the modern water-jar or olla, the _concave bottom_. This, once +produced, would be held to be peculiarly convenient, dispensing with +the use of a troublesome auxiliary. Its reproduction would present +grave difficulties unless the bottom of the first vessel, thickly +coated with sand to prevent cracking, was employed as a mold, instead +of the absorbent convex-centered basket-bowl. + +[Illustration: FIG. 539.--Section of incipient vessel in basket-mold.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 540.--Section of vessel supported for drying.] + +I infer this because, to-day, a Zuni woman is quite at a loss how to +hollow the bottom of a water-jar if she does not possess a form or +mold made from the base of some previously broken jar of the same +type. She therefore, carefully preserves these precious bottoms of her +broken ollas, even cementing together fractured ones, when not too +badly shivered, with a mixture of pitch or mineral asphaltum and sand. +I have seen as many as a dozen or more of these molds (see Fig. 541) +in a single store room. + +[Illustration: FIG. 541.--Base-mold (bottom of water-jar).] + +As the practice of molding all new vessels of this class in the +bottoms of older ones was general--I might say invariable--any +peculiarities of form in the originals must have been communicated to +those ensuing; from the latter to others, and so on, though in less +and less degree, to the present time. This theory is but tentative, +yet it would also explain, on the score of association, why the Pueblo +women slightly prefer the jars showing the indentation in question to +more regular ones. With the change from elevated cliff or _mesa_ +habitations to more accessible ones, the Pueblo Indians were enabled +to enlarge the apertures of their water-jars, since not only did the +concave bases of the latter make the balancing of them more secure, +but the trails over which they had to be carried from watering place +to habitation were less rugged. A natural result of this enlargement +of the openings, which admitted access with the scraper to the +interior peripheries of the thin-walled jars, was the rounding upward +of their shoulders, making them taller in proportion to their +diameters. This modification of form in the water-jar, taken in +connection with the fact that thus changed, it displaced the daily use +of the canteen, explains the totally dissimilar names which were +applied to the two types. The older, or spheroidal olla, was known as +the _k'iap ton ne_, from _k'ia pu_, to place or carry water in, and +_tom me_; while the newer _olla_ is called _k'ia wih na k'ia te ele_, +from _k'ia wih na ki'a na ki'a_, for bringing of water: _te_, +earthen-ware, and _e' le_ or _e'l lai e_, to stand or standing. The +latter term, _te e le_, is generic, being applied to nearly all _terra +cotta_ vessels which are taller than they are broad. _Te_, earthen +ware, is derived from _t'eh'_, the root also of _te ne a_, to resound, +to sound hollow; while _e le_, from _e'l le_ or _el' lai e_, to stand, +is obviously applied in significance of comparative height as well as +of function. + +Thus I have thrown together a few conjectures and suggestions relative +to the origin of the Southwestern pottery and the evolution of its +principal forms. + + + + +EVOLUTION OF DECORATION + + +I might go on, appealing to language to account for nearly every +variety of pottery found existing as a _type_ throughout the region +referred to; but a subject inseparably connected with this, throwing +light on it in many ways, and possessing in itself great interest, +claims treatment on the few remaining pages of this essay. I refer to +the evolution and significance or symbolism of Pueblo ceramic +decorations. + +Before proceeding with this, however, I must acknowledge that I am as +much indebted to the teachings of Mr. E.B. Tylor, in his remarkable +works on Man's Early History and Primitive Culture, to Lubbock, Daniel +Wilson, Evans, and others, for the direction or _impetus_ of these +inquiries, as I am to my own observations and experiments for its +development. + +The line of gradual development in ceramic decorations, especially of +the symbolic element, treated as a subject, is wider in its +applicability to the study of primitive man, because more clearly +illustrative of the growth of culture. I regret, therefore, that it +must here be dealt with only in a most cursory manner. Large +collections for illustration would be essential to a fuller treatment, +even were space unlimited. + +[Illustration: FIG. 542.--Example of Pueblo painted ornamentation.] + +Decoratively, Pueblo pottery is characterized by two marked features: +angular designs predominate and ornamental effect depends as much on +the open or undecorated space as on the painted lines and areas in the +devices. (See Fig. 542.) While this is true of recent and modern +wares, it is more and more notably the case with other specimens in a +ratio increasing in proportion to their antiquity. + +[Illustration: FIG. 543. & FIG. 544.--Amazonian basket decorations.] + +We cannot explain these characteristics, and the conventional aspect +of the higher and symbolic Pueblo ceramic decorations which grew out +of them, in a better way than to suppose them, like the forms of this +pottery, to be the survivals of the influence of basketry. (See, for +comparison, Figs. 543, 544.) I shall be pardoned, therefore, for +elaborating suggestions already made in this direction, in the +paragraphs which treated of the ornamentation of spiral ware, and of +the derivation of basket decorations from stitch- and splint-suggested +figures. All students of early man understand his tendency to +reproduce habitual forms in accustomed association. This feeling, +exaggerated with savages by a belief in the actual relationship of +resemblance, is shown in the reproduction of the decorations of basket +vessels on the clay vessels made from them or in imitation of them. + +In entire conformity with this, the succession in the methods of the +ornamentation of Pueblo pottery seems to have been first by incision +or indentation; then by relief; afterward by painting in black on a +natural or light surface; finally, by painting in color on a white or +colored surface. + +As before suggested, the patterns on the coiled, regularly indented +pottery (which came to be first known to the world as a type, the +"corrugated," through the earlier explorations and reports of Mr. +William H. Holmes) were produced simply by emphasized indentation, +more rarely by incision, and were almost invariably angular, +reproducing exactly the designs on wicker work. Even in comparatively +recent examples of the corrugated ware this is true; for, once +connected with a type, a style of decoration, both seem to have been +ever after inseparable, with at most but slight modification of the +latter. One of these modifications, in both method and effect, was in +the adoption of the raised or relief style of ornamentation found, +with rare exceptions in the Southwest, only on corrugated ware, and on +the class which in modern times has replaced it there, vessels used in +cookery. Although never universal, this style deserves passing +attention as the outgrowth of an effort to attain the effect of +contrast produced by dyed or painted splints on wicked work before the +use of paint was known in connection with pottery. The same kind of +investigation indicates that the Pueblos largely owed their textile +industries and designs, as well as their potter's art, to the +necessity which gave rise to the making of water-tight basketry. The +terms connected with the rudimentary processes of weaving and +embroidery, and the principal patterns of both (on, for example, +blankets, kirtles, sacred girdles, and women's belts), are mostly +susceptible of interpretation, like the terms in pottery, as having a +meaning connected with the processes of basket plaiting and painting. +This renders the conventional character of Pueblo textile ornaments +easy of comprehension, as well, as the very early, if not the +earliest, origin of loom-weaving among our Indians in the desert +regions of America. + +Henceforward, then, we have only to consider decoration by painting. +The probability is that this began as soon as the smooth surface in +pottery was generally made; evidence of which seemingly exists; as +eating bowls are, even to the present day, decorated principally on +the interior; not, as may be supposed, because the exterior is more +hidden from view, but because, as we have seen on a former page, bowls +were made plain inside before the corrugated type formed on basket +bottoms had been displaced by the smoothed type; and were naturally +first decorated there with paint. It must be constantly borne in mind +that a style of decoration once coupled with a kind of ware, or even a +portion of a vessel, retained its association permanently. + +It must have been early observed that clay of one kind, applied even +thinly to the exterior of a vessel of another kind, produced, when +burned, a different color. With the discovery that clays of different +kinds burned in a variety of colors, to some extent irrespective of +the methods and the materials used in firing, there must likewise have +been hinted, we may safely conclude, the efficacy of clay washes as +paint, and of paint as a decorative agent. + +Among the ceramic remains from the oldest pueblo sites of the +Southwest, pottery occurs, mostly in four varieties: the corrugated or +spiral; the plain, yet rough gray; white decorated with geometric +figures in black; and red, either plain or decorated with geometric +devices in black and white. The gray or dingy brown, rough variety, +resulted when a corrugated or coiled jar had been simply smoothed with +the fingers and scraper before it was fired. A step in advance, easily +and soon taken, was the additional smoothing of the vessel by slightly +wetting and rubbing its outer surface. Even this was productive only +of a moderately smooth surface, since, as learned by the Indian +potters long before, in their experience with the clay-plastered +parching-tray, it was necessary to mix the clay of vessels with a +tempering of sand, crushed potsherds, or the like, to prevent it from +cracking while drying; this, of course, no amount of rubbing would +remove. Hence, by another easy step, clay unmixed with a +grit-tempering, made into a thin paste with water, and thickly applied +to the half-dried jar with a dab or brash of soft fiber, gave a +beautifully smooth surface, especially if polished afterward by +rubbing with water-worn pebbles. The vessel thus prepared, when +burned, assumed invariably a creamy, pure white, red-brown or, other +color, according to the quality or kind of the clay used in making the +paste with which it had been smoothed or washed. + +Thus was achieved the art of producing at will fictiles of different +colors, with which simple suggestion painting also became easy. Black, +aside from clay paste, was almost the first pigment discovered; quite +likely because the mineral blacks from iron ores, coal, and the +various rocks used universally among Indians for staining splints, +etc., would be the earliest tried, and then adopted, as they remained +unchanged by firing. Thus it came about, as evidenced by the sequence +of early remains in the Southwest, that the white and black varieties +of pottery were the first made, then the red and black, and later the +red with white and black decoration. Take, as an example, the latter. +Of course it was a simple mode to employ the red (ocherous) clay for +the wash, the blue clay (which burned white) for the white pigment in +making lines, and any of the black minerals above mentioned for other +marking. + +In these earliest kinds of painted pottery the angular decorations of +the corrugated ware or of basketry were repeated, or at the farthest +only elaborated, although on some specimens the suggestions of the +curved ornament already occurred. These resulted, I may not fear to +claim, from carelessness or awkwardness in drawing, for instance, the +corners of acute angles, which, "cutting across-lot" would, it may be +seen, produce the wavy or meandering line from the zigzag, the +ellipsoid from the rectangle, and so on. + +Precisely in accordance with this theory were the studies of my +preceptor, the lamented Prof. Charles Fred. Hartt. In a paper "On +Evolution in Ornament," published in several periodicals, among them +the Popular Science Monthly of January, 1875, this gifted naturalist +illustrated his studies by actual examples found on decorated burial +urns from Marajo Island. I must take the liberty of suggesting, +however, that upon some antecedent kind of vessel, the eyes of the +Amazonian Islanders may have been, to give Professor Hartt's idea, +"trained to take physiological and aesthetic delight in regularly +recurring lines and dots"; not on the pottery itself, as he seemed to +think, for decoration was old in basketry and the textiles when +pottery was first made. + + + + +DECORATIVE SYMBOLISM. + + +[Illustration: FIG. 545.--Food-bowl. FIG. 546.--Water-jar. + (Showing open or joined space in line near rim.)] + +On every class of food- and water-vessels, in collections of both +ancient and modern Pueblo pottery (except, it is important to note, on +pitchers and some sacred receptacles), it may be observed as a +singular, yet almost constant feature, that encircling lines, often +even ornamental zones, are left open or not as it were closed at the +ends. (See Figs. 545, _a_, 546, _a_.) This is clearly a conventional +quality and seemingly of intentional significance. An explanation must +be sought in various directions, and once found will be useful in +guiding to an understanding of the symbolic element in Pueblo ceramic +art. I asked the Indian women, when I saw them making these little +spaces with great care, why they took so much pains to leave them +open. They replied that to close them was _a'k ta ni_, "fearful!"--that +this little space through the line or zone on a vessel was the "exit +trail of life or being", _o' ne yaethl kwai na_, and this was all. How +it came to be first left open and why regarded as the "exit trail," +they could not tell. If one studies the mythology of this people and +their ways of thinking, then watches them closely, he will, however, +get other clews. When a woman has made a vessel, dried, polished, and +painted it, she will tell you with an air of relief that it is a "Made +Being." Her statement is confirmed as a sort of article of faith, when +you observe that as she places the vessel in the kiln, she also places +in and beside it food. Evidently she vaguely gives something about the +vessel a personal existence. The question arises how did these people +come to regard food-receptacles or water-receptacles as possessed of +or accompanied by conscious existences. I have found that the Zuni +argues actual and essential relationship from similarity in the +appearance, function, or other attributes of even generically diverse +things.[2] + + [2] I would refer those, who may wish to find this characteristic + more fully set forth, to the introductory pages of my essay on + Zuni Fetiches, published in the second volume of Contributions to + North American Ethnology by the Bureau of Ethnology; also to a + paper read before the American Academy of Sciences on the + Relations to one another of the Zuni Mythologic and Sociologic + Systems, published, I regret to say, without my revision, in the + Popular Science Monthly, for July, 1882. + +I here allude to this mental bias because it has both influenced the +decoration of pottery and has been itself influenced by it. In the +first place, the noise made by a pot when struck or when simmering on +the fire is supposed to be the voice of its associated being. The +clang of a pot when it breaks or suddenly cracks in burning is the cry +of this being as it escapes or separates from the vessel. That it has +departed is argued from the fact that the vase when cracked or +fragmentary never resounds as it did when whole. This vague existence +never cries out violently unprovoked; but it is supposed to acquire +the power of doing so by imitation; hence, no one sings, whistles, or +makes other strange or musical sounds resembling those of earthenware +under the circumstances above described during the smoothing, +polishing, painting, or other processes of finishing. The being thus +incited, they think, would surely strive to come out, and would break +the vessel in so doing. In this we find a partial explanation of the +native belief that a pot is accompanied by a conscious existence. The +rest of the solution of this problem in belief is involved in the +native philosophy and worship of water. Water contains the source of +continued life. The vessel holds the water; the source of life +_accompanies_ the water, hence its dwelling place is in the vessel +with the water. Finally, the vessel is supposed to contain the +treasured source, irrespective of the water--as do wells and springs, +or even the places where they have been. If the encircling lines +inside of the eating bowl, _outside_ of the water jar, were closed, +there would be no exit trail for this invisible source of life or for +its influence or breath. Yet, why, it maybe asked, must the source of +life or its influence be provided with a trail by which to pass out +from the vessel? In reply to this I will submit two considerations. It +has been stated that on the earliest Southwestern potteries decoration +was effected by incised or raised ornamentation. Any one who has often +attempted to make vessels according to primitive methods as I have has +found how difficult it is to smoothly join a line incised around a +still soft clay pot, and that this difficulty is even greater when the +ornamental band is laid on in relief. It would be a natural outgrowth +of this predicament to leave the ends unjoined, which indeed the +savage often did. When paint instead of incision or relief came to be +the decorative agent, the lines or bands would be left unjoined in +imitation. As those acquainted with Tylor's "Early History" will +realize, and myth of observation like the above would come to be +assigned in after ages. This may or may not be true of the case in +question; for, as before observed, some classes of sacred receptacles, +as well as the most ancient painted bowls, are not characterized by +the unjoined lines. Whether true or not, it is an insufficient +solution of the problem. + +[Illustration: FIG. 547.--Conical or flat-bellied canteen.] + +It is natural for the Pueblo to consider water as the prime source of +life, or as accompanied by it, for without the presence of living +water very few things grow in his desert land. During many a drought +chronicled in his oral annals, plants, animals, and men have died as +of a contagious scourge. Naturally, therefore, he has come to regard +water as the milk of adults, to speak of it as such, and as the +all-sufficient nourishment which the earth (in his conception of it as +the mother of men) yields. In the times when his was a race of cliff +and mesa dwellers, the most common vessel appertaining to his daily +life was the flat-bellied canteen or water-carrier. (See Fig. 547.) +This was suspended by a band across the forehead, so as to hang +against the back, thus leaving the hands as well as the feet free for +assistance in climbing. It now survives only for use on long journeys +or at camps distant from water. The original suggestion of its form +seems to have been that of the human mammary gland, or perhaps its +peculiar form may have suggested a relationship between the two. +(Compare Figs. 548, 549.) At any rate, its name in Zuni is _me' he ton +ne_, while _me' ha na_ is the name of the human mammary gland. _Me' he +ton ne_ is from _me' ha na_, mamma, _e' ton nai e_, containing within, +and _to'm me_. From _me' ha na_ comes _wo' ha na_, hanging or placed +against anything, obviously because the mammaries hang or are placed +against the breast; or, possibly, _me ha na_ may be derived from _wo +ha na_ by a reversal of reasoning, which view does not affect the +argument in question. It is probable that the _me' he ton_ was at +first left open at the apex (Fig. 549._a_) instead of at the top (Fig. +549._b_); but, being found liable to leak when furnished with the +aperture so low, this was closed. A surviving superstition inclines me +to this view. When a Zuni woman has completed the _me' he ton_ nearly +to the apex, by the coiling-process, and before she has inserted the +nozzle (Fig. 549._b_), she prepares a little wedge of clay, and, as +she closes the apex with it, she turns her eyes away. If you ask her +why she does this, she will tell you that it is _a'k ta ni_ (fearful) +to look at the vessel while closing it at this point; that, if she +look at it during this operation, she will be liable to become barren; +or that, if children be born to her, they will die during infancy; or +that she maybe stricken with blindness; or those who drink from the +vessel will be afflicted with disease and wasting away! My impression +is that, reasoning from analogy (which with these people means actual +relationship or connection, it will be remembered), the Zuni woman +supposes that by closing the apex of this _artificial_ mamma she +closes the exit-way for the "source of life;" further, that the woman +who closes this exit-way knowingly (in her own sight, that is) +voluntarily closes the exit-way for the source of life in her _own_ +mammae; further still, that for this reason the privilege of bearing +infants may be taken away from her, or at any rate (experience showing +the fallacy of this philosophy) she deserves the loss of the sense +(sight) which enabled her to "_knowingly_" close the exit-way of the +source of life. + +[Illustration: FIG. 548. FIG. 549. + Conical canteen compared with human mammary gland.] + +By that tenacity of conservative reasoning which is a marked mental +characteristic of the sedentary Pueblo, other types of the canteen, of +later origin, not only retained the name-root of this primeval form, +but also its attributed functions. For example, the _me' wi k'i lik +ton ne_ (See Fig. 550) is named thus from _me we_, mammaries, _i ki +lik toi e'_, joined together by a neck, and _to'm me_. + +Now, when closing the ends (Fig. 550, _c_, _c_) of this curious vessel +in molding it, the women are as careful to turn the eyes away as in +closing the apex of the older form. As the resemblance of either of +the ends of this vessel to the mamma is not striking, they place on +either side of the nozzle a pair of little conical projections, +resembling the teats, and so called. (Fig. 550, _b_.) There are four +of these, instead of, as we might reasonably expect, two. The reason +for this seems to be that the _me' wi k'i lik ton ne_ is the canteen +designed for use by the hunter in preference to all other vessels, +because it may be easily wrapped in a blanket and tied to the back. +Other forms would not do, as the hunter must have the free use not +only of his hands but also of his head, that he may turn quickly this +way or that in looking for or watching game. The proper nourishment of +the hunter is the game he kills; hence, the source of his life, like +that of the young of this game, is symbolized in the canteen by the +mammaries, not of human beings, but of game-animals. A feature in +these canteens dependent upon all this brings us nearer to an +understanding of the question under discussion. When ornamental bands +are painted around either end of the neck of one of them (Fig. 550, +_b_), they are interrupted at the little projections (Fig. 550, _b,_). +Indeed, I have observed specimens on which these lines, if placed +farther out, were interrupted at the top (Fig. 550, _a a_) opposite +the little projections. So, by analogy, it would seem the Pueblos came +to regard paint, like clay, a barrier to the exit of the source of +life. This idea of the source of life once associated with the canteen +would readily become connected with the water-jar, which, if not the +offspring of the canteen, at least usurped its place in the household +economy of these people. From the water-jar it would pass naturally to +drinking-vessels and eating-bowls, explaining the absence of the +interrupted lines on the oldest of these and their constant occurrence +on recent and modern examples; for the painted lines being left open +at the apexes, or near the projections on the canteens, they should +also be unjoined on other vessels with which the same ideas were +associated. + +[Illustration: FIG. 550.--Double lobed or hunter canteen.] + +So, also, it will be observed that in paintings of animals there is +not only a line drawn from the mouth to the plainly depicted heart, +but a little space is left down the center or either side of this +line (see Figs. 551, 552), which is called the _o ne yaethl kwa' to +na_, or the "entrance trail" (of the source or breath of life). + +[Illustration: FIG. 551.--Painting of deer.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 552.--Painting of sea-serpent.] + +By this long and involved examination of _one_ element in the +symbolism of Pueblo ceramic decoration, we gain some idea how many +others not quite so striking, yet equally curious, grew up; how, also, +they might be explained. Their investigation, however, would be +attended with such intricate studies, involving so many subjects not +at sight related to the one in hand, that I must hasten to present two +other points. + +Much wonder has been expressed that the Pueblos, so advanced in +pottery decoration, have not attempted more representations of natural +objects. There is less ground for this wonder than at first appears. +It should be remembered that the original angular models which the +Pueblo had, out of which to develop his art, bequeathed to him an +extremely conventional conception of things. This, added to his +peculiar way of interpreting relationship and personifying phenomena +and even functions, has resulted in making his depictions obscure. In +point of fact, in the decoration of certain classes of his pottery he +has attempted the reproduction of almost everything and of every +phenomenon in nature held as sacred or mysterious by him. On certain +other classes he has developed, imitatively, many typical decorations +which now have no special symbolism, but which once had definite +significance; and, finally, he has sometimes relegated definite +meanings to designs which at first had no significance, except as +decorative agents, after ward using them according to this +interpretation in his attempts to delineate natural objects, their +phenomena, and functions. I will illustrate by examples, the last +point first. + +[Illustration: FIG. 553.--The fret of basket decoration.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 554.--The fret of pottery decoration.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 555.--Scroll as evolved from fret in pottery + decoration.] + +Going back to basketry, we find already the fully developed fret. (See +Fig. 553.) I doubt not that from this was evolved, in accordance with +Professor Hartt's theory, the scroll or volute as it appears later on +pottery. (See Figs. 554, 555.) To both of these designs, and +modifications of them ages later, the Pueblo has attached meanings. +Those who have visited the Southwest and ridden over the wide, barren +plains, during late autumn or early spring, have been astonished to +find traced on the sand by no visible agency, perfect concentric +circles and scrolls or volutes yards long and as regular as though +drawn by a skilled artist. The circles are made by the wind driving +partly broken weed-stalks around and around their places of +attachment, until the fibers by which they are anchored sever and the +stalks are blown away. The volutes are formed by the stems of red-top +grass and of a round-topped variety of the _chenopodium_, drifted +onward by the whirlwind yet around and around their bushy adhesive +tops. The Pueblos, observing these marks, especially that they are +abundant after a wind storm, have wondered at their similarity to the +painted scrolls on the pottery of their ancestors. Even to-day they +believe the sand marks to be the tracks of the whirlwind, which is a +God in their mythology of such distinctive personality that the +circling eagle is supposed to be related to him. They have naturally, +therefore, explained the analogy above noted by the inference that +their ancestors, in painting the volute, had intended to symbolize the +whirlwind by representing his tracks. Thenceforward the scroll was +drawn on certain classes of pottery to represent the whirlwind, +modifications of it (for instance, by the color-sign belonging to any +one of the "six regions") to signify other personified winds. So, +also, the semicircle is classed as emblematic of the rainbow (_a' mi +to lan ne_); the obtuse angle, as of the sky (_a' po yan ne_); the +zigzag line as lightning (_wi' lo lo an ne_); terraces as the sky +horizons (_a'wi thlui a we_), and modifications of the latter as the +mythic "ancient sacred place of the spaces" (_Te' thlae shi na kwin_), +and so on. + +[Illustration: FIG. 556.--Ancient Pueblo "medicine-jar."] + +By combining several of these elementary symbols in a single device, +sometimes a mythic idea was beautifully expressed. Take, as an +example, the rain totem adopted by the late Lewis H. Morgan as a title +illumination, from Maj. J.W. Powell, who received it from the Moki. +Pueblos of Arizona as a token of his induction into the rain gens of +that people. (See Fig. 557, _a_.) An earlier and simpler form of this +occurs on a very ancient "sacred medicine jar" which I found in the +Southwest. (See Fig. 556.) By reference to an enlarged drawing of the +chief decoration of this jar (see Fig. 557), it may be seen that the +sky, _a_, the ancient place of the spaces (region of the sky gods), +_b_, the cloud lines, _c_, and the falling rain, _d_, are combined and +depicted to symbolize the storm, which was the objective of the +exhortations, rituals, and ceremonials to which the jar was an +appurtenance. + +[Illustration: _a._ Modern Moki rain symbol. + _b._ Enlarged decoration of "medicine-jar." + FIG. 557.--Decoration of ancient medicine-jar compared + with rain symbol of modern Moki totem.] + +Thus, upon all sacred vessels, from the drums of the esoteric medicine +societies of the priesthood and all vases pertaining to them to the +keramic appurtenances of the sacred dance or _Ka' ka_, all decorations +were intentionally emblematic. Of this numerous class of vessels, I +will choose but one for illustration--the prayer-meal-bowl of the _Ka' +ka_. In this, both form and ornamentation are significant. (See Fig. +558.) In explaining how the form of this vessel is held to be symbolic +I will quote a passage from the "creation myth" as I rendered it in an +article on the origin of corn, belonging to a series on "Zuni +Breadstuff," published this year in the "Millstone" of Indianapolis, +Indiana. "Is not the bowl the emblem of the earth, our mother? For +from her we draw both food and drink, as a babe draws nourishment from +the breast of its mother; and round, as is the rim of a bowl, so is +the horizon, terraced with mountains whence rise the clouds." This +alludes to a medicine bowl, not to one of the handled kind, but I will +apply it as far as it goes to the latter. The two terraces on either +side of the handle (Fig. 558, _a a_) are in representation of the +"ancient sacred place of the spaces," the handle being the line of the +sky, and sometimes painted with the rainbow figure. Now the +decorations are a trifle more complex. We may readily perceive that +they represent tadpoles (Fig. 558, _b b_), dragonflies (Fig: 558, _c +c_), with also the frog or toad (Fig. 558); all this is of easy +interpretation. As the tadpole frequents the pools of spring time he +has been adopted as the symbol of spring rains; the dragon-fly hovers +over pools in summer, hence typifies the rains of summer; and the +frog, maturing in them later, symbolizes the rains of the later +seasons; for all these pools are due to rain fall. When, sometimes, +the figure of the sacred butterfly (see Fig. 559, _a b_) replaces that +of the dragon-fly, or alternates with it, it symbolizes the +beneficence of summer; since, by a reverse order of reasoning, the +Zunis think that the butterflies and migratory birds (see Fig. 560) +_bring_ the warm season from the "Land of everlasting summer." + +[Illustration: FIG. 558.--Zuni prayer-meal-bowl.] + +Upon vessels of special function, like these we have just noticed, +peculiar figures may be regarded as emblematic; on other classes, no +matter how evidently conventional and expressive decorations may seem, +excepting always, totemic designs, it is wise to use great caution in +their interpretation as intentional and not merely imitative. + +A general examination, even of the most modern of Pueblo pottery, +shows us that certain types of decoration have once been confined to +certain types of vessels, all which has its due signification but an +examination of which would properly form the subject of another essay. + +[Illustration: FIG. 559.--Paintings of sacred butterfly.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 560.--Painting of "summer-bird."] + +Happily, a work collateral to the one which I have here merely begun, +will, I have reason to hope, be carried to a high degree of perfection +in the forthcoming monographs on the exhaustless ceramic collections +of the United States National Museum by Mr. William H. Holmes. This +author and artist will approach his task from a standpoint differing +from mine, reaching thereby, it may be, conclusions at variance with +the foregoing; but by means of his wealth of material and illustration +students will have opportunity of passing a judgment upon the merits +of not only his work, but of my own. + +[Illustration: FIG. 561.--Rectangular type of earthen vessel.] + +In conclusion, let me very briefly refer to two distinctive American +types of pottery, unconnected with the Southwestern, which, +considered in conjunction with those of the latter region, seem to +me to indicate that the ceramic art has had independent centers of +origin in America. For the sake of convenience, I may name these types +the rectangular (see Fig. 561) or Iroquois, and the bisymmetrical or +kidney-shaped (see Fig. 562), of Nicaragua. The one is almost constant +in the lake regions of the United States, the other equally constant +in sections of Central America. In collections gathered from any tribe +of our Algonquin or Iroquois Indians, one may observe vessels of the +tough birch- or linden-bark, some of which are spherical or +hemispherical. To produce this form of utensil from a single piece of +bark, it is necessary to cut pieces out of the margin and fold it. +Each fold, when stitched together in the shaping of the vessel, forms +a corner at the upper part. (See Fig. 563.) These corners and the +borders which they form are decorated with short lines and +combinations of lines, composed of coarse embroideries with dyed +porcupine quills. (See Fig. 564) May not the bark vessel have given +rise to the rectangular type of pottery and its quill ornamentation to +the incised straight-line decorations? (Compare Fig. 561.) + +[Illustration: FIG. 562.--Kidney-shaped vessel, Nicaragua.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 563.--Iroquois bark-vessel.] + +So, too, in the unsymmetrical urns of Central and Isthmean America, +which are characterized by the location of the aperture at the upper +part of one of the extremities and by streak-like decorations, we +have a decided suggestion of the animal paunch or bladder and of the +visible veins on its surface when distended. + +[Illustration: FIG. 564.--Porcupine quill decoration.] + +If these conjectures be accepted as approximately correct, even in +tendency, we may hope by a patient study of the ceramic remains of a +people, no matter where situated, to discover what was the type of +their pre-ceramic vessels, and thereby we might also learn whether, at +the time of the origin of the potter's art or during its development, +they had, like the Pueblos, been indigenous to the areas in which they +were found, or whether they had, like some of the Central Americans, +(to make a concrete example and judge it by this method) apparently +immigrated in part from desert North America, in part from the +wilderness of an equatorial region in South America. + + * * * * * + + + +INDEX + + +Awatui pottery 493 + +Basketry anticipated pottery 483-485 +Basketry cooking utensils 484-486 +Basketry copied in pottery 449 +Basketry declined, Manufacture of watertight 496 +Boiling basket 485 +Burning influence pottery, Materials and methods used in 495, 496 + +Cane tubes to carry water 482 +Cliff-dwellings 478, 479-480 +Coal used in pottery firing, Mineral 495-496 +Coiled pottery, how made 500 +Communal Pueblos 480, 481 + +Environments affecting habitations 473 +Environments affecting pottery 482 + +Flat and terraced roofs 477 +Form evolved in pottery from basketry 497 +Fuel used in pottery firing 495 + +Gourd vessels to carry water 482, 483 + +Habitations affected by environment 473 +Hogan, or hut, Navajo 473 +Houses built near water, Pueblo 477 + +Lava inclosure earliest form of Navajo hut 475 +Linguistic indications as to habitations 474 +Linguistic indications as to primitive water vessels 482 + +Mindeleff, Victor, on development of rectangular architecture 475 +Minerals influencing pottery 493 +Mode of making pottery vessels 499-500 +Moki pottery 493 + +Navajo hogan, or hut 473 + +Ojo Caliente pottery 491 +Ollas 498, 500 +Ornament, Ceramic 488 +Ornamentation of coiled basketry 487 + +Pescado pottery 494 +Pottery affected by environment 482 +Pottery anticipated by basketry 483-485 +Pottery declined in quality with introduction of domestic animals 496 +Pottery developed from basketry 485 +Pueblo primitive habitations 475 +Pueblos, Communal 480, 481 + +Rectangular forms developed from circular in architecture 475 +Roasting tray 484 + +Stories added in cliff-buildings 479 + +Tusayan, Province of 493 + +Water important to Pueblos, Transportation and preservation of 482 +Wicker cover for gourd vessels 483 + +Zuni priests' journey to the Atlantic 483 +Zuni skill on water jars 498, 500 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Study of Pueblo Pottery as +Illustrative of Zuni Culture Growth., by Frank Hamilton Cushing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUEBLO POTTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 17170.txt or 17170.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/1/7/17170/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Victoria Woosley and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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