path: root/79063-0.txt

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79063 ***




                          DESIGNS ON PREHISTORIC
                               HOPI POTTERY

                                    BY
                            JESSE WALTER FEWKES

               REPRINTED FROM THE THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT
                    OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

                              [Illustration]

                                WASHINGTON
                        GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
                                   1919




CONTENTS


                                                                      Page
    Introduction                                                       215
      Chronology of Hopi pottery symbols                               215
    The ruin, Sikyatki                                                 218
      Sikyatki epoch                                                   219
      Human figures                                                    220
      Quadruped figures                                                223
      Reptilian figures                                                225
      Winged figures                                                   227
        Dorsal views of birds                                          228
        Lateral views of birds                                         233
        Feather designs                                                236
          Feathers suspended from strings                              241
      Sky-band                                                         242
        Vertical attachment to sky-band                                243
        Birds attached longitudinally to sky-band                      246
          Decorations on exteriors of food bowls                       248
          Curved figure with attached feathers                         251
      Spider and insects                                               252
      Butterfly and moth                                               252
      Geometrical designs                                              255
      Rain clouds                                                      256
      Stars                                                            257
      Sun emblems                                                      258
      Rectangular figures representing shrines                         262
      Symbols introduced from San Juan River settlements               264
      Symbols introduced by the Snake people                           265
    Tanoan epoch                                                       266
      Symbols introduced from the Little Colorado                      267
      Symbols introduced by the Badger and Kachina clans               273
      Symbols introduced from Awatobi                                  275
      Shalako mana                                                     275
      Symbols of Hano clans                                            279
    Conclusion                                                         281
    Authorities cited                                                  284




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                      Page

    PLATES

     76. Various forms of conventionalized feathers                    238
     77. Conventionalized tail feathers                                240
     78. Conventionalized feathers attached to strings (nakwakwoci)    240
     79. Sky-bands                                                     242
     80. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls                       250
     81. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls                       250
     82. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls                       250
     83. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls                       250
     84. Geometrical figures on outside of bowls                       250
     85. Conventionalized bird designs                                 250
     86. Conventionalized bird designs                                 250
     87. Bird, sun, and spider and sun symbols                         258
     88. Conventionalized bird figures                                 258
     89. Shalakomana, Corn Maid (from tablet dance)                    276
     90. Top of butterfly vase                                         276

    TEXT FIGURES

     12. Human head with hair-in characteristic whorls                 221
     13. Woman with serpent-like animal                                221
     14. Kneeling woman, showing hair in characteristic whorls         222
     15. Three human figures                                           223
     16. _a_, Deer; _b_, rabbit                                        224
     17. Quadruped                                                     224
     18. Antelope or mountain sheep                                    224
     19. Mountain lion                                                 225
     20. Problematical reptile                                         225
     21. Reptile                                                       225
     22. Reptile                                                       225
     23. Reptile                                                       226
     24. Reptile                                                       227
     25. Turtle                                                        227
     26. Clouds and tadpoles                                           228
     27. Tadpoles                                                      228
     28. Dorsal view of a bird                                         229
     29. Bird figure, two halves restored to natural position          229
     30. Dorsal view of bird                                           230
     31. Bird figure                                                   230
     32. Bird figure                                                   231
     33. Bird figure                                                   231
     34. Bird figure                                                   231
     35. Bird figure (Thunderbird)                                     231
     36. Bird figure                                                   232
     37. Highly conventionalized figure of bird from dorsal side       232
     38. Conventional figure of a bird                                 233
     39. Conventional figure of a bird                                 233
     40. Conventional figure of a bird                                 233
     41. Conventional figure of a bird                                 233
     42. Conventional figure of a bird                                 234
     43. Triangular form of bird                                       234
     44. Triangular form of bird                                       234
     45. Simple form of bird with terraced body                        234
     46. Lateral view of triangular bird with two tail feathers        234
     47. Lateral view of bird with three tail feathers                 234
     48. Problematical bird figure                                     234
     49. Bird with two tail feathers                                   234
     50. Highly conventionalized bird figure                           234
     51. Lateral view of bird                                          234
     52. Profile of bird                                               235
     53. Lateral view of bird with outspread wing                      235
     54. Lateral view of bird with twisted tail and wing feathers      235
     55. Lateral view of conventionalized bird                         236
     56. Lateral view of conventionalized bird                         236
     57. Feather symbol with black notch                               237
     58. Feather symbol with black notch                               237
     59. Feathers                                                      241
     60. Curved feathers                                               241
     61. Conventional feathers                                         241
     62. Parallel lines representing feathers                          241
     63. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    244
     64. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    244
     65. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    244
     66. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    244
     67. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    245
     68. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    245
     69. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    245
     70. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    246
     71. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    246
     72. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    247
     73. Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band, top view    247
     74. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band                    247
     75. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band                    248
     76. Lateral view of bird with extended wing                       248
     77. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band                    249
     78. Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band                    249
     79. Butterfly and flower                                          252
     80. Butterfly with extended proboscis                             253
     81. Highly conventionalized butterfly                             253
     82. Moth                                                          254
     83. Moth                                                          254
     84. Moth of geometrical form                                      255
     85. Geometrical form of moth                                      255
     86. Highly conventionalized butterfly                             255
     87. Geometrical form of moth                                      255
     88. Circle with triangles                                         255
     89. Rain cloud                                                    257
     90. Rain cloud                                                    257
     91. Ring with appended feathers                                   258
     92. Two circles with figure                                       259
     93. Sun with feathers                                             259
     94. Sun symbol                                                    259
     95. Ring with appended feathers                                   260
     96. Ring figure with legs and appended feathers                   260
     97. Sun emblem with appended feathers                             260
     98. Sun symbol                                                    261
     99. Sun symbol                                                    261
    100. Horned snake with conventionalized shrine                     263
    101. Shrine                                                        263
    102. Shrine                                                        264
    103. Conventionalized winged bird with shrine                      264
    104. Lateral view of bird with double eyes                         269
    105. Lateral view of bird with double eyes                         270
    106. Bird with double eyes                                         271
    107. Two birds with rain clouds                                    272
    108. Head of Shalako mana, or Corn maid                            276
    109. Head of Kokle, or Earth woman                                 280
    110. Head of Hahaiwugti, or Earth woman                            280
    111. Ladle with clown carved on handle and Earth woman on bowl     281
    112. Püükon hoya, little War god                                   281




DESIGNS ON PREHISTORIC HOPI POTTERY

By JESSE WALTER FEWKES




INTRODUCTION


In the following pages the author has endeavored to draw attention to
some of the most important symbols on Hopi pottery, especially those of
prehistoric times.

Consideration of this subject has led to a discussion of the character
of pottery designs at different epochs and the interpretation, by study
of survivals, of ancient designs in modern times. This chronological
treatment has necessitated an examination of ceramic material from ruins
of different ages and an ethnological study of ancient symbols still
surviving in ceremonials now practiced. It has also led to sociological
researches on the composition of the tribe, the sequence in the arrival
of clans at Walpi, and their culture in distant homes from which they
migrated. It will thus appear that the subject is a very complicated one,
and that the data upon which conclusions are based are sociological as
well as archeological. There are many ruins from which material might
have been obtained, but only a few have been adequately investigated.
The small number of ruins in the Hopi country which have thus far been
excavated necessarily makes our knowledge not only provisional but also
imperfect. It is hoped, however, that this article may serve to stimulate
others to renewed field work and so add desired data to the little we
have bearing on the subject.


CHRONOLOGY OF HOPI POTTERY SYMBOLS

At least three well-marked epochs can be distinguished in the history
of Hopi ceramic symbolism. Each of these is intimately associated with
certain clans that have from time to time joined the Hopi and whose
descendants compose the present population. Although these epochs follow
each other in direct sequence, each was not evolved from its predecessor
or modified by it, except to a very limited extent. Each epoch has left
to the succeeding one a heritage of symbols, survivals which are somewhat
difficult to differentiate from exotic symbols introduced by incoming
clans. So that while each epoch grades almost imperceptibly into the
one directly following it, an abrupt change is sometimes evident in the
passage.

In order to appreciate the relations between ceramic decoration and
history let me sketch in brief outline what I regard as the historical
development of the Hopi living near or on the East Mesa. We know little
of the group of people who first settled here except that they belonged
to the Bear clan, which is traditionally referred to the eastern pueblo
region. At about the time they entered Hopiland there was a settlement
called Sikyatki composed of Jemez colonists, situated about 3 miles from
the southern point of East Mesa, and other towns or pueblos on Awatobi
Mesa and in Antelope Valley, 10 miles away.

The first great additions to this original population were Snake
clans, who came from the San Juan, followed by Flute clans from the
same direction but originally of southern origin. Having become well
established at the point of the East Mesa, the combined settlement
overthrew Sikyatki and appropriated its clans.

Then came the strenuous days of Spanish invasion and the destruction of
Awatobi in 1700. The Little Colorado clans had already begun to seek
refuge in the Hopi mountains and their number was greatly augmented by
those from Zuñi, a Rio Grande settlement called Tewadi, and elsewhere,
each addition bringing new forms of culture and settling new pueblos
on or near the East Mesa, as has been shown in previous publications.
Traditions point out their former settlements and it remains for the
archeologist to excavate those settlements, now in ruins, and verify
these traditions. This can be done by a study of artifacts found in them.

As a rule archeologists have relied on technique, form, and especially
color, in the classification of Pueblo pottery, leading, on the technical
side, to the groups known as (a) rough, coiled ware, and (b) smooth,
polished ware; and on that of form, to bowls, vases, jars, dippers, etc.
When color is used as the basis of classification the divisions black and
white, red, yellow, orange, and polychrome are readily differentiated.
Classifications based on these data are useful, as they indicate
cultural as well as geographical differences in Pueblo ceramics; but
these divisions can be used only with limitations in a study of stages
of culture growth. The fact that they are not emphasized in the present
article is not because their importance is overlooked, but rather for the
purpose of supplementing them with a classification that is independent
of and in some particulars more reliable for indicating chronology and
culture distinctions.

The life-forms on ancient Sikyatki and other Hopi pottery are painted
on what is known as yellow ware, which is regarded by some authors as
characteristic of the Hopi area; but pottery of the same color, yet with
radically different symbolic life-forms, occurs also in other areas. It
thus appears that while a classification of Pueblo pottery by color is
convenient, differences of color are not so much indications of diversity
in culture as of geologic environment. Designs on pottery are more
comprehensive and more definite in culture studies than color, and are so
regarded in these pages.

As there exists a general similarity in the form of prehistoric
pottery throughout the Southwest, shape alone is also inadequate for
a determination of Pueblo culture centers. The great multiplicity and
localization of symbols on Pueblo pottery furnishes adequate material
for classification by means of the designs depicted on vases, bowls,
and other pottery objects. Sikyatki pottery is especially suited to
a classification on such a basis, for it is recognized as the most
beautiful and the most elaborately decorated prehistoric pottery found
in the Southwest. Life-forms are abundant and their symbolism is
sufficiently characteristic to be regarded as typical of a well-defined
ceramic area. There can, of course, be no question regarding the ancient
character of the designs on Sikyatki pottery, nor were they introduced or
modified by white men, but are purely aboriginal and prehistoric.

Pottery from the Sikyatki ruin is chosen as a type of the most highly
developed or golden epoch in Hopi ceramics. Several other ruins were
inhabited when Sikyatki was in its prime and pottery from these belongs
to the same epoch, and would probably be equally good to illustrate its
character. Fortunately, specimens are available from many of these, as
Awatobi, and the ruins in Antelope Valley, old Shumopavi, and other
Middle Mesa ruins. The date of the origin of this epoch, or the highest
development of Hopi ceramics, is not known, but there is evidence that it
lasted until the fall of Awatobi, in 1700. The destruction of Sikyatki
occurred before 1540, but Sikyatki has given the name to the epoch and is
taken as the type, not only because of the abundance of ceramic material
available from that ruin, but also because there can be no doubt of the
prehistoric nature of material from it.

There is abundant evidence that the culture of Sikyatki was never
influenced by white man. After the overthrow of Awatobi there developed
on the East Mesa of the Hopi country a third ceramic epoch which was
largely influenced by the influx of Tanoan (Tewa) clans. They came either
directly from the Rio Grande or by way of Zuñi and other pueblos. Among
other arrivals about 1710 were those clans which settled Hano, a Tewa
pueblo on the East Mesa. The Hano and other symbols introduced in this
epoch are best known in the present generation by the earlier productions
of Nampeo, an expert modern potter.

The pottery of this epoch differs from that of the second in form, color,
and technique, but mainly in its symbolism, which is radically different
from that of the epochs that preceded it. The symbolism of this phase
is easily determined from large collections now in museums. This epoch
was succeeded in 1895 by a fourth, in which there was a renaissance of
old Sikyatki patterns, under the lead of Nampeo. In that year Nampeo
visited the excavations at Sikyatki and made pencil copies of the designs
on mortuary bowls. From that time all pottery manufactured by her was
decorated with modified Sikyatki symbols, largely to meet the demand for
this beautiful ancient ware. The extent of her work, for which there
was a large demand, may be judged by the great numbers of Hopi bowls
displayed in every Harvey store from New Mexico to California. This
modified Sikyatki ware, often sold by unscrupulous traders as ancient, is
the fourth, or present, epoch of Hopi ceramics. These clever imitations,
however, are not as fine as the productions of the second epoch. There is
danger that in a few years some of Nampeo’s imitations will be regarded
as ancient Hopi ware of the second epoch, and more or less confusion
introduced by the difficulty in distinguishing her work from that
obtained in the ruins.




THE RUIN, SIKYATKI


The ruins of the ancient pueblo of Sikyatki, consisting of mounds and
a few outcropping walls, are situated on rocky elevations rising from
the sand hills at the eastern or sunny base of the East Mesa, about 3
miles from the modern Hopi pueblo of Walpi in northeastern Arizona. The
founders of Sikyatki are said, in very circumstantial migration legends,
to have belonged to a [Keres?] clan called the Kokop, or Firewood,
which previously lived in a pueblo near Jemez, New Mexico. Preliminary
excavations were made at Sikyatki, under the author’s direction, by the
Smithsonian Institution in 1895, when there was obtained, chiefly from
its cemeteries, a valuable collection of pottery, most of which is now
installed in the National Museum.[1]

Little is known of the history of Sikyatki save through tradition, but
enough has been discovered to show that it was abandoned before 1540, the
year of the visit to Tusayan of Pedro Tovar, an officer of the Coronado
expedition. It was probably settled much earlier, perhaps about the time
the Bear clans, also said to have come from the Jemez region, built the
first houses of Walpi near the point of the terrace at the west or cold
side of the East Mesa, below the present settlement.[2] Both of these
prehistoric pueblos occupied sites exposed to attack by enemies and
were not built on mesa tops, hence it may be assumed that there were no
enemies to fear in Tusayan at the time of their establishment. But later,
when the Snake clans from the north joined the Bear settlement at Walpi,
trouble seems to have commenced. As above mentioned, the Bear clans came
from the same region as the Kokop and were presumably friendly, probably
kin of the Sikyatkians; but the Snake clans came from Tokonabi, in the
north, and were no doubt of foreign stock, implying a hostility that may
have been the indirect cause of the overthrow of Sikyatki and Awatobi by
the other Hopi.

The two epochs in Hopi ceramic development that can be distinguished
with certainty are (1) the Sikyatki epoch and (2) the Tanoan or historic
epoch. The third, or renaissance, of the Sikyatki dates back to 1895, and
may be called the modern epoch. The Sikyatki epoch gave way to the Tanoan
about the beginning of the eighteenth century. It did not develop from
any group preexisting in the neighborhood of the present Hopi pueblos but
was derived from the east and it ceased suddenly, being replaced by a
totally different group introduced by radically different clans.[3]


SIKYATKI EPOCH

The most characteristic Hopi pottery bearing symbols of the Sikyatki
epoch occurs in a few ruins near the Hopi mesas, but from lack of
exploration it is impossible to determine the boundaries of the area in
which it is found.

Several museums contain collections of Hopi ware of this epoch, among
which may be mentioned the National Museum at Washington, the Field
Columbian Museum of Natural History at Chicago, the Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, and the
Museum für Volkerkünde at Berlin, Germany. Many bowls of this epoch are
likewise found in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and
in the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute. Several private collections in
Europe and the United States likewise contain specimens of Sikyatki ware,
among them being that gathered by the late Dr. Miller, now at Phoenix,
Arizona. The collection of prehistoric Hopi pottery in the National
Museum is particularly rich, containing many specimens gathered by the
Stevenson expeditions, by the author, and by Dr. Hough, of the U. S.
National Museum.

The symbols on the ancient pottery from the Middle Mesa of the Hopi are
almost identical with those of Sikyatki, indicating a similarity of
culture, a common geographical origin, and a synchronous culture. From
the character of the symbols on the ancient pottery from the ancient
Middle Mesa pueblos it is probable that the clans who founded them
came, like the colonists who settled Sikyatki, from the Jemez plateau
in New Mexico. Although the Field collection is very rich in old Walpi
ware, nothing of importance has been published on the symbols of this
collection; it contains some of the most instructive examples of the
Sikyatki epoch. A large and probably the most valuable portion of this
collection was gathered by Dr. George A. Dorsey and Mr. Charles L. Owen,
while many pieces were purchased from Mr. Frank Wattron, of Holbrook, and
from the late Mr. T. V. Keam, of Keams Canyon, Arizona. The source of
many of the Wattron specimens is unknown, but it is evident from their
decoration that some of them are ancient Hopi and probably belong to the
Sikyatki epoch and came from Shongopovi, Awatobi, or Sikyatki.

Shortly before his death Mr. T. V. Keam sold to the Museum für
Volkerkünde at Berlin, Germany, a rich collection of pottery obtained
mainly from Awatobi and Sikyatki, containing several specimens of the
Sikyatki epoch which are highly instructive. Some of the designs on the
pottery of this collection are unique, and their publication would be a
great aid to a study of the most important epoch of Hopi ceramics.

A large proportion of life-forms used in the decoration of Sikyatki
pottery are mythological subjects, showing the predominance of
supernatural beings and their magic power in the minds of the makers.
Like a child, the primitive artist is fond of complexity of detail, and
figures in which motion is indicated appealed more to his fancy than
those objects that do not move. It needs but a glance at the ancient
Sikyatki life-figures to show a tendency to represent detail and to
convince one of the superiority of the Sikyatki potters in this respect
over those of modern times. There has been a gradual deterioration, not
only less care being now devoted to the technique of the pottery but
also to the drawing of the figures. This lack in itself is significant,
for while modern ware reflects in its hasty crudeness the domination of
commercialism, the ancient pottery shows no indication of such influence.
Pottery is now made to please the purchaser; in ancient times another
motive influenced the maker, for then it was a product worthy of the
highest use to which it could be put, since it often formed a part of
sacred paraphernalia in religious ceremonies.


HUMAN FIGURES

Sikyatki pictures of human beings depict men and women, singly or in
company, and are few in number and crude in execution. Organs of the
body—hands, feet, arms, and legs—are often represented separately. The
hand is portrayed on two vessels, and the foot, elaborately drawn,
appears on another; as a general thing when parts of the body are
represented they are greatly conventionalized. The few human figures on
Sikyatki pottery are crude representations as compared with those of
animals, and especially of birds. Several of the figures are represented
wearing ancient costumes and ornaments, and one or two have their hair
done up in unusual styles; others have the body or face tattooed or
painted; but as a whole these decorations are rare and shed little light
on prehistoric customs. There is nothing that can be identified as a
time count, calendric, hieroglyphic, or phonetic signs, or any record of
historical events.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Human head with hair in characteristic whorls.]

[Illustration: FIG. 13.—Woman with serpent-like animal.]

None of the human figures are represented with masks or headdresses to
indicate the impersonation of kachinas, nor are there double figures or
animal heads depicted on human bodies. The absence of animal or kachina
heads shows one of the marked differences between Sikyatki pictures and
the designs so common on some other pottery, where a relatively large
number of the heads of the latter occur. The best representation of a
human head is shown in figure 12,[4] in which a characteristic coiffure
is shown. Fig. 13 is identified as a figure of a maiden whose hair is
dressed in two whorls, one above each ear, like a modern Hopi maid.[5]
Opposite this maid is a reptile or similar animal with head decorated
with two eyes on one side and a single foreleg. These two figures
probably refer to some episode or Indian legend connecting a Sikyatki
maiden with some monster.

The maiden depicted in figure 14 is evidently kneeling, her knees being
brought together below, and separated by four median parallel lines
that are supposed to indicate feathers; the curved objects at the lower
corners of the rectangular blanket probably are also feathers. One hand
of the maiden is raised to her head, while the other holds an unknown
object, possibly an ear of corn. The woman with an ear of corn recalls
a figure on the elaborately painted wooden slab carried by women in the
Hopi Marau dance or that on the wooden slab, or _monkohu_, carried by the
priests representing Alosaka, Eototo, and other ceremonial personages.
These painted slabs do not always bear pictures of corn ears, for those
of the priests known as the Aaltû have, instead of pictures of corn,
the corn itself tied to them; in the New-fire ceremony at Walpi members
of the Tataukyamû priesthood, at Walpi, also hold ears of corn with or
without wooden slabs, while those borne by the warrior Kwakwantû are
carved in the form of the sacred plumed serpent, which is their patron.[6]

[Illustration: FIG. 14.—Kneeling woman, showing hair in characteristic
whorls.]

[Illustration: FIG. 15.—Three human figures.]

Different styles of hairdressing are exhibited in figures 13 and 14, that
of figure 14 being similar to the modern Hopi. The group of three figures
(fig. 15) possibly illustrates some ancient ceremony. The middle figure
of this group is represented as carrying a branched stick, or cornstalk,
in his mouth.[7] The accompanying figure, or that to the right, has in
his hand one of the strange frames used as rattles[8] in historic times
by clans (Asa or Honani) of Jemez or of Tewa descent who had settled at
the East Mesa. The author is inclined to identify the object held by this
figure as one of these ceremonial frames and the man as a Yaya priest.

Another interpretation of the central figure of the group, figure 15,
is that he is performing the celebrated stick-swallowing act which was
practiced at Walpi until a few years ago. The last explanation suggested
implies that the human figures represent Snake and Antelope priests, a
doubtful interpretation, since, according to legends, these priests were
never represented at Sikyatki.[9]

The character shown in another figure, not copied, may represent the
supernatural being, called the God of the Dead (Masauû) whose body,
according to legend, is spotted and girt by bands. The Little Fire god
(Shulewitse), when personated in modern ceremonies of the Tewa at Hano,
is represented by a man daubed with pigments of several colors. He is
personated likewise in the Hopi (Tewa) village of Sichomovi.[10]

Several Zuñi ceremonies show evidence of derivation from eastern New
Mexican pueblos,[11] but a critical examination of the origin and
migration of Zuñi clan relations of societies still awaits the student of
this interesting pueblo. It is probable that Zuñi sociology is in some
respects like that of Walpi and that the present population is composite,
having descended from clans which have drifted together from different
directions, each bringing characteristic ceremonies and mythological
conceptions, while certain rites have been incorporated from time to time
from other Pueblo people.


QUADRUPED FIGURES

Representations of quadrupeds are almost as rare as human figures
in Sikyatki pottery decorations. The deer (fig. 16, _a_), antelope,
mountain sheep, mountain lion, rabbit, and one or two other animals are
recognizable, but pictures of these are neither so common nor so highly
conventionalized as those of birds.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.—_a_, Deer; _b_, rabbit.]

Figure 17 shows one of two mammalian figures on a bowl, the surrounding
surface consisting of spatterwork, an uncommon but effective mode of
treatment.

The outline of the animal shown in figure 18 is intensified by
spattering, as in the case of the animal last mentioned. The black spots
along the back and tail are absent in other figures. The design below the
figure suggests, in some particulars, that of a highly conventionalized
shrine, but its true meaning is unknown.

[Illustration: FIG. 17.—Quadruped.]

[Illustration: FIG. 18.—Antelope or mountain sheep.]

The design in figure 19 has been regarded as representing a mountain
lion, but there is some doubt of the validity of this identification.
Although the feet are like those of a carnivorous animal, the head is
not. The two projections from the head, which may represent horns, are
not unlike those associated with the two figures next described, which
have been regarded as feathers.

The creature shown in figure 20 is also problematical. The appendages
to the head are prolonged, terminating in feathers that bend backward
and touch the body. The anterior body appendage has two crescentic
prolongations between which are parallel lines of unequal length.
The posterior limb is jointed, the lower half extending backward and
terminating in two claws, one long, the other short. Between these
extensions are two groups of slightly radiating lines that may be
regarded as feathers. The body has feathers like those of a highly
conventionalized bird, while the limbs resemble those of a lizard. The
body is serpentine, and tail feathers are wanting; both legs have talons
like those of birds, and the appendage to the head suggests a feather
headdress; the line connecting the head appendage and one claw of the
posterior limbs recalls a sky-band, commonly found in representations of
sky gods.

[Illustration: FIG. 19.—Mountain lion.]

[Illustration: FIG. 20.—Problematical reptile.]

The animal depicted in figure 21, which resembles figure 19 in the form
of the appendages to the head and mouth, is suspended inside of a circle
in the one case and is half within a circle in the other.


REPTILIAN FIGURES

Several figures of reptiles and serpents occur in the Sikyatki
collection. Figure 22 represents an animal like a reptile; only two
legs are shown in the design and the form of the tail recalls that of
a bird. The head of this figure bears two horns resembling feathers in
some respects; the legs terminate in four claws. From a projection at the
posterior end of the body there arises a curved line dotted at intervals
and terminating in feathers. The dorsal appendage resembles the carapace
of a turtle, from beneath which feathers project.

[Illustration: FIG. 21.—Reptile.]

[Illustration: FIG. 22.—Reptile.]

Figure 22 depicts a reptile from the head of which project horns and two
long feathers. Its back bears a row of feathers, but it has only two legs.

The legless creature, figure 23, has two triangular earlike feathers
rising from the head, and two eyes; a wide-open mouth, in which are
six long, curved teeth, three in each jaw. The tongue terminates in an
arrow-shaped figure, recalling a conventional symbol of lightning, or
the death-dealing power of the serpent. The meaning of the narrow line
connecting the upper jaw with the tail is not known. The curved shape
of the body of the reptile is necessitated by the shape of the bowl
on which it is drawn. This figure may represent the monster feathered
serpent of Sikyatki, or a flying reptile, one of the most mysterious of
the elemental gods. It is interesting to note that while the effigies of
the feathered serpent used in Hopi (Walpi) and Zuñi religious practices
has a single horn on the head, the one here described is different from
both, for it is provided with two appendages resembling conventionalized
feathers. The Hopi feathered serpent was derived from the same source as
the Zuñi, namely, clans which originally came to the Little Colorado from
Gila Valley.[12]

[Illustration: FIG. 23.—Reptile.]

[Illustration: FIG. 24.—Reptile.]

The Hopi (Walpi) figure is in a measure comparable with that shown in
figure 23—each has two hornlike feathers on the head, and the bodies are
curved in the same direction—that is, with the center (?) on the right
(dextral circuit), the reverse of modern Hopi pictures, which are placed
as if the figures were moving in a sinistral circuit.[13]

The form shown in figure 24 reminds one of a frog or a turtle. The body
and feet are turtlelike. As in several pictures of reptiles, it is
provided with an anterior appendage, evidently the front leg, which has
characteristic claws. The row of white dots extending from the mouth
through the neck represents the esophagus or windpipe. The author is
unable to offer any interpretation of the appendages to the tail, but
suggests that they may have been intended for feathers. Figure 25 _a_,
_b_, is identified as a turtle.

Figure 26 was evidently designed to represent several tadpoles swimming
across a bowl between rows of rain clouds, the whole inclosed in a circle
to which are attached five stars at approximately equal intervals. The
form of the rain clouds reminds one of conventional tail feathers.
There are six of these rain-cloud figures on one side of the field of
decoration and five on the other. The tadpoles shown in figure 27 occur
on the inside of the ladle.


WINGED FIGURES

The term “winged figures” is here employed to designate all flying
creatures, as birds, insects, and bats, even though they belong
zoologically to different groups of animals. Among the prehistoric Hopi,
insects and birds were designated by similar symbols and when highly
conventionalized sometimes merge into one another. It was the custom
of Sikyatki potters to give more attention to specific than generic
characters of flying creatures, distinguishing different kinds of
birds by the form of their feathers. The symbol of a turkey, an eagle,
or a hawk feather was distinct from that of an owl, and each kind of
a bird had its own special symbolic marking, especially indicated in
the different kinds of feathers. Thus it occurs that Sikyatki bird
designs, instead of being realistically represented, are often so highly
conventionalized that the genus can not be identified.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.—Turtle.]

The flight of birds, like the movement of serpents, is regarded as
mysterious, and anything mysterious or uncanny has always profoundly
affected the mind of primitive man. The chief visible characteristics
connected with the flight of a bird are wings and feathers, and the
kind of feathers of a particular bird led to their association with
the supposed magic power of the bird itself among both the ancient and
modern Hopi. Different kinds of feathers have different powers; thus the
feathers of the turkey, for example, among the modern Hopi, are potent in
inducing rain; those of the eagle or the hawk pertain especially to the
power of the sun; a breast feather of an eagle is chosen as an individual
prayer bearer. The feathers of an owl, like the owl itself,[14] are
generally regarded as having a sinister influence; but sometimes the
feather of this bird is beneficial, it is believed, in making peach trees
yield abundantly. From the variety of feather designs and the frequency
with which they occur in modern Hopi ceremonies[15] it is evident that
the Sikyatki people, like their descendants, attributed special magic
power to different kinds of these objects.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.—Clouds and tadpoles.]

[Illustration: FIG. 27.—Tadpoles.]

In their simplest forms bird symbols are little more than triangles,
the tail feathers being represented by appended parallel lines, which
are mere suggestions of birds and may be designated as cursive forms.
Such simple pictures of birds sometimes have, in addition to the
appended parallel lines referred to, an angular or a curved line or hook
extending from one of the angles of the triangle to represent a beak.
Such triangular bird figures may be free or attached; in the latter case
they are suspended from other figures or rise from the corners of a
rectangular design when one of the triangles may be without tail or beak
appendages, another may have parallel lines, while a third may take a
form readily recognizable as that of a bird. The form of the beak and the
claws of bird figures also varies, the claws often appearing as simple
crosses or crescents. The beak is sometimes toothed, often hooked like
that of a raptorial bird. The bird is designated by the combination of
the beak, claws, and body, as well as the feathers.


DORSAL VIEWS OF BIRDS

Among the conventional pictures of birds on Sikyatki pottery some are
shown as seen from above, or dorsally, others from below, or ventrally,
and still others laterally. These pictures sometimes become so
conventionalized that it is difficult to identify the parts represented,
as will appear from illustrations to follow.

[Illustration: FIG. 28.—Dorsal view of a bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 29.—Bird figure, two halves restored to natural
position.]

Figure 28 represents a bird design in which three parallel bands
representing tail feathers of a well-marked type hang between two curved
extensions that occupy the relative position of wings. In the angles near
the attachment of these tail feathers there are two globular enlargements
which occur also in other pictures. The extremity of each winglike
crescent is spirally curved inward. Two semicircular figures representing
rain clouds are surmounted by two parallel lines and a heavy, solid band,
appearing at the proximal end of the tail in the position where the body
should end, as in other figures where the rain-cloud symbols are much
more complex.

The two drawings shown in figure 29 are the two halves of a single figure
cut along its medial line. One of these halves is reversed in such a
way that corresponding parts are found on the same side. Viewing these
two parts in this position, we can readily identify various organs of a
highly conventionalized bird whose wings are represented by a curved body
terminating in a spiral, the body decorated with rain-cloud figures and
the bowl with conventionalized figures. This is the only figure showing
the distortions and reversions of the two halves of the bird’s body and
appendages.

Homologous parts are recognizable also in the bird design shown in figure
30, but in this picture the size of the wings is greatly reduced, each
consisting merely of two feathers. The rectangular body bears a single
large terraced or rectangular rain-cloud symbol, three semicircular
figures, and two triangles. Two tail feathers and two posterior
extensions of the body, one on each side, are shown. There are three
parallel lines on each side of these posterior extensions. In a bird
design, figure 31, the body is decorated with four triangular rain clouds
and the wings are extended. The tail has six feathers with a lateral
extension on each side. The two detached figures associated with this
bird design possibly were intended to represent the shrines of these
birds.

[Illustration: FIG. 30.—Dorsal view of a bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 31.—Bird figure.]

The curved appendages are spreading in figure 32, and at their point of
junction with the body arises a typical feather symbol. The body has
four solid semicircular figures, possibly representing rain clouds,
and a single feather on the top of the head. Organs corresponding to
wings, body, and tail are traceable, but they are somewhat modified in
comparison with the forms already considered. This design is partly
surrounded by a band to which two star designs are attached.

We find all the parts or organs associated with the bird designs already
described represented in figure 33, but the details of the symbolism
are more elaborated than in any of the preceding. Here the wings are
bent inward, while the feathers have taken more angular forms. The head
is rectangular, bearing representations of two rain clouds just above
the wings, while two others appear below. These have the same form as
the cloud symbols shown in figure 20. Although this drawing is far from
being a realistic representation of a bird, the presence of symbols
characteristic of certain avian features leaves no doubt that a bird was
intended.

In figure 34 is shown a Sikyatki bird figure still further
conventionalized, but the parts are depicted in such manner as to make
the identification as a bird practically certain. Head, body, wings, and
tail are elaborately represented. The head is semicircular and surmounted
by a headdress with three vertical feathers. The wings are large, each
terminating in two symbols representing the feathers,[16] with pointed
distal extremities. The tail feathers have rounded extremities and
are three in number. On each side of the feathers of the headdress,
wings, and tail hang figures of unknown meaning. This is one of the most
instructive bird figures in the collection from Sikyatki.

[Illustration: FIG. 32.—Bird figure.]

[Illustration: FIG. 33.—Bird figure.]

[Illustration: FIG. 34.—Bird figure.]

[Illustration: FIG. 35.—Bird figure. (Thunderbird.)]

Figure 35 represents a very elaborate figure of a bird, readily
comparable with the last mentioned, from which it differs in certain
particulars. This bird design is replete with symbolism and may be
regarded as one of the most instructive pictures that has come to us from
the ancient Hopi. The view is from the back, the legs being much reduced
in size, the claws alone being represented at each upper corner of the
body directly under the attachment of the wings. The beak is invisible,
but an elaborate headdress,[17] in which tail feathers are conspicuous,
is a prominent feature. The form of the tail and wing feathers of this
bird is practically the same as the last, except that they are more
elaborately drawn. Each wing has two feathers, and three others form the
tail. The arrow points projecting from beneath the extremities of the
wing feathers are possibly lightning symbols. Each is crossed by two bars
in the same manner as the tongue projecting from the mouth of the serpent
shown in figure 23, which is also a lightning symbol.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.—Bird figure.]

[Illustration: FIG. 37.—Highly conventionalized figure of bird from
dorsal side.]

The design illustrated in figure 36 represents a bird, as seen from the
back, with outstretched wings, recalling the lateral view of a bird shown
in figure 54 in having smaller bird figures attached to the tips of the
wings. The place of attachment of the wings to the body is embellished
with crosshatched lines and stepped figures, recalling the rain-cloud
symbols. The head is rectangular, destitute of a beak, inclosing two
square figures with short parallel lines, representing falling rain,
projecting from the upper side. On one side of the head is a semicircular
design. The tail has three feathers, the two on the sides being broader
than the one in the middle. These feathers are without markings, but
the end of the body from which they depend is ornamented with stepped
figures surmounted by two horizontal parallel lines and two triangles.
In the background, at each side of the body, there are dotted circles,
suggesting flowers, a feature often accompanying designs representing
butterflies or moths.

In figure 37 is shown a highly conventionalized dorsal view of a bird,
with sickle-formed wings slightly extended, seven pointed tail feathers
with lateral appendages, and a rectangular head with three semicircular
rain-cloud figures. The globular enlargement at the base of the wings in
one instance is accompanied by a fan-shaped figure.

[Illustration: FIG. 38.—Conventional figure of a bird.]

The design shown in figure 38 is regarded as a highly conventionalized
bird symbol, each wing being represented by a curved pendant, to the
extremities of which feathers are attached. The body is rectangular and
decorated with a median horizontal white band continued above and below
into black lateral triangles which possibly may represent feathers, and
flanked triangular white areas on each side.

In figure 39 the design has been so greatly conventionalized that almost
all resemblance to a bird has been lost. The wings are represented
by simple terraces, the body by a rectangular figure, and the head
terminates in three points. It is possible that the limit of bird
conventionalization has been reached in this variant, and the difficulty
of identification of organs is correspondingly great.

[Illustration: FIG. 39.—Conventional figure of a bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 40.—Conventional figure of a bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 41.—Conventional figure of a bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 42.—Conventional figure of a bird.]

The design shown in figure 40 would perhaps more logically fall within
the series of circular figures, identified as sun emblems, elsewhere
considered, except for the extensions representing wings and tail. This
is mentioned as one of the instances where organs of birds are combined
with a circle to represent the Sun god.

Figure 41 resembles figure 40 in some essential points and may also be
considered in connection with sun emblems. On account of the presence of
feathers it is here included among the bird designs.

Figure 42 exhibits an exceptional bird form as viewed from the rear.[18]
Wings, body, tail, and possibly the head, are recognized after some study.


LATERAL VIEWS OF BIRDS

Drawings representing side views of birds are usually highly
conventionalized, often taking the forms of simple geometric figures, as
shown in figures 43-45. The simplest representation of a bird viewed from
the side is a triangle, but another, slightly elaborated and a little
more complicated (fig. 43), consists of a triangular body with curved
lines representing a head and beak, extending from one of the angles,
and with two short lines indicating a feathered head crest. The head of
the bird shown in figure 44 resembles a section of a Greek fret, which
in figure 45 has become still further simplified. Figure 46 represents a
bird with triangular body and key-shaped head. Figure 47 shows a similar
design, except that the body is partly rectangular, with breast slightly
concave. The body in figure 48 is simply an outline of a terrace and the
tail is indicated by five parallel lines.

[Illustration: FIG. 43.—Triangular form of a bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 44.—Triangular form of bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 45.—Simple form of bird with terraced body.]

[Illustration: FIG. 46.—Lateral view of triangular bird with two tail
feathers.]

The bird design shown in profile in figure 49 is realistic, all the parts
being clearly recognizable. This figure is one of four, each attached to
a corner of a rectangle.

Another figure which may be a lateral view of a bird is represented
in figure 50, in which the part, representing the head is curved, the
body square, and two obliquely twisted feathers represent the tail.
This figure exhibits avian features more obscurely than those already
considered, but the head and the tail feathers are quite birdlike.

[Illustration: FIG. 47.—Lateral view of bird with three tail feathers.]

[Illustration: FIG. 48.—Problematical bird figure.]

[Illustration: FIG. 49.—Bird with two tail feathers.]

[Illustration: FIG. 50.—Highly conventionalized bird figure.]

In figure 51 is shown a lateral view of a bird, seemingly in flight,
the head and beak of which are birdlike. The wings, feet, head, and
body are not difficult to recognize. Two legs and one wing are shown,
and the well-drawn tail, terminating in white-tipped feathers, suggests
the turkey, which bird is regarded by the modern Hopi as so efficacious
in bringing rain that its feathers are employed in almost all rain
ceremonies. The author has seen a similar drawing on altar and other
ceremonial paraphernalia among the Hopi priests of the present day. The
white tips which characterize the tail feathers of the turkey originated,
according to a Hopi legend, at the time when this bird dragged the end of
its tail in the mud after a flood had subsided.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.—Lateral view of bird.]

The bird shown in figure 52 has a curved, elongated beak, a more or less
angular body, two legs, and two small wings. The tail consists of three
feathers[19] with characteristic projections.

[Illustration: FIG. 52.—Profile of bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53.—Lateral view of bird with outspread wing.]

One of the best bird pictures on Sikyatki pottery is shown in figure 53.
The body is somewhat triangular in shape and the wing is spread out,
here shown above the back; the tail is provided with three feathers
placed vertically instead of horizontally, and bent over at their ends
into triangles, evidently owing to the lack of available space. The beak
is characteristically curved; the single eye is provided with a pupil.
The long claws, single on each foot, suggest an eagle, hawk, or other
raptorial bird. The spiral appendage to the under rim of the tail is of
unknown meaning.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.—Lateral view of bird with twisted tail and wing
feathers.]

The design shown in figure 54 is one of the most complex bird drawings
found on Sikyatki pottery. The head is triangular, with an eye situated
in the center, and the beak continued into a very large, elaborate
fret. The body is rhomboidal in shape, the upper portion being occupied
by a patterned square. Rising above the body is a conventionalized
wing, while depending from its lowermost angle is a diminutive figure
resembling feathers. The tail consists of two elongate feathers, rounded
at their outer ends and fused at the point of union with the body.

Having seen how prone the ancient Hopi were to represent birds on their
pottery and the extent to which conventionalization of these figures
prevailed, one finds many designs so closely related to known bird
figures that the tendency is to include with them many the identification
of which is doubtful. Certain simple geometrical forms originally derived
from bird designs were copied by these early potters, presumably without
intending to represent birds, but rather merely as decorative motives.
Two of these problematic designs are shown in figures 55 and 56.

[Illustration: FIG. 55.—Lateral view of conventionalized bird.]

[Illustration: FIG. 56.—Lateral view of conventionalized bird.]


FEATHER DESIGNS

A large number of conventional figures representing feathers have been
identified, but there are many others which yet remain to be interpreted,
and the particular genus of birds to which each should be referred is
likewise problematical. There is no doubt, from a study of the uses of
different kinds of feathers in modern Hopi ceremonials, that each form
depicted on pottery represents a feather which played an important rôle
in ancient Hopi rituals.

Many unquestionable feather designs pictured on Sikyatki pottery are
found depicted on serpents, or are attached to inanimate objects, such as
rainbows, clouds, and lightning.

It is probable that the majority of feather designs on ancient Hopi
earthenware are included in the following types, to which no doubt other
forms of feather designs will be added later. These types are abundant in
vessels of the Sikyatki epoch.

[Illustration: FIG. 57.—Feather symbol with black notch.]

From the above pictures of birds and many others it may be seen that
feather symbols assume a variety of forms in sikyatki pottery decoration.
There are probably more than 50 different designs, each representing
a different kind of feather, and implying for each a distinct use or
ceremonial efficacy, as among the modern Hopi. Our knowledge of ancient
Hopi symbolism is not yet sufficient to enable us to identify all the
different birds to which these various forms of feathers belong, nor do
we know the uses to which all these feathers were put.[20]

Several wooden slabs and idols on Hopi altars have features drawn upon
them, and many ceremonial sand-pictures contain designs representing
feathers. In rare instances, as in the altar of the Powamû,[21] typical
Sikyatki symbols of feathers are still used, but feather symbols of a
form not found on Sikyatki pottery far outnumber those from that ruin.
The existence of one type of Sikyatki feathers on the figure of Pokema in
kachina altars may point to the derivation of this feather symbol from
Sikyatki, but some of these types are widespread.[22]

[Illustration: FIG. 58.—Feather symbol with black notch.]

The forms assumed by feathers on Sikyatki pottery may best be presented
by considering a few examples of the more common types. Figure 57
represents an unusual type of feather symbol, readily distinguished from
others by the notch at the end, the edge of which is commonly rounded.
There are two subdivisions of this type, one with a dotted shaft (fig.
58), the other plain. This form of feather design is found in most
unexpected associations, occurring on the heads of serpents or attached
to various parts of the body and under the wings of birds. It also hangs
from diametrical bands drawn across the inside of food bowls and from
other objects constituting the decoration of vessels. In a few instances
this type of feather is enlarged and constitutes the essential part of
the design, with other symbols attached.

This type of feather sometimes forms a part of a bird’s tail, but it does
not occur in the wings, although, as above stated, it occurs under a
wing or on the body or the head of a bird, a localization that leads to
the belief that the device was designed to represent a breast feather,
such as the Hopi now use in their prayers. In ancient Hopi symbolism it
is often attached to circles representing the sun and represents a tail
feather.

In plate 76, _a_, three feathers are represented with pointed tips and
without interior markings. It is one of the simplest drawings of the type
mentioned.

This figure illustrates a well-known type of feather symbol. It has many
variations, all clearly differentiated from the form last described,
from which it differs in its elongate form and pointed tip. What may
be regarded as a subtype of this is marked with diagonal bands drawn
either at right angles at one edge or extending across the figure and
terminating at right angles to the opposite edge. Feather symbols of
this type, which have not been identified with any particular bird, are
constantly found in birds’ tails and wings.

The next design (pl. 76, _b_) is similar in outline, but the three
feathers are painted solid black and are separated by spaces. This
conventional form of feather is common on wings and tails of birds.

The group of symbols shown in plate 76, _c_, has pointed tips, like the
others described, but part of the shaft is painted, while the other is
plain, the line of demarcation between which is drawn diagonally. This
form occurs on the tails rather than on the wings of birds.

The tips of the feathers in plate 76, _d_, are connected by a black band
and are divided by short vertical lines. A distinguishing feature of this
symbol is the oblique marking of each feather on the right side, by which
the feathers are narrowed at the base. A solid semicircular figure with
a double notch ornaments the upper edge. The few known examples of this
type of feather symbol are from the tails of unknown birds.

The next form of feather, shown in _e_, differs from the last in that the
shaft is spotted and the proximal end is cut diagonally in a somewhat
different way.[23] The tips are slit as in the figure last described.

The width of the feathers shown in _f_ is uniform throughout. The distal
ends are tipped with black; the proximal ends are each ornamented with a
black triangle. Midway of the length of the feathers are four continuous
parallel horizontal lines.

The two feathers shown in _g_ have in one instance a black and in the
other a white tip separated from the rest of the shaft by an oblique
line. The essential difference between this form of pointed feather and
those previously considered is that the diagonal line marking the tip is
drawn at a greater angle.

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 76

VARIOUS FORMS OF CONVENTIONALIZED FEATHERS]

The six feathers shown in _h_ resemble the last, but the terminal
portions of three are spotted instead of solid black. Like some of the
others described, this form tapers slightly from its distal end to its
base.

In _i_ the feathers are likewise pointed at their tips, but are of
almost uniform breadth. Each is intersected by a series of triangles and
parallel lines, and suspended from the latter, one in each feather, are
several vertical lines, each with terminal dots.

The symbol shown in _j_ is not unlike that already illustrated, but it
has in addition to the structure enumerated a lateral hornlike appendage
common in the tails of birds (see pl. 90, _i_, _tf_).

The form of feather design shown in _k_ is somewhat different from those
already considered. The distal end is broad and pointed; the proximal
narrows almost to a point. The left half of the body of the feather is
black; the remainder, including the point, is plain. The design _l_ has
the same general form as _k_, but its tip is marked in a different manner.

The double-pointed symbol represented in _m_ was evidently designed as
a feather (possibly two feathers), with parallel sides, and pointed
tips painted black. The symbol _n_ is similar to _d_ in outline, but it
lacks the terminal slit and black bands. There project, however, from
the angles formed by the tips of the feathers three vertical lines, each
with an arrow point at the extremity and two short crosslines, as in one
of the bird designs previously described (fig. 35). The present design
represents wing feathers; the complete bird figure (fig. 35), where they
also occur, represents a thunderbird.

The three tail feathers shown in _o_ are in no respect peculiar. The
two-pointed appendages seen above are an almost constant feature of the
drawings of birds as seen from the back. The feathers represented in _p_
are unlike others in their mode of attachment and in the ornamentation at
the base.

Thus far we have considered a type of feathers with pointed tips (pl. 76,
_a-p_) imparting to the whole tail a serrate appearance. While in the
next figure, _q_, the tail feathers still terminate in points, a black
band connecting their extremities is prolonged at each side, recalling
the tail of certain swallows.

Feathers are often represented on Sikyatki pottery as elsewhere in the
Southwest by parallel straight lines. The feathers represented in _r_ are
exceptional in that their length varies considerably, the median feather
here being the longest.

While undoubtedly the series of designs shown in _s_ to _bb_, inclusive,
in each instance representing the feathers in the tail of a bird, are
all highly conventionalized, in one or two instances, as _u_ and _bb_,
the relation to feathers can be recognized only by comparative studies.

The design illustrated in _cc_, taken from the neck of a vase, represents
several peculiar feathers of a type not yet described but highly
characteristic. Comparison of this with that of _dd_ shows the similarity
of the two and suggests that they pertain to the same kind of bird. The
tails represented in _v_, _aa_, and _bb_ are characteristic; the last
represents tail feathers hanging from the band later described.

The series of feathers (possibly tail feathers) shown in several figures
have rounded tips, and as a rule are of uniform size and without
ornamentation. In plate 77, _a_, the three feathers composing the tail
are painted black and are slightly separated, while those of _b_ are half
black and half plain, the solid area being separated from the plain by a
diagonal line extending from the proximal to the distal extremity.

The four feathers in _c_ are separated by slight intervals and lightly
shaded; otherwise they are similar to those in _a_. The two outside
feathers of _d_ are much broader than the middle feather, which is
reduced to a narrow line. In _e_ the three feathers are broader at the
tips, in which respect they differ from _c_.

In the tail shown in _f_, the feathers are indicated by shallow notches
from which short parallel lines extend inward. They are without
superficial markings. Figure _g_ belongs to the notched type represented
above.

The four feather symbols shown in the drawing of the bird’s tail
illustrated in _h_ differ from all others in the shape of their distal
ends, which are alternately black and plain, and are without superficial
ornamentation. Evidently this feather design, which is represented on a
single vessel from Sikyatki, is of a distinct type.

There is some doubt whether _i_ represents a bird’s tail, the head and
body from which the design was taken being more like those of a moth or a
butterfly. The meaning of the design in _j_ is also doubtful. Figure _k_
represents a single “breath” feather like that shown in figure 57.

There is a general resemblance between the tail feathers of the bird
designed in _e_ and _l_; the latter represents the tail of a bird,
hanging between two triangles under a star design.

Figure _m_ represents a bird’s tail with three tail feathers and lateral
extensions, while in _n_, where we also have a figure of the tail of a
bird, each feather is marked by a rectangular pattern. The four pairs of
parallel lines extending from these feathers may be regarded as parts of
these structures.

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 77

CONVENTIONALIZED TAIL FEATHERS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 78

CONVENTIONALIZED FEATHERS ATTACHED TO STRINGS (NAKWAKWOCI)]

Figures _o_ to _q_, while suggesting bird and feather designs, are still
more or less problematical. In the same category belong the designs
illustrated in figures _r_ to _u_. There is reason to believe that of
these _o-r_ represent feathers, but a definite identification can not yet
be made of figures _s-u_.

[Illustration: FIG. 59.—Feathers.]

Two triangular designs, one above another, are believed to represent
feathers, but are rarely found on ancient Hopi pottery. They appear on
the heads of birds in Acoma, Laguna, and other pottery designs, which are
the nearest modern representatives of ancient Hopi decorations.

A unique feather symbol from Sikyatki is characterized by a cigar-shaped
body outlined at the distal end, which is plain (fig. 59).

[Illustration: FIG. 60.—Curved feathers.]

There often occurs on Sikyatki pottery a combination of feather designs,
generally three, with other symbols. One form of these (fig. 60) has
four curved tail feathers. Other feathers of aberrant shape are shown in
figure 61, _a-e_.


FEATHERS SUSPENDED FROM STRINGS

In their ceremonies the modern Hopi priests use in great numbers a kind
of prayer offering called _nakwakwoci_, consisting of breast feathers
tied in a prescribed way to the ends of strings. The same type of prayer
offerings is one of the most common designs on Sikyatki pottery. Various
modifications of it are shown in the accompanying illustration (fig. 62).

[Illustration: FIG. 61.—Conventional feathers.]

This use of the feather string as a decorative device is seemingly
peculiar to prehistoric Hopi pottery, not having been found in the
pictography of the people formerly inhabiting the valleys of San Juan and
Little Colorado Rivers. This restriction in its use indicates its local
origin and application, although descendants of clans from both the San
Juan and the Little Colorado are represented among the Hopi.

[Illustration: FIG. 62.—Parallel lines representing feathers.]

In one of the simplest forms of the stringed-feather designs is a
line (pl. 78, _b_, _c_, _d_) sometimes taking the form of an elongate
triangle, terminating in a ball from which spring three or more diverging
or parallel lines. This enlargement on stringed-feather designs may
represent a knot, as will appear from certain variations in the form of
the feathered string to which attention will be given later.

In some cases (_e_, _l_) two knots appear between the string and the
attached feathers, while in another instance (_f_) one of the knots or
balls is replaced by two triangles.

Other representations of stringed-feather or _nakwakwoci_ designs show
modifications in each of the three elements mentioned, the line (string),
the enlargement (knot), and the terminal projections (feathers). The
occurrence of crossbars near the dot (_g_, _h_, _i_) vary in number
from one to four, and are always parallel, but usually are placed on
one side of the knot, although in some cases (_i_) they appear on both
sides. In one example (_j_) no ball or knot is provided, the _nakwakwoci_
consisting merely of the string intersected by pairs of equidistant
crosslines. A special modification of the dot with crosslines is shown in
the figure with the leaflike attachment (_q_).

One of the most significant of the stringed-feather designs is shown
in _a_, where a feather of the first type is attached to the string
intersected by crosslines. As a terminal element in corresponding designs
is a typical feather symbol, this figure is also identical. The figure of
a string with enlargements and a pair of lines (_g_) probably represents
that form of stringed feather called by the Hopi a _purhu_, “road,”
an offering laid by the Hopi on the trails approaching the pueblo to
indicate that ceremonies are being performed, or on altars to show the
pathway of blessings.

In another stringed-feather design (_n_) appears a triangular symbol
attached to the enlargement, the string terminating in radiating lines.
The feather sometimes preserves its triangular form (_m_). These
variations in the drawings of stringed feathers and the modifications of
the knot, string, and terminal attachments, are constantly repeated in
Sikyatki pottery decoration.


SKY-BAND

Many food bowls from Sikyatki have a band from which is suspended
the figure of a nondescript animal passing diametrically across it.
Representations of a similar band with like appendage girt the necks of
small pottery objects and are, so far as is known, characteristic of
prehistoric Hopi pottery.

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 79

SKY-BANDS]

Lines identified as sky-bands shown in plate 79 vary from single (_a_)
or double (_b_) to a broad undecorated band (_c_). In its simplest
form the sky-band extends entirely across the inside of the bowl, but
in the more complicated examples it surrounds the vessel parallel with
the rim surrounding the design on the inside of the bowl. Appendages of
several kinds as dots (_d_) or as stars (_f_), made up of oblong figures
in terrace form placed at intervals, are attached to this band. The
sky-band itself varies in width, being broad or narrow, crossed by series
of vertical parallel, zigzag, or other lines arranged at intervals, or
alternating with geometrical figures (_g_, _h_). In a single example
(_i_) the decoration is etched into the burnt clay, although in most
instances the decorations are painted.

Various explanations of the meaning of this band have been suggested,
it being regarded by some of the priests as the Milky Way, by others as
the path of the sun through the sky, but so far as known this ancient
design is rare on modern Hopi ware.[24] According to Harrington the Tewa
recognize a “backbone” of the sky.

In several Hopi legends there are allusions to a monster bird that
had been killed and hung in the sky by a cultus hero; and the general
character of this decorative band in Sikyatki pottery decoration renders
it probable that it was intended to represent some supernatural being, as
the Sky god.

The chief interest of the Sikyatki sky-band lies in the figure or
figures attached to it, or suspended from it, and regarded as the
conventionalized representation of a bird. Sometimes the creature is
placed longitudinally, sometimes vertically. In some instances it is
elaborately drawn, in others it is a simple geometric figure bearing so
little resemblance to a life form as to make it one of the most highly
conventionalized of all ancient Hopi designs.

Like other bird designs, these suspended figures may be considered
under two heads: (1) Those attached to the band in such a way as to be
seen from above (the dorsal side) or from below (the ventral side); and
(2) those suspended lengthwise of the band, showing one side in which
the tail and other parts are twisted into a plane at right angles. The
structure and relations of the hanging figure can best be seen by holding
the bowl in such manner that the sky-band is horizontal, bringing the
body of the suspended animal into the lower semicircle.


VERTICAL ATTACHMENT TO SKY-BAND

Several Sikyatki pottery designs showing the sky-band with the bird
figure hanging vertically from it are shown in the accompanying
illustrations. In order that the modifications in form may be readily
followed, those parts of the bird figures regarded as homologous are
indicated by the same letters.

The design in figure 63 represents one of the simplest forms of bird
symbols. A hornlike appendage is attached to the sky-band, on each side
of an elongate vertical body from which depends a number of parallel
lines representing tail feathers. The identification of this design
as that of a bird is based on comparative studies of designs less
conventional in character, to which attention has been and will later be
called.

[Illustration: FIG. 63.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 64.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 65.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 66.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

A modification of the pendent body on the sky-band[25] appears to have
introduced the new element shown in figure 64 in which the body is drawn.
Although considerable variation exists in the form of the other parts,
a morphological identity exists in all these figures. In figure 65, in
which the feathers differ somewhat from those of the last design, the
parallel lines representing the bird’s tail are really seen. The design
shown in figure 66 is still more elaborate than the last, especially in
the anterior semicircle,[26] opposite that in which the tail feathers are
depicted.

[Illustration: FIG. 67.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 68.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

The portion of the design situated in the anterior semicircle of figure
67 has no resemblance to a bird’s head, being destitute of eyes or beak.
The backward extending appendages on each side of the tail and the tail
itself has a projection on each side.

In figure 68 the whole anterior part of the design above the sky-band
is colored, the head appearing as a still darker semicircle. The tail
feathers are here reduced to simple parallel lines. The general form of
figure 69 is birdlike, but its affinity to the bird figures, pendent
from a sky-band, is closer than to any others. The homologous parts—tail
feathers, lateral body extensions, sky-band, and head—may be readily
recognized; the last mentioned is an ornamented rectangle. The whole
anterior hemisphere of this design is occupied by representations
of feathers arranged in two clusters, while in the surrounding area
their triple lines are crossed similarly to that occurring in other
hanging bird figures. It is but a step from this figure to the group of
unattached bird designs already considered.

[Illustration: FIG. 69.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 70.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

The wings of figure 70 are outspread and the head consists of two
terraced bodies conventionally placed. The body and the tail of this
figure are not exceptional, but dragon flies are also represented.

Figure 71 presents a conventionalized bird seen in profile, and a broad
sky-band to which are attached representations of feathers and other
organs suggesting a bird.

An animal depicted in figure 72 is one of three similar figures from the
neck of the same vase, which are connected by a line or band. The design
shown in figure 73 represents a highly conventionalized bird hanging from
the sky-band with head and wings on one side and tail feathers below.


BIRDS ATTACHED LONGITUDINALLY TO SKY-BAND

The designs shown in figure 74 represent the simplest forms of birds
attached lengthwise to the sky-band. The parallel lines on the left hand
of the observer are supposed to represent tail feathers and the curve on
the right, the heads, or possibly the wings.

[Illustration: FIG. 71.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 72.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

One of the best designs representing a bird attached to a sky-band is
shown in figure 75, taken from a bowl in the Wattron collection now owned
by the Field Columbian Museum, of Chicago. The interior surface of this
bowl is considerably worn by use, and the figure a little indistinct,
but the extremities of a band appear. There is a fairly realistic
figure on each side of a bird with head and wings above and tail below
a diametrical band. There are zigzag markings, supposed to represent
lightning, on the under side of the wing. The tail is spread out amply
enough to show the different feathers which compose it; and at the bases
or on its under side corresponding in position with like symbols on the
wing there appear two zigzag figures. The significance of two curved
bodies hanging from the sky-band, one on each side of the tail of this
figure, can not be satisfactorily interpreted, but the bird design shown
in figure 76 has four tail feathers, a prolongation on the opposite side
representing a head, and a curved extension comparable with a wing in
other figures. The so-called wing terminates in a triangular feather.

[Illustration: FIG. 73.—Conventionalized bird form hanging from sky-band;
top view.]

[Illustration: FIG. 74.—Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band.]

The two designs, figures 76 and 77, have parts which evidently
correspond, the latter being one of the most beautiful in the collection.
Both represent from the side an unknown bird hanging from a band
extending across the middle of the bowls. Although the details of organs
are more carefully depicted in the latter, there can hardly be a doubt
that similar animals were intended in both designs.

It requires some imagination to discover a conventionalized bird in
figure 78, but we may regard it as such. We have in this figure a good
example of a change in outline that may be produced by duplication or by
representing both sides of the body or its organs and appendages in the
same place. Three tail feathers are here apparent; the body is square,
with zigzag white lines, and the head, here twisted into a vertical
position, has a triangular form. The two crescentic appendages, one on
the right side, the other on the left, represent halves of wings which
are theoretically supposed to have been slit longitudinally and folded
backward[27] in order that both sides may be shown on the same plane; the
two bodies arising from the concave edges of these crescents—one to the
left, the other to the right of the square body—represent legs. Their
unusual form is brought about by a twisting of body and tail, by which
feathers of the latter are brought to longitudinal position, and one of
the legs is twisted to the right side and the other to the left. If the
two appendages supposed to represent the legs or the two parts shaped
like crescentlike knives were brought together, the two crescents would
likewise merge into one, and we would then have a highly conventionalized
bird with three tail feathers and a triangular head, the body being
represented by a square design crossed diagonally by zigzag figures each
in its own rectangular inclosed field.

[Illustration: FIG. 75.—Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band.]

[Illustration: FIG. 76.—Lateral view of bird with extended wing.]


DECORATIONS ON EXTERIORS OF FOOD BOWLS

The exterior surface of almost every bowl from Sikyatki is decorated
with lines or geometrical designs. Many of these designs may represent
animals, probably birds highly conventionalized or so aberrant that
the avian form can be recognized only by comparative or morphological
studies. They are confined to one side of the bowl; there appears to
be little resemblance and no connection between them and the figure
depicted on the inside of the same bowls. Although linear in form, one
end is sometimes so crooked or bent at an angle, not curved, as to form a
head, while the other bears parallel lines, representations of the tail
feathers, terraces, or triangles.

[Illustration: FIG. 77.—Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band.]

[Illustration: FIG. 78.—Lateral view of bird hanging from sky-band.]

In plate 80, _a_, we have a characteristic example of one of these
exterior decorations. The crooked end is supposed to represent a bird’s
head; to the other end, or tail, are appended six feathers like those
already considered. A row of five stars is strung along the band. A
likeness to a bird is very obscure in _b_, while _c_ shows several simple
triangles with stepped figures in the middle and triangles at the ends.
Design _d_ has a square form and two triangles appended to each opposite
angle. The appendages on the remaining opposite angles have four parallel
lines. Design _e_ consists of two highly conventionalized bird symbols,
united to a third which forms the interior design.

The design _f_ recalls the sky-band described in the preceding pages. The
extremities of this so-called band are enlarged into round spots from
which arise parallel lines and triangular designs. From it hang terraced
and crooked figures, while strung along one side at equal intervals are
five stars, a common accompaniment of sky symbols. The bird symbol comes
out clearly in _g_, where the crook design with terraces is repeated.

All crooked figures have a similarity in general form, some more
closely resembling birds than others, and it is taken for granted that
the intention of the artist was to represent a bird in plate 81, _a_,
notwithstanding the avian form is highly conventionalized. Design _b_
is composite, consisting of a rectangular figure, to the angles of
which are attached feathers. Terraced and triangular figures of unknown
significance, stars, and other designs cover the rectangle. Design _c_ is
made up of a triangle with notched borders and a central rectangle with
a dot characterizes this design; it has also two triangular extensions
that may represent feathers. Design _d_ resembles previous figures
identified as feathers and terraces hanging from a sky-band.

The most prominent part of the design _e_ is a crook and parallel lines.
In _f_ are variously combined triangles with appended feathers, crooks,
and terraced designs, so united as to make up a compound decoration of
geometric character.

The geometrical designs in the series, plate 82, _a-f_, may be
interpreted as representing birds in flight or with extended wings.
Considered in this way, it appears that we have in the figure on each
side a highly conventionalized wing forming triangles with extensions at
one angle, ending in terraces, crooks, or other designs. In these figures
we constantly have a line that may be likened to the sky-band, each end
generally terminating in a dot to which parallel lines are attached.

Design _a_ has two triangular bodies resembling the letter W, and the
line terminating in two dots has two crossbars, while in _b_ there is
a union of designs. Elongated triangles terminate in lines which are
enlarged into dots. These triangles are modified on one side into crooks
with smaller triangles.

From remote resemblances rather than similarity of form, _c_ is placed
near the preceding. Here a band is enlarged at the end representing the
knots with attached parallel lines or feathers. The triangular pendants
of _b_ and the line with terminal dots of _a_ are here represented. On
the middle vertical of this figure is a trapezoidal design with notched
edges.

The elements of _d_ form a compound in which triangles predominate. Two
W-shaped designs, _e_ and _f_, have a form quite unlike _a_, _b_, _c_,
and _d_. Of these, _f_ is the more complicated, but the similarity of the
two is apparent.

Plate 83, _a_, represents two triangles with serrate margins hanging to a
horizontal band, one end of which terminates in dots and lines, the other
with two parallel notched feathers.

Plate 84, _a-c_, have the W shape shown in plate 82, _e_, _f_; the
approach to the conventional bird form with extended wings and tail being
most marked in _a_. Design _d_ on plate 84 recalls plate 83, _f_, with
modifications that are apparent.

The above-mentioned geometrical figures from the exteriors of Sikyatki
food bowls show considerable variety of form but all can be reduced to
a few elemental designs throughout in which the curved line is absent.
The rectangular design is always dominant, but it will be seen from the
following plate that it is not omnipresent, especially on the interiors
of bowls.

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 80

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 81

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 82

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 83

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 84

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES ON OUTSIDE OF BOWLS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 85

CONVENTIONALIZED BIRD DESIGNS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 86

CONVENTIONALIZED BIRD DESIGNS]


CURVED FIGURE WITH ATTACHED FEATHERS

The curved spiral figures shown in plates 85 and 86 are combinations
of simple and complicated designs, among the most conspicuous of which
are feathers. When these figures are placed in the same position it is
possible to recognize three or four components which are designated (a)
spiral, (b) appendage to the tip of the spiral, (c) a bundle of feathers
recalling a bird’s tail, and (d) and (e) other parts of unknown homology
occasionally represented. In plate 85, _A_ the appendage _b_ to the
spiral _a_ is two triangles and two supplemental spirals arising from
their attachments. There is no representation of _c_, _d_, or _e_ in this
figure.

In _B_ of the same plate the elements _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_ are
represented. The appendage _b_ attached to the tip of the spiral _a_ has
the form of a feather of the first type (see pl. 76), and four parallel
lines, _c_, indicating feathers, are attached to the body. The two
toothlike appendages _e_, of unknown significance, complete the figure.
In plate 85, _C_, the design _a_ has two dots _b_ on the distal tip, from
one of which arises a number of lines. The fact that _b_ in figure _B_ is
a feather leads to the belief that _b_ in figure _C_ is the same design.

Plate 85, _D_ and _E_, have a resemblance in form, _a_ and _c_ being
represented in both; _b_ and _e_ are wanting in _E_. The different
elements in these designs can be readily seen by comparing the same
lettering in _F_ and _G_, and in plate 86, _A_ and _B_, where a new
element, _t_, is introduced.

Plate 86, _B_ and _E_, are highly conventionalized designs; they suggest
bird form, examples of which have been already considered elsewhere, but
are very much modified.

There can be no doubt that it was intended to represent birds or parts of
birds as feathers in many of the above figures, but the perspective is so
distorted that their morphology or relative position on the bird to which
they belong can not be made out. In plate 86, _A_, for instance, the
bird’s body seems to be split in two parts and laid on a flat plane. The
pendent body, _t_, in the middle would be a representation of a bird’s
tail composed of three feathers and with a double triangle terminating in
dots from which arise lines of would-be feathers.

Two of the parts, _a_ and _t_, that occur in the last mentioned, are
found in plate 86, _B_, in somewhat modified form. Thus the position of
the tail feathers, _t_, figure _C_, is taken by feathers of a different
form, their extremities being cut off flat and not curved. The bundles
of feathers in _B_ and _C_ are here reversed, the left side of _B_
corresponding to the right of _C_, and the appendage on the left of the
tail of _B_ being represented by the appendage on the right of _C_.
There are other remote likenesses between them.


SPIDER AND INSECTS

Other flying animals, like bats and insects, are depicted on Sikyatki
pottery, but not as constantly as birds. The spider, and insects like the
dragon fly, moth, and butterfly, are the most common. In Hopi mythology
the spider[28] and the sun are associated, the former being the symbol of
an earth goddess. Although no design that can be referred to the spider
has yet been found on Sikyatki pottery, it is not wanting from Hopi (pl.
87, _c_).

The symbol of the dragon fly, which occurs on several bowls from ancient
Hopi ruins, is a line often enlarged at one end to form a head, and
always with two crossbars near this enlargement to indicate wings. As
this insect lives near springs and is constantly associated in modern
symbolism with water it is probable that its occurrence on ancient Hopi
pottery has practically the same significance as in modern conceptions.


BUTTERFLY AND MOTH

Five typical figures that may be referred to the butterfly or moth occur
on Sikyatki pottery. These figures have in common a triangular body which
suggests a highly conventionalized picture of a bird. Their wings are, as
a rule, extended horizontally, assuming the attitude of moths while at
rest, there being only one of the five examples where wings are folded
above the back, the normal position of these organs in a butterfly. With
one exception, all these conventional butterfly figures bear two curved
rows of dots on the head, probably intended to represent antennæ.

[Illustration: FIG. 79.—Butterfly and flower.]

The figure of a moth in figure 79 has a body of triangular form, and the
extremities of the wings are shown on each side of a medially placed
backward-extending projection, which is the posterior end of the
abdomen. These wings bear white dots on their posterior edges suggesting
the markings on certain genera of butterflies.[29] There arises from the
head, which here is circular, a single jointed appendage curved at the
end, possibly the antenna, and an unjointed appendage, like a proboscis,
inserted into a figure of a flower, mounted on a stalk that terminates
at the other extremity in five parallel extensions or roots. A row of
dots about the periphery of the flower suggests petals. The figures are
accompanied by crosses representing stars.

The second moth design (fig. 80) has even a closer resemblance to a bird
than the last, for it also has a single antenna or row of dots connected
by a curved line. It likewise has several curved lines resembling a crest
of feathers on top of the head, and lines recalling the tail of a bird.
The head this figure bears is a cross suggesting a female butterfly or
moth.[30]

[Illustration: FIG. 80.—Butterfly with extended proboscis.]

[Illustration: FIG. 81.—Highly conventionalized butterfly.]

The body in figure 81 is crossed by five lines converging at one angle,
imparting to it the appearance of having been formed by a union of
several spherical triangles on each of which appear rectangular spaces
painted black. A head is not differentiated from the body, but at the
point of union of the five lines above mentioned there arise two rows of
dots which have the form of circles, each inclosing a dot. From analogy
these are supposed to represent antennæ. The middle of wing-shaped
extensions recalling butterfly designs are marked by circular figures
in figure 82, but the absence in this figure of a head with jointed
appendages renders it doubtful whether it represents an insect. The shape
of the body and its appendages resembling feathers indicate, so far as
they go, that this design represents some bird.

It will be noted that in one of the above-mentioned figures, identified
as a moth, flowers are indicated by dotted circles, while in another
similar circle, figures, also surrounded with dots, are represented on
the wings. One pair of wings is represented in the last-mentioned figure,
but a second pair placed behind the larger may have been confounded with
the tail feathers. In one of these figures from Sikyatki there is a row
of dots around the margin of the wings—a common but not universal feature
in modern pictures of butterfly figures. None of the butterfly figures
have representations of legs, which is not strange considering how
inconspicuous these appendages are among these insects.

[Illustration: FIG. 82.—Moth.]

[Illustration: FIG. 83.—Moth.]

A most striking figure of a butterfly is represented by six drawings
on the so-called “butterfly vase” (fig. 83). These, like the
above-mentioned, resemble birds, but they all have antennæ, which
identify them as insects. These six figures (pl. 90) are supposed to
be connected with the six cardinal points which in modern Hopi belief
have sex—the butterfly corresponding to the north, male; to the west,
female; to the south, male; to the east, female; to the above, male; and
to the below, female. The wings of all these insects are represented as
extended, the anterior pair extending far beyond the posterior, while
both have a uniform color and are without marginal dots. The appendages
to the head are two curved rows of dots representing antennæ, and two
parallel lines are the mouth parts or possibly the proboscis. The
markings on the bodies and the terminal parallel lines are like tail
feathers of birds. The heads of three figures, instead of having diagonal
lines, are covered with a crosshatching, _b_, _b_, _b_, and are supposed
to represent the males, as the former, _a_, _a_, _a_, are females.[31]

[Illustration: FIG. 84.—Moth of geometrical form.]

[Illustration: FIG. 85.—Geometrical form of moth.]

[Illustration: FIG. 86.—Highly conventionalized butterfly.]

[Illustration: FIG. 87.—Geometrical form of moth.]

A moth with a conventionalized geometric form is represented in
figure 84 with outstretched wings, a rounded abdomen, and a spotted
rectangular body recalling designs on the upper embroidered margin of
modern ceremonial blankets. A like figure has been elsewhere described
by the author as a butterfly.[32] It occurs on the stone slab which
once formed one side of an Awatobi altar.[33] We have more complicated
forms of butterflies represented in figures 85-87, the identification
of which is even more doubtful than the last. Figure 86 reproduces in
its several parts figure 85, being composed of a central design, around
which are arranged six triangles, one of the last being placed above,
another below, the main figure, and there are two on each side. The
design, figure 88, is circular, the alternately colored quadrants forming
two hourglass combinations. The double triangle, shown in figure 84,
resembles a butterfly symbol, having a close likeness to a figure of this
insect found on the Awatobi tablet above mentioned. This figure also
resembles triangular designs painted on the walls of modern Hopi rooms
and in cliff-dwellings (Cliff Palace). These figures present very remote
likenesses to butterfly symbols and their identification as such is
difficult.


GEOMETRICAL DESIGNS

[Illustration: FIG. 88.—Circle with triangles.]

The geometrical designs on the pottery from Sikyatki consist of two
well-recognized groups: (1) Purely ornamental or nonsymbolic geometrical
figures, and (2) highly conventional life forms. Some of the figures of
the second group may be geometrical representations of birds or other
animals; but the former are simply embellishments used to beautify the
objects on which they are painted. Purely decorative designs, not being
symbolic, will not be specially considered, as they do not come within
the scope of the present treatise. An interpretation of the significance
of many of the second group of geometrical designs is not possible,
although they probably represent animal forms.

The strictly geometrical figures so frequently found on pottery from
Sikyatki recall the linear decorations almost universal in ancient
southwestern ware.

No one who has carefully compared specimens of decorated pottery from
Sikyatki with examples from any other southwestern region could fail to
be impressed with the differences in some of the geometrical designs from
the two localities. Such designs on the Sikyatki ware are almost always
rectangular, rarely curved. As compared with pottery from cliff-dwellings
there is a paucity or entire absence of terraced designs in the ancient
Hopi ware, while zigzags representing lightning are comparatively rare.
The characteristic geometrical decorations on Sikyatki pottery are found
on the outside of the food bowls, in which respect they are notably
different from those of other ceramic areas. Designs on Sikyatki pottery
show few survivals of preexisting materials or evolution from transfer of
those on textiles of any kind. Such as do exist are so masked that they
shed little light on current theories of art evolution.

The designs on ancient Hopi pottery are in the main mythological, hence
their true interpretation involves a knowledge of the religious ideas
and especially of such psychological elements as sympathetic magic, so
prevalent among the Hopi of to-day. The idea that by the use of symbols
man could influence supernatural beings was no doubt latent in the
mind of the potter and explains the character of the symbols in many
instances. The fact that the bowls on which these designs are painted
were found with the dead, and contained food for the departed, implies a
cult of the dead, or at least a belief in a future life.


RAIN CLOUDS

The most constant geometric designs on Pueblo pottery are those
representing the rain cloud, and from analogy we would expect to find the
rain-cloud figures conspicuously on ancient Hopi pottery. We look in vain
on Sikyatki ware for the familiar semicircular symbols of rain clouds so
constant among the modern Hopi; nor do we find the rectangular terraced
form which is equally common. These modifications were probably lately
introduced into Hopiland by those colonists of alien clans who came after
the destruction of Sikyatki, and consequently are not to be expected on
its pottery. Their place was taken by other characteristic forms closely
allied to rectangular terraced figures from which hang parallel lines,
representing falling rain in modern symbolism.[34] The typical Sikyatki
rain-cloud symbol is terraced without rain symbols and finds its nearest
relative on pottery derived from the eastern pueblo region. The form of
rain-cloud symbol on Sikyatki pottery may be regarded as characteristic
of the Kokop clan which, according to legends, settled this ancient
pueblo. Modified variants of this form of rain-cloud symbol occur on
almost every specimen in the Sikyatki collection, and can be seen hanging
from “sky-bands” with appended star signs or without such connections.

[Illustration: FIG. 89.—Rain cloud.]

The most common Sikyatki symbol of a rain cloud is shown in figure 89 and
plate 90, _f_, _g_. These rain-cloud designs rarely occur singly, being
more often six in number, as if intended to represent the six cardinal
points recognized in Hopi ceremonies. We find the Sikyatki rain-cloud
symbols resembling somewhat those of the modern Zuñi, or figures of
clouds found on the characteristic designs on Little Colorado ceramics.
Somewhat similar angular terraced forms are almost universally used in
eastern pueblos as rain-cloud symbols, but the semicircular forms (fig.
90) of modern Hopi ceremonials, being apparently a highly specialized
modification, rarely occur on Sikyatki pottery.


STARS

The star sign occurs as an equal armed cross formed by the approximation
of four squares, leaving a central uncolored area. It is generally
accompanied by a rain-cloud symbol or bird figures, although likewise
found without them. We often find one arm of the component arms of
the cross missing and two of the remaining arms adherent to a band;
often these crosses have a circular enlargement at the junction of
their arms. A simple equal armed cross is the sole decoration on the
interior of numerous food bowls, and there are several examples of St.
Andrew’s crosses, the triangular arms of which have been interpreted as
representing four conventionalized birds; no example of a cross with
unequal arms has yet been found on Sikyatki pottery.

[Illustration: FIG. 90.—Rain cloud.]

These crosses, like that with four arms representing the Sky god in
modern Hopi symbolism, probably represent the Heart of the Sky. A similar
cross is figured on paraphernalia used in modern Hopi rites or on altar
slabs; when it is represented by a wooden frame, it is called _tokpela_,
and hangs before the altar. The same object is sometimes attached
horizontally to the top of the helmet of the personification of the
Sky god.[35] The swastika is rare in ancient pottery and was not found
at Sikyatki, although a single example was dug up at Awatobi and a few
others were obtained from the Little Colorado ruins.

A multiple cross, formed of three parallel lines crossing three others
at an angle, generally accompanies certain conventionalized figures of
birds and in one example there are two multiple crosses, one on one side
and one on another of a moth or butterfly symbol. The multiple cross is
supposed to represent six canes used in a game, and on a prehistoric
decorated bowl from ancient Shongopovi,[36] we find what appears to be a
highly conventionalized bird figure occupying one-half of the interior
of the bowl, while four figures representing these canes appear on the
other. The bird figure, in this instance, is interpreted as a gambler’s
god, or a representation of the god of chance.


SUN EMBLEMS

The most conventionalized sun emblem is a circle or ring with attached
feathers. The Sikyatki design (pl. 87, _b_) is a circle bearing on its
periphery appendages believed to represent feathers, with accompanying
lines, generally painted red, to represent the rays of the sun.[37]

[Illustration: FIG. 91.—Ring with appended feathers.]

The identification of the bird whose feathers are used in sun emblems has
not yet been made, although the position of similar feathers on the body
of other bird designs suggests that they represent eagle feathers. The
feather of the eagle is commonly associated with both ancient and modern
pictures representing the sun. Thus we have on a vessel from Sikyatki in
figure 91 a design bearing four feathers arranged at intervals a quadrant
apart alternating with radiating lines. If we interpret this figure in
the light of modern symbolism the circle would be regarded as the sun
and the feathers would be identified as eagle feathers, while the lines
might be considered to represent the red rays of the four cardinal points.

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 87

BIRD, SUN, AND SPIDER AND SUN SYMBOLS]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 88

CONVENTIONALIZED BIRD FIGURES]

In a bowl found at old Shongopovi, a ruin inhabited at the same epoch as
Sikyatki, the sun takes the form of a sky bird. In this design the ring
figure is replaced by a bird with wings, tail, and a beak, evidently the
sun bird, hawk, or eagle (pl. 88, _a_).

[Illustration: FIG. 92.—Two circles with figure.]

A theoretical interpretation of plate 88, _b_, is facilitated by a
comparison of it with the design painted on a bowl from the Wattron
collection, now in the Field Columbian Museum. As this has all the parts
represented in figure 75, the conclusion would naturally be that the
intention of the artist was to represent a bird figure.

Ring or circle shaped figures are found on several bowls from Sikyatki,
and in one case (fig. 92) we find two circles side by side separated by
a rectangular figure. The meaning of these rings and the accompanying
design is not known. Concentric circles diametrically accompanied with
two figures, one with a head and two lateral feathers, the other with the
form of a hash-knife figure, are shown in figure 93.

In figure 94 the appendages of the ring design or sun emblem is much more
complicated than any of the preceding. Each of the four quadrants has
two appendages, a cluster with two feathers, and a curved body with a
sickle-shaped extension, the whole giving a swastika-like appearance to
the design. The interior of the circle is likewise complicated, showing a
structure difficult to interpret. From comparisons with preceding figures
this is likewise regarded as a sun emblem.[38]

[Illustration: FIG. 93.—Sun with feathers.]

[Illustration: FIG. 94.—Sun symbol.]

[Illustration: FIG. 95.—Ring with appended feathers.]

[Illustration: FIG. 96.—Ring figure with legs and appended feathers.]

The ring or circle shown in figure 95 hangs from a band that may be
likened to the sky-band of previous description.[39] A triangle[40] is
attached to the upper side of this band, while appended to the ring
itself there is a featherlike object corresponding to a bird’s tail and
wing. This figure is unique in the Sikyatki collection of ancient Hopi
pictography.

In figure 96 we find a leg appended to the lower side of the ring
balanced by three wing feathers above or on the opposite side, two
curved or crescentic extensions projecting from the rear, diametrically
opposite which arises a curved body (head) with terminating sickle-shaped
prolongation. This figure may be considered a bird design, having the
tail twisted from a lateral to a vertical position and the wing raised
from the body.

[Illustration: FIG. 97.—Sun emblem with appended feathers.]

In figure 97 we find a similar ring still further modified, the
appendages to it being somewhat different. The ring is here broader than
the last, inclosing an area crossed by two lines forming a cross, with
short parallel lines at the ends of each arm. There is a head showing a
circular face with dots indicating eyes and mouth. The head bears a crest
of feathers between two horns. Here we have in place of the appendage
to the lower side an elongated curved projection extending to the left,
balanced by a short, stumpy, curved appendage on the right, while
between these appendages hang four parallel lines suggesting the highly
conventional feathers of a tail. The horns with the crest of feathers
between them recall the crest of the Sun god, of the Kachina clan,
called Tunwup, a Sky god who flogs the children of modern Walpi.

[Illustration: FIG. 98.—Sun symbol.]

[Illustration: FIG. 99.—Sun symbol.]

The ring design in figure 98 has a bunch of three feathers in each
quadrant, recalling the feathers of a sun emblem so well shown with other
kinds of feathers in plate 76, _b_.

In figure 99 we have a circle with four appended bifurcated geometrical
extensions projecting outward on the periphery, and recalling featherless
tails of birds. This is also a highly conventionalized sun emblem reduced
to a geometrical figure.

In connection with all these circular figures may be considered that
shown in figure 92, the form of which is highly suggestive. In the
various modifications above mentioned we detect two elements, the ring
and its peripheral appendages, interpreted as feathers, head, feet,
and other bird organs. Sometimes the ring predominates, sometimes the
feathers, and sometimes a bird figure replaces all, the ring being lost
or reduced in size. This variation is primitive and quite consistent with
the Pueblo conceptions and analogies known to occur in Hopi ceremonial
paraphernalia. This variation illustrates what is elsewhere said about
the influence of the magic power on the pictorial art of Hopi.[41]

The sun, to the Hopi mind, is likewise represented by a bird, or a
compound of both becomes a Sky-god emblem; the horned serpent is the
servant of the Sky god.

We find among the modern Hopi several disks with markings and decorations
of such a character that they are identified as representations of the
sun. One of these is worn by the leader of the kachinas in a ceremony
called the Powamû, an elaborate rite, the purpose of which is to purify
from evil influences. This Sun god[42] is called Ahül, and the symbolism
of his mask, especially feathers attached to the head, suggests some of
the Sikyatki designs considered above.


RECTANGULAR FIGURES REPRESENTING SHRINES

The word _pahoki_, prayer-stick house or “shrine,” is applied by the
modern Hopi to the receptacle, commonly a ring of stones, in which
prayer offerings are deposited, and receives its name from the special
supernatural personage worshiped. These shrines are regarded as sacred by
the Hopi and are particularly numerous in the neighborhood of the Hopi
mesas.[43] They are ordinarily simply rude inclosures made of stones or
flat stone slabs set on edge, forming boxes, which may either be closed
or open on one side. The simplest pictographic representation of such
a shrine is the same as that of a house, or a circular or rectangular
figure. A similar design is drawn in meal on the floor of the kiva or
traced with the same material on the open plaza when the priest wishes to
represent a house or shrine. Elaborate pictures made of different colored
sands to represent gods are often inclosed by encircling lines, the whole
called a house of the gods. Thus the sand picture on the Antelope altar
of the Snake dance is called the house of the rain-cloud beings.[44]
When reptiles are washed on the ninth day of the Snake dance they are
said to be thrown into the house, a sand picture of the mountain lion.
It is customary to make in some ceremonies not only a picture of the god
worshiped, but also a representation of his or her house. The custom of
adding a picture of a shrine to that of the supernatural can be seen
by examining a series of pictures of Hopi kachinas. Here the shrine is
a rain-cloud symbol introduced to show that the house of the kachina
represented is a rain cloud.

Sikyatki bowls decorated with figures identified as supernaturals often
bear accompanying designs which may, from comparative reasoning, be
interpreted as shrines of the supernatural being depicted. They have at
times a form not unlike that of certain sand pictures, as in the case of
the curved figure accompanying a highly conventionalized plumed serpent.
A great variety of figures of this kind are found on Sikyatki bowls,[45]
and often instead of being a rectangular figure they may be elongated
more like a prayer offering.

The rectangular figure that accompanies a representation of a great
horned serpent (fig. 100) may be interpreted as the shrine house of
that monster, and it is to be mentioned that this shrine appears to
be surrounded by radial lines representing curved sticks like those
set around sand pictures of the Snake and Antelope altars of the Snake
ceremonies at Walpi.[46]

It is suggested that the figure below the mountain sheep (see fig. 18)
and the circles with dots accompanying the butterfly and bird designs may
also represent shrines. Attention is also called to the fact that each
of the six animal figures of the elaborate butterfly vase (pl. 90, _c_)
is accompanied by a rectangular design representing a shrine in which
feathers are visible.

[Illustration: FIG. 100.—Horned snake with conventionalized shrine.]

The general forms of these shrines, are shown in figures 101 and 102. The
one shown in figure 103 is especially instructive from its association
with a highly conventionalized animal.

[Illustration: FIG. 101.—Shrine.]

[Illustration: FIG. 102.—Shrine.]

The Sikyatki epoch of Hopi ceramics is more closely allied to early
Keresan[47] than to ancient Tanoan, and has many likenesses to modern
Keresan pottery. In fact, none of the distinctive figures have yet been
found on true Tanoan ware in any great numbers. There appear also no
evidences of increments peculiar to the Little Colorado culture center
of which Zuñi is the modern survival; consequently we look in vain for
evidence of early communication between these two centers; possibly
Sikyatki fell before Zuñi attained any prominence in the Little Colorado
area.[48]


SYMBOLS INTRODUCED FROM SAN JUAN RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Although the majority of Hopi priests declare that the earliest clan
to settle Walpi was the Bear, coming from the east, by far the largest
number of early colonists are said to belong to the Snake people which
came from Tokonabi and other great settlements on tributaries of the San
Juan in northern Arizona. The route of their migration is fairly well
known from legendary sources supported in late years by some limited
excavations that have been made in ruins along its course, so that we
know something of the character of the Snake pottery and the symbols,
which these early colonists brought to the Bear settlement at the base of
the East Mesa. These are not unlike those found along the San Juan and
its tributaries from the Mesa Verde to Wukoki near the Black Falls on the
Little Colorado, west of the Hopi Mesa.

[Illustration: FIG. 103.—Conventionalized winged bird with shrine.]

This ware is commonly either black and white, or red, and can be readily
distinguished from that of Sikyatki by the wealth of geometrical
decorations and the poverty of such animal figures as birds, reptiles,
and insects. The designs of that early epoch appear to be uniform and
hardly distinctive from those that occur in all parts of the Southwest.

We may judge of the character of the symbols and designs on pottery from
the San Juan and from the ruins of Wukoki on the Black Falls of Little
Colorado. It is characterized by an abundance of geometric figures and
an almost total absence of life forms or painted figures of men and
animals. The pottery is thin, well made, and sometimes colored red, but
the majority of specimens are gray or black-and-white ware not especially
different from a widespread type occurring pretty generally throughout
the Southwest. Coiled and incised ware is more abundant than smooth
painted, but these are not as varied in form as later examples. There is
no evidence available that there was any very great difference between
the Hopi pottery decorations of the first epoch and that of contemporary
time in the Southwest. When the Snake clans arrived at Walpi they found
the village of Bear people living on the terrace at the base of the East
Mesa, possessed of a symbolism like that of Sikyatki. The combined clans,
Bear and Snake, were later joined by the Horn and Flute, and it is not
unlikely that some of the likenesses between the pottery symbols of the
settlement on the terrace below Walpi and Sikyatki may have developed
about this time.[49]

The designs on the ceramics of the Snake clans are best illustrated
by the prehistoric pottery from ruins and cliff-dwellings in Utah and
along the San Juan area, where geometrical patterns far outnumber those
representing life forms. This does not deny that many of the pieces of
pottery from this region are finely made, equal in technique perhaps to
some of the Sikyatki, but the geometric designs on San Juan pottery and
that from Sikyatki are radically different. This difference conforms with
tradition that the Snake clans left their homes at Tokonabi, in the San
Juan region, and came to Hopi after the foundation of Sikyatki, which had
probably developed its beautiful ceramic art before Walpi was settled.
There is no evidence that the potters of the Snake clan ever introduced
any modification in the symbolic decoration of pottery by the women of
Sikyatki.


SYMBOLS INTRODUCED BY THE SNAKE PEOPLE

The designs on pottery taken from prehistoric ruins of pueblos or
villages once inhabited by the Snake clans claim the archeologist’s
especial attention. These clans were the most important early additions
to the Hopi villages and no doubt influenced early Hopi symbolism. There
is little trace in early pottery that can be recognized as peculiar to
the Snake. The Snake clans formerly lived at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and
neighboring ruins.

Among many significant differences that occur between the designs on
pottery from the ruins in Navaho National Monument and those of Sikyatki
may be mentioned the rarity of bird designs and the conventional
feathers above described. Parallel lines and triangles have been found
on the pottery from Kitsiel and Betatakin. Terraced figures are common;
spirals are rare. Pottery designs from this region are simpler and like
those of the Mesa Verde cliff-houses and the ruins along the San Juan
River. Not only do the designs on prehistoric Sikyatki pottery have
little resemblance to those from Tokonabi, a former home of the Snake
clan, but the pottery from this region of Arizona is of coarser texture
and different color. It is the same as that of the San Juan area, the
decorations on which are about uniform with those from the Mesa Verde and
Chelly Canyon. The best vases and bowls are of red or black-and-white
ware.

In the pottery symbols of the clans that lived at Tokonabi (Kitsiel,
Betatakin, etc.) the archaic predominated. The passage architecturally
from the fragile-walled dwelling into Prudden’s pueblo “unit type”
had taken place, but the pottery had not yet been greatly modified.
Even after the Snake clans moved to Wukoki, near the Black Falls of
the Little Colorado, we still find the survival of geometrical designs
characteristic of the prepuebloan epoch. Consequently when the Snake
clans came to Walpi and joined the Hopi they brought no new symbols and
introduced no great changes in symbols. The influence of the clans from
the north was slight—too small to greatly influence the development of
Hopi symbolism.




TANOAN EPOCH


The Tanoan epoch in the chronology of Hopi pottery symbolism is markedly
different from the Keresan. It began with the influx of Tanoan clans,
either directly or by way of Zuñi and the Little Colorado, being
represented in modern times by the early creations of Hano women, like
Nampeo. It is clearly marked and readily distinguished from the Sikyatki
epoch, being well represented in eastern museums by pottery collected
from Hano, the Tewan pueblo on the East Mesa.

Migrations of Tanoan clans into the Hopi country began very early in Hopi
history, but waves of colonists with Tanoan kinship came to Walpi at
the close of the seventeenth century as a result of the great rebellion
(1680), when the number of colonists from the Rio Grande pueblos was
very large. The Badger, Kachina, Asa, and Hano clans seem to have been
the most numerous and important in modifying sociological conditions,
especially at the East Mesa of the Hopi. Some of these came directly
to Walpi, others entered by way of Zuñi, and still others by way of
Awatobi. They brought with them Tanoan and Keresan symbolism and Little
Colorado elements, all of which were incorporated. The Tanoan symbols are
very difficult to differentiate individually but created a considerable
modification in the artistic products, as a whole.

The symbolism that the colonists from the Little Colorado settlements
brought to Walpi was mixed in character, containing certain Gila Valley
elements. Among the last-mentioned were increments derived directly
from Zuñi, as shown in the symbolism of their pottery. Among the most
important thus introduced were contributions of the Asa, Kachina, Badger,
and Butterfly clans. The most important element from the Little Colorado
clans that originally came from the Gila Valley (Palatkwabi) are those
connected with the plumed serpent.[50] It is possible to trace successive
epochs in the history of ceramic decoration in the Little Colorado ruins
and to identify, in a measure, the clans with which these epochs were
associated, but to follow out this identification in this paper would
take me too far afield and lead into a discussion of areas far distant
from the Hopi, for it belongs more especially to the history of ceramic
decorations of Zuñi decoration and composition.[51] In the present
article all the Little Colorado influences are treated as belonging to
the Tanoan epoch, which seems to have been the dominant one in the Little
Colorado when emigration, comparatively modern in time, began to Hopi.


SYMBOLS INTRODUCED FROM THE LITTLE COLORADO

After the destruction of Sikyatki there was apparently a marked
deterioration in the excellence of Hopi ceramics, which continued as
late as the overthrow of Awatobi, when the Sikyatki epoch ceased.
Shortly before that date and for a few years later there was a notable
influx of foreigners into Hopiland; a number of southern clans from
the Little Colorado successively joined the Hopi, bringing with them
cultural conceptions and symbolic designs somewhat different from those
existing previously to their advent. Among these clans are those known in
migration legends as the Patki peoples. Although we can not distinguish
a special Patki epoch in Hopi ceramics, we have some ideas of the nature
of Patki symbolism from large collections from Homolobi, Chevlon, and
Chavez Pass. From traditions and ceremonial objects now in use we also
know something of the nature of the objective symbols they introduced
into Walpi, and we can detect some of these on pottery and other objects
used in ceremonies at Walpi. Some of these symbols did not come directly
from the Little Colorado ruins, but went first to Awatobi and from there
to Walpi[52] after the destruction of the former pueblo in the autumn of
the year 1700. The arrival of southern clans at the East Mesa with their
characteristic symbols occurred approximately in the seventeenth century,
about 200 years after the date of the discovery of Hopi by Tovar. Awatobi
received the Rabbit, Tobacco, and other clans from this migration from
the south between the years 1632 and 1700, and Walpi received the Patki
shortly after or at the same time the Hano clans came from the far east.
The similarities in ancient pottery from the Little Colorado and that
belonging to the Sikyatki epoch can not be ascribed to anything more
profound than superficial contact. It is not probable that the ancient
pottery of Awatobi or that of Kawaika and other Keres pueblos on the
Awatobi mesa or in the adjacent plain was modified in any considerable
degree by incoming clans from the south, but survived the Sikyatki epoch
a century after Sikyatki had been destroyed.

The advent of the clans from the Little Colorado into the Hopi country
was too late to seriously affect the classic period of Hopi ceramics;
it appears also not to have exerted any great influence on later times.
Extensive excavations made at Homolobi, Chevlon, and Chavez Pass
have revealed much pottery which gives a good idea of the symbolism
characteristic of the clans living along this valley, which resembles
in some respects the classic Hopi pottery of the time of Sikyatki,
but several of these likenesses date back to a time before the union
of the Hopi and Little Colorado clans. As a rule the bird figures on
pottery from Homolobi, Chevlon, Chavez Pass, and other representative
Little Colorado ruins are more realistic and less conventionalized and
complex than those from Sikyatki. The peculiar forms of feathers found
so constantly in the latter do not occur in the former, nor does the
sky-band with its dependent bird figure ever occur on Little Colorado
ware. We are here dealing with less-developed conventionalism, a cruder
art, and less specialized symbolism. Even if the colors of the pottery
did not at once separate them, the expert can readily declare whether
he is dealing with a bowl from Sikyatki or Homolobi. There are, to be
sure, likenesses, but well-marked differences of local development. The
resemblances and differences in the case of bird figures on prehistoric
Hopi ware and that from the ruins on the Little Colorado can be readily
shown by considering figures 105, 106, and 107, found at Homolobi and
Chevlon, and the corresponding preceding bird figures. It may be
interesting to instance another example. Figure 104 shows a lateral view
of a bird with wings extended, bearing marginal dentations representing
feathers on the breast and a tail composed of four triangular feathers
and two eyes, each with iris and pupil. The upper and lower jaws in this
figure are extended to form a beak, as is customary in bird designs from
the Little Colorado ruins, but never found at Sikyatki. In figure 105 we
have another lateral view of a characteristic bird design from the Little
Colorado region, and figures 106 and 107 show hourglass bodies, a special
feature of the same region.

[Illustration: FIG. 104.—Lateral view of bird with double eyes.]

In the same way many other distinctive characteristics separating figures
of animals from the two regions might be mentioned. Those above given
may suffice to show that each is distinctive and in a way specialized in
its development, but the main reason to believe that the clans from the
Little Colorado never affected the symbolism of Sikyatki is the fact that
the latter ruin was destroyed before these clans joined the Hopi villages.

The ruins Homolobi and Chevlon were probably inhabited well into historic
times, although there is no archeological evidence that artifacts from
them were modified by European influences. The symbolism on pottery
shows that their culture was composite and seems to have been the
result of acculturation from both south and east. Some of the clans, as
the Tobacco, that peopled these settlements joined Awatobi before its
overthrow, while others settled at Pakatcomo, the ruins of which near
Walpi are still visible, and later united with the people of the largest
village of the East Mesa. So far as known, Sikyatki had been destroyed
before any considerable number of people had entered the Hopi country
from the Little Colorado,[53] the event occurring comparatively late in
history.

[Illustration: FIG. 105.—Lateral view of bird with double eyes.]

The pottery from the Little Colorado differs from prehistoric Hopi ware
much less with respect to geometrical designs than life forms. The break
in the encircling line, or, as it is called, the life gate, which is
almost universally found on the ancient Hopi vases, bowls, dippers, and
other objects, occurs likewise on pottery from Little Colorado ruins.
Some of the encircling lines from this region have more than one break,
and in one instance the edges of the break have appendages, a rare
feature found in both prehistoric Hopi and Little Colorado ware.[54]

[Illustration: FIG. 106.—Bird with double eyes.]

The influence of Keres culture on Zuñi may be shown in several ways,
thus: A specimen of red ware from a shrine on Thunder Mountain, an
old Zuñi site, is decorated with symbolic feathers recalling those
on Sikyatki ware ascribed to eastern influence. The nonappearance of
Keres and Tewa symbols on ancient pottery from the Zuñi Valley ruins,
Heshotauthla and Hálonawan, and their existence in the mountain shrine
above mentioned, implies that the latter settlement is more modern, and
that the eastern clans united with preexisting Little Colorado clans
comparatively late in its history. The first settlements in Zuñi Valley
were made by colonists from the Gila. There are several ceremonies in
the Walpi ritual which, like the New Fire, although immediately derived
from Awatobi, came originally from Little Colorado pueblos, and other
ceremonies came directly to Walpi from the same original source. Among
the former are those introduced by the Piba (Tobacco) clan, which brought
to Walpi a secret fraternity called the Tataukyamû. This brotherhood
came directly from Awatobi, but the Tobacco clan from which it was
derived once lived in a pueblo on the Little Colorado, now a ruin at
Chevlon, midway between Holbrook and Winslow.[55] The identification of
the Chevlon ruin with the historic Chipias has an important bearing on
the age of the Little Colorado ruins, for Padre Arvide, a Franciscan
missionary, was killed in 1632 by the Chipias, who lived west of Zuñi. In
other words, their pueblo was then inhabited.

[Illustration: FIG. 107.—Two birds with rain clouds.]

We know that the Piba joined Awatobi before 1700, or the year it was
destroyed; consequently the desertion of the Chevlon ruin (Chipiaya,
or Tcipiaiya) evidently occurred between 1632 and 1700, not so much
on account of Apache inroads as from fear of punishment by the
Spaniards.[56] As no clans from the other large pueblo on the Little
Colorado or Homolobi joined Awatobi, we can not definitely fix the date
that this group fled to the north, but it was probably not long after
the time the Chevlon clans migrated to Awatobi, from which it follows
that the Little Colorado settlements were inhabited up to the middle
of the seventeenth century. While the Little Colorado clans did not
influence the Sikyatki pottery, they did affect the potters of Awatobi to
a limited extent and introduced some symbols into Walpi in the middle of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Among these influences may be
mentioned those derived from Awatobi after its destruction in 1700. It is
not possible to state definitely what modifications in pottery symbols
were introduced into Walpi by the potters of the clans from Awatobi and
the Little Colorado. Possibly no considerable modification resulted from
their advent, as there was already more or less similarity in the pottery
from these geographical localities. The southern clans introduced some
novelties in ceremonies, especially in the Winter Solstice and New-fire
festivals and in the rites of the Horned Serpent at the Spring Equinox.


SYMBOLS INTRODUCED BY THE BADGER AND KACHINA CLANS

As the clans which came to the Hopi country from Zuñi were comparatively
late arrivals of Tewa colonists long after the destruction of Sikyatki,
their potters exerted no influence on the Sikyatki potters. The ancient
Hopi ceramic art had become extinct when the clans from Awatobi, the
pueblos on the Little Colorado, and the late Tewa, united with the
Walpi settlement on the East Mesa. The place whence we can now obtain
information of the character of the symbolism of the Asa, Butterfly,
Badger, and other Tewan clans is in certain ceremonies at Sichomovi,
a pueblo near Walpi, settled by clans from Zuñi and often called the
Zuñi pueblo by the Hopi. One of the Sichomovi ceremonies celebrated at
Oraibi and Sichomovi on the East Mesa, in which we may find survivals
of the earliest Tewa and Zuñi symbolism, is called the Owakülti. The
Sichomovi variant of the Owakülti shows internal sociologic relation to
the Butterfly or Buli (Poli) clan resident in Awatobi before its fall.
This statement is attested by certain stone slabs excavated from Awatobi
mounds, on which are painted butterfly symbols. The Walpi Lalakoñti,
first described by the author and Mr. Owens in 1892, has also survivals
of Awatobi designs. It appears that while it is not easy to trace any of
the rich symbolism of Awatobi directly into Walpi pottery, it is possible
to discover close relations between certain Awatobi symbols and others
still employed in Walpi ceremonials. Sikyatki and Awatobi were probably
inhabited synchronously and as kindred people had a closely allied or
identical symbolism; there is such a close relation between the designs
on pottery from the two ruins that Awatobi symbols introduced into Walpi
have a close likeness to those of Sikyatki.[57]

The natural conservatism in religious rites of all kinds has brought
it about that many of the above-mentioned designs, although abandoned
in secular life of the Hopi, still persist in paraphernalia used in
ceremonies. It is therefore pertinent to discuss some of these religious
symbols with an idea of discovering whether they are associated with
certain clans or ruins, and if so what light they shed on prehistoric
migrations. In other words, here the ethnologists can afford us much
information bearing on the significance of prehistoric symbols.

One great difficulty in interpreting the prehistoric pictures of
supernaturals depicted on ancient pottery by a comparison of the
religious paraphernalia of the modern Hopi is a complex nomenclature of
supernatural beings that has been brought about by the perpetuation or
survival of different clan names for the same being even after union
of those clans. Thus we find the same Sky god with many others all
practically aliases of one common conception. To complicate the matter
still more, different attributal names are also sometimes used. The names
Alosaka, Muyinwû, and Talatumsi are practically different designations of
the same supernatural, while Tunwup, Ho, and Shalako appear to designate
the same Sky-god personage. Cultus heroines, as the Marau mana, Shalako
mana, Palahiko mana, and others, according as we follow one or another
of the dialects, Keres or Tewa, are used interchangeably. This diversity
in nomenclature has introduced a complexity in the Hopi mythology which
is apparent rather than real in the Hopi Pantheon, as their many names
would imply.[58] The great nature gods of sky and earth, male and
female, lightning and germination, no doubt arose as simple transfer of
a germinative idea applied to cosmic phenomena and organic nature. The
earliest creation myths were drawn largely from analogies of human and
animal birth. The innumerable lesser or clan gods are naturally regarded
as offspring of sky and earth, and man himself is born from Mother Earth.
He was not specially created by a Great Spirit, which was foreign to
Indians unmodified by white influences.

As the number of bird designs on Sikyatki pottery far outnumber
representations of other animals it is natural to interpret them by
modern bird symbols or by modern personations of birds, many examples of
which are known to the ethnological student of the Hopi.

In one of a series of dances at Powamû, which occurs in February, men and
boys personate the eagle, red hawk, humming bird, owl, cock, hen, mocking
bird, quail, hawk, and other birds, each appropriately dressed, imitating
cries, and wearing an appropriate mask of the birds they represent. In
a dance called Pamurti, a ceremony celebrated annually at Sichomovi,
and said to have been derived from Zuñi, personations of the same birds
appear, the men of Walpi contributing to the performance. Homovi, one of
the Hopi Indians who took part, made colored pictures representing all
these birds, which may be found reproduced in the author’s article on
Hopi katcinas.[59]

In the Hopi cosmogony the Sky god is thought to be father of all gods
and human beings, and when personations of the subordinate supernaturals
occur they are led to the pueblo by a personator of this great father of
all life. The celebrations of the Powamû, at the East Mesa of the Hopi,
represent the return of the ancestors or kachinas of Walpi, while the
Pamurti is the dramatization of the return of the kachinas of Sichomovi
whose ancestors were Zuñi kin.

Life figures or animal forms, as birds, serpents, and insects, depicted
on Little Colorado pottery differ considerably from those on Sikyatki
ware. Take, for instance, bird designs, the most abundant life forms on
ancient pueblo pottery on the Little Colorado, as well as at Sikyatki.
It needs but a glance at the figures of the former to show how marked
the differences are. The leader of the kachinas in the Powamû, which
celebrates the return of these ancestral gods to the pueblo, Walpi, wears
an elaborate dress and helmet with appended feathers. He is led into the
village by a masked man personating Eototo.[60]


SYMBOLS INTRODUCED FROM AWATOBI

The women saved at Awatobi in the massacre of 1700, according to a
legend, brought to Walpi the paraphernalia of a ceremony still observed,
called the Mamzrauti. Naturally we should expect to find old Awatobi
symbolism on this paraphernalia, which is still in use. The cultus
heroine of the Mamzrauti is the Corn-mist maid, known by the name of
Shalako mana or Palahiko mana.[61] We have several representations of
this maid and their resemblance to the pictures of Shalako mana depicted
by Hano potters would imply a common Tanoan origin.


SHALAKO MANA

The most common figure on the third epoch of Hopi pottery, commonly
called modern Tewa and manufactured up to 1895 by Nampeo, a Hano potter,
is a representation of the Corn-maid, Shalako mana, who, as shown, is
the same personage as Marau mana and Palahiko mana in the festival of the
Mamzrauti derived from Awatobi. The symbol of this goddess is instructive
and easily recognized in its many variations. Her picture on Hano pottery
is shown in figure 108.

The most striking features of her symbolism, brought out in plate 89, are
terraced bodies representing rain clouds on the head, an ear of maize
symbol on the forehead, curved lines over the mouth, chevrons on the
cheeks, conventionalized wings, and feathered garment. It is also not
uncommon to find carved representations of squash blossoms occupying the
same positions as the whorls of hair on the heads of Hopi maidens.

[Illustration: FIG. 108.—Head of Shalako mana, or Corn maid.]

The Shalakotaka male is likewise a common design readily recognized
on modern pottery. Particularly abundant are figures of the mask of a
Kohonino god, allied to Shalako, which is likewise called a kachina, best
shown in paraphernalia of the Mamzrauti ceremony.

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 89

SHALAKO MANA, CORN MAID (FROM TABLET DANCE)]

[Illustration:

  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY   THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT   PLATE 90

TOP OF BUTTERFLY VASE.]

It sometimes happens in Hopi dramatization that pictures of supernatural
beings and idols of the same take the place of personations by priests.
For instance, instead of a girl or a woman representing the Corn maid,
this supernatural is depicted on a slab of wood or represented by a
wooden idol. One of the best-known figures of the Corn maid (Shalako
mana) is here introduced (pl. 89) to illustrate the relation of old
Awatobi and existing Hopi symbolism; a modern figure (108) of this Corn
maid, painted on a wooden slab, is sometimes carried by the Walpi women
in their dance. Figures of the Awatobi germ god, Alosaka, otherwise
called Muyinwû,[62] are depicted on the slabs used by most of the women
at that time.

The different designs on the slab under consideration (pl. 89) are
indicated by letters and explained as follows: _a_ represents a circular
fragment of the haliotis or abalone shell hanging midway from a figure
of an ear of corn, _c_. The cheeks are tattooed or painted with
characteristic figures, _cb_, the eyes rectangular of different colors.
The letter _d_ is a representation of a wooden ear pendant, a square,
flat body covered on one side with a mosaic of turquoise sometimes
arranged in figures. The letter _e_ is the end of a string by which the
ceremonial blanket is tied over the left shoulder, the right arm being
free, as shown in the illustration. Over the right shoulder, however, is
thrown a ceremonial embroidered kilt, _fb_.

The objects in the hands represent feathers and recall one type of
the conventional feathers figured in the preceding pages. The letters
_fr_ represent falling rain embroidered on the rim of the ceremonial
blanket and _rc_ the terraced rain clouds which in _arc_ become rounded
above; _g_ represents a turquoise at the end of a string of turquoise
suspended from shell necklaces _sn_; _m_ represents the butterfly and is
practically identical with the decorations on dados of old Hopi houses;
_s_ represents a star; _sb_ represents shell bracelets, many examples of
which occur in ruins along the Little Colorado; _ss_ is supposed to have
replaced the key patterns which some authorities identify as sprouting
beans. There are commonly nine rectangular markings, _nc_, on the upper
border of the embroidered region of ceremonial blankets and kilts, each
of which represents either a month or a day, by some said to refer to
ceremonial or germ periods.[63]

The Shalako mana figures have not yet been found in the unmodified Little
Colorado ware, but homologous figures have been found in the Rio Grande
area.

The design (pl. 88, _d_) with a horn on the left side of the head and a
rectangle on the right, the face being occupied by a terrace figure from
which hang parallel lines, reminds one of the “coronets” worn on the head
by the _Lakone_ maids (manas) in the Walpi Basket dance of the Lalakoñti.
The horn in the coronet is without terminal appendages, although a
feather is tied to it, and the rectangle of plate 88, _d_, is replaced
by radiating slats spotted and pointed at their ends, said to represent
the sunflower. The whole design in plate 88, _d_, represents a bird,[64]
recalling that of the figure Marautiyo on one of the appended slabs of
the altar of the Walpi Marau ceremony. In this altar figure we find not
only a horn on the left side of the head, but also a rectangular design
on the right.

On the corresponding right-hand side of this altar we have a picture
of Marau mana (Shalako mana). It will thus appear that when compared
with the Lakone coronet the figure on the Shongopovi bowl represents
a female being, whereas when compared with the figure on the Marau
altar it resembles a male being. There is, therefore, something wrong
in my comparison. But the fact remains that there survive in the two
woman’s festivals—Lakone maid’s coronet and Marau altar—resemblances to
prehistoric Hopi designs from Shongopovi. Moreover, it is known that the
Marau fetishes are stated by the chief Saliko to have been introduced
from Awatobi into Walpi by her ancestor who was saved at the massacre of
that town in 1700.

The life figures of the Tanoan epoch, or that following the overthrow
of Sikyatki, can be made out by a study of modern Hano pottery. Perhaps
the most complex of these is that of the Corn maid, Shalako mana.
Shalako mana plays a great rôle in the Mamzrauti, a ceremony derived
from Awatobi, and figures representing her are common designs made on
Hano pottery. Designs representing this being are common on the peculiar
basket plaques made at the Middle Mesa and dolls of her are abundant.
The constant presence of her pictures on basket plaques at the Middle
Mesa would also seem to show an ancient presence in the Hopi country, and
indicate an identity of pottery designs from ancient Shumopavi with those
from the East Mesa and Awatobi.[65]

One of her modern Walpi ceremonies has such pronounced Awatobi symbolism
that it may be instanced as showing derivation; viz., the New-fire
festival.[66] The women of the Marau and the men of the Tataukyamû regard
themselves kindred, and taunt each other, as only friends may without
offence, in this festival, and the Tataukyamû often introduce a burlesque
Shalako mana into their performances.

The designs painted on the bodies and heads of several modern dolls
representing Corn maids are symbols whose history is very ancient in the
tribe. For instance, those of feathers date back to prehistoric times,
and terraced designs representing rain clouds are equally ancient. The
dolls of the Corn maid (Shalako mana) present a variety of forms of
feathers and the headdresses of many dolls represent kachinas, and show
feathers sometimes represented by sticks on which characteristic markings
are painted, but more often they represent symbols.[67]


SYMBOLS OF HANO CLANS

Hano, as is well known, is a Tewan pueblo, situated on the East Mesa,
which was the last great body of Tewa colonists to migrate to Hopiland.
While other Tewa colonists lost their language and became Hopi, the
inhabitants of Hano still speak Tewa and still preserve some of their old
ceremonies, and consequently many of their own symbols. Here were found
purest examples of the Tanoan epoch.

The potters of clans introduced symbols on their ware radically
different from those of Sikyatki, the type of the epoch of the finest
Hopi ceramics, and replaced it by Tewan designs which characterize Hopi
pottery from 1710 to 1895, when a return was suddenly made to the ancient
type through the influence of Nampeo. At that date she began to cleverly
imitate Sikyatki ware and abandoned _de toto_ symbols introduced by Hano
and other Tewa clans.

Fortunately there exist good collections of the Tewa epoch of Hopi
ceramics, but the ever-increasing demand by tourists for ancient ware
induced Nampeo to abandon the Tewa clan symbols she formerly employed and
to substitute those of ancient Sikyatki.[68]

The majority of the specimens of Hano pottery, like those of the
Tanoan epoch to which it belongs, are decorated with pictures of clan
ancients called kachinas. These have very little resemblance to designs
characteristic of the Sikyatki epoch. They practically belong to the same
type as those introduced by Kachina, Asa, and Badger peoples. One of the
most common of these is the design above discussed representing Shalako
mana, the Corn maid, shown in figure 109. In this figure we have the
face represented by a circle in the center and many lenticular figures
arranged in rows attached to the neck and shoulders corresponding to the
appendages explained in figure 108. It is said in the legends that when
the Corn maid appeared to men she was enveloped in fleecy clouds and wore
a feathered garment. These are indicated by the curved figures covered
with dots and the parallel lines on the body. Feather symbols recalling
those of the Sikyatki epoch hang from appendages to the head representing
rain clouds.

[Illustration: FIG. 109.—Head of Kokle, or Earth woman.]

In figure 109 we have a representation of the head with surrounding
clouds, and portions of the body of a kachina, called Kokle, who is
personated in Winter ceremonies. It is instructive to note that this
figure has symbols on the head that recall the Sikyatki epoch. The
ancient Tewan earth goddess, Hahaiwugti, is represented in figure 110.
She appears also in figure 111, where her picture is painted on a ladle,
the handle of which represents an ancient Tewan clown called by the Hano
people Paiakyamû.

[Illustration: FIG. 110.—Head of Hahaiwugti, or Earth woman.]

[Illustration: FIG. 111.—Ladle with clown carved on handle and Earth
woman on bowl.]

[Illustration: FIG. 112.—Püükon hoya, little War god.]

The War god, Püükon hoya, also a Tewan incorporation in the Hopi
pantheon, appears frequently on pottery of the Tanoan epoch, as shown in
figure 112. This figure, painted on a terra-cotta slab, is identified by
the two parallel marks on each cheek.




CONCLUSION


In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to trace the
chronological sequence of pottery symbols in Hopiland by pointing out
distinct epochs in cultural history and correlating the sociology of the
tribe. This takes for granted that the pottery symbols characteristic of
this people are directly connected with certain clans. There have from
time to time been sudden changes in symbols, or previous designs have
suddenly disappeared and others have taken their places, as well as a
slow development of existing symbols into more complicated forms. There
persist everywhere survivals of old prepuebloan symbols inherited from
the past and a creation of new products of Hopi environment not found
elsewhere.

The author will close this paper with a brief theoretical account of the
unwritten culture history of Hopi, part of which explains certain pottery
symbols. If we take that segment of southwestern history extending
from the earliest to the present, we find evidences of the existence
of a prepuebloan culture existing before terraced houses were built or
circular kivas had been used for ceremonial purposes. This epoch was
antecedent to the construction of the great walled compounds of the
Gila, illustrated by Casa Grande. At that epoch known as the prepuebloan
there extended from Utah to the Mexican boundary and from the Colorado
to the Rio Grande a culture architecturally characterized by small
fragile-walled houses not united or terraced. These houses were sometimes
like pit dwellings, either partially or wholly subterranean. When above
ground their walls were supported by upright logs in which canes or
brushes were woven and covered with mud, the roofs being made of cedar
bark or straw overlaid with adobe.

The pottery of this early prehistoric epoch was smooth, painted mainly
with geometric patterns, corrugated, or indented. Rectilinear or
curved lines constituted the majority of the superficial decorations
and life designs were few or altogether wanting. In addition to these
architectural and ceramic characteristics, this prepuebloan cultural
stage was distinguished by many other features, to mention which would
take us too far afield and would be out of place in this article.
Evidences of this stage or epoch occur everywhere in the Southwest
and survival of the archaic characters enumerated are evident in all
subsequent epochs.

The so-called “unit type” or pure pueblo culture grew out of this early
condition, and was at first localized in northern New Mexico and southern
Colorado, where it was autochthonous. Its essential feature is the
terraced communal house and the simplest form of the pueblo, the “unit
type,” first pointed out by Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden—a combination of
dwelling houses, with a man’s house or kiva and a cemetery. The dwellings
are made of stone or clay and are terraced, the kiva is subterranean
and circular, embedded in or surrounded by other rooms. The “unit type”
originated in Colorado and, spreading in all directions, replaced the
preexisting houses with fragile walls. Colonists from its center extended
down the San Juan to the Hopi country and made their way easterly
across the Rio Grande and southerly to the headwaters of the Gila and
Little Colorado, where they met other clans of specialized prepuebloan
culture who had locally developed an architecture of Great House style
characteristic of the Gila and Salt River Valleys.

The essential differences between the terraced pueblo and the previously
existing fragile-walled house culture are two: The terraced architecture
results from one house being constructed above another, the kiva or
subterranean ceremonial room being separated or slightly removed from the
secular houses.

An explanation of the origin of the terraced pueblo is evident. This form
of house implies a limited site or a congestion of houses on a limited
area. An open plain presents no limitation in lateral construction;
there is plenty of room to expand in all directions to accommodate the
enlargement which results as a settlement increases in population. In
a cave conditions are otherwise; expansion is limited. When the floor
of the cavern is once covered with rooms the only additions which can
possibly be made must be vertically. In protection lies the cause of the
development of a terraced architecture such as the pueblos show, for the
early people constructed their fragile-walled habitations in a cavern,
and as an enlargement of their numbers occurred they were obliged to
construct the terraced pueblos called cliff-dwellings, with rooms closely
approximated and constructed in terraces. In the course of time these
cliff-dwellers moved out of their caverns into the river valleys or to
the mesa summits, carrying with them the terraced architecture, which,
born in caverns, survived in their new environment. This explanation
is of course hypothetical, but not wholly without a basis in fact, for
we find survivals of the prepuebloan architecture scattered throughout
the Southwest, especially on the periphery of the terraced house area,
as well as in the area itself. The ancient terraced house architecture
is confined to a limited area, but around its ancient border are people
whose dwellings are characterized by fragile-walled architecture. These
are the survivals of the prepuebloan culture.

The environmental conditions along the San Juan and its tributaries
in Colorado and New Mexico render it a particularly favorable culture
center from which the pure pueblo type may have originated, and although
observations have not yet gone far enough to prove that here was the
place of origin of the unit type, and therefore of pueblo culture, there
are strong indications that a fable of the Pueblos, that they came from
the caves in the north, is not without legendary foundation so far as
their origin is concerned.

The term “cliff-dwelling,” once supposed to indicate a distinct stage
of development, refers only to the site and is a feature inadequate for
classification or chronology. All cliff-dwellings do not belong to the
same structural type. There is little similarity save in site between
Spruce-tree House on the Mesa Verde, and Montezuma Castle in the Verde
Valley; the former belongs to the “pure pueblo type,” the latter to
another class of buildings related to “compounds” of the tributaries of
the Gila and Salt River valleys.




FOOTNOTES


[1] A report on the field work at Sikyatki will be found in the
_Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, part 2.

[2] Traces of the ancient village of Walpi at this point are still to be
seen, and certain ancestral ceremonies are still performed here, in the
New-fire rites, as elsewhere described.

[3] Pottery making is a woman’s industry, and as among the Pueblo the
woman determines the clan, so she determines the symbolism of the
pottery. Consequently symbolism of pottery is related to that of the clan.

[4] Many of the illustrations appearing in this paper are taken from the
author’s memoir on the results of the Sikyatki excavations in the _17th
Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol._, part 2.

[5] Hopi maidens dress their hair in two whorls, one above each ear,
which on marriage are taken down and braided in two coils. There are
differences in the style of putting up the hair, as appear in different
ceremonial personages, but the custom of wearing it in whorls was
probably general among ancient Pueblo maidens and is still followed in
certain ceremonial dances in which women are personated by men. For
the difference in the style of the whorls, see the author’s series of
pictures of Hopi kachinas in the _Twenty-first Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer.
Ethn._

[6] The best idol of this god known to the author appears on one of the
Flute altars at Oraibi. It has a single horn (representing the serpent
horn) on the head, two wings, and two legs with lightning symbols their
whole length. The horned plumed Lightning god of the Kwakwantû at Walpi
is represented by plumed serpent effigies in the March ceremony or
dramatization elsewhere described.

[7] In the Antelope dance at Walpi, a stalk of corn instead of a snake is
carried in the mouth on the day before the Snake dance. (Fewkes, Snake
Ceremonials at Walpi, pp. 73-74.)

[8] For descriptions of similar objects see Fewkes, Hopi Ceremonial
Frames from Cañon de Chelly, Arizona, pp. 664-670; Fewkes, The Lesser
New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, p. 438, pl. XI; also _Twenty-first Ann. Rept.
Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pls. XXXIV, XXXV.

[9] As a matter of history, the Snake people of Walpi may have been
hostile to the Kokop of Sikyatki on account of linguistic or tribal
differences which culminated in the destruction of the latter pueblo in
prehistoric times.

[10] The pueblo of Sichomovi, called by the Hopi Sioki, or Zuñi pueblo,
was settled by Asa clans, who were apparently of exotic origin but who
went to Sichomovi from Zuñi, in which pueblo the Asa people are known
as Aiyahokwe. The Sichomovi people still preserve Zuñi ceremonies and
Zuñi kachinas, although they now speak the Hopi language—an example of a
pueblo in which alien ceremonies and personations have survived or been
incorporated, although its language has been superseded by another.

[11] Thus the Heyamashikwe may be supposed to have originally come from
Jemez. The Zuñi Sumaikoli, like that of the Hopi, is practically Tewa in
origin.

[12] See Fewkes, The Butterfly in Hopi Myth and Ritual, pp. 576-594.

[13] The clay images representing the Tewa plumed serpent on the Winter
Solstice altar at Hano have rows of feathers inserted along their backs
(as in the case of the reptile shown in figure 22) as well as rudimentary
horns, teeth made of corn kernels, and necklaces of the same. (Fewkes,
Winter solstice altars at Hano pueblo, pp. 269-270.) A mosaic of corn
kernels on a clay base (_kaetukwi_) is known in ceremonies derived from
Sikyatki and Awatobi.

[14] The hoot of the owl portends disaster among the Hopi, as among the
ancient Greeks.

[15] Every priest has a box in which his feathers are preserved until
needed.

[16] Compare with feathers, pl. 90, _d_.

[17] Probably the serrated circle to which the headdress is attached was
not designed as the outline of the head, but the headband turned out of
perspective.

[18] See _Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pt. 2, pl. CXLI, _a_.
A circle is here drawn on each side of the bird.

[19] It is, of course, only a coincidence that so many of the Sikyatki
bird designs have three tail feathers like Egyptian representations.

[20] Feathers are among the most important objects employed in Pueblo
ceremonies, and among the modern Hopi feathers of different birds are
regarded as efficacious for different specific purposes. Thus the turkey
feather symbol is efficacious to bring rain, and the hawk and eagle
feathers are potent in war. The specific feather used ceremonially by
modern Hopi priests is regarded by them as of great importance, and the
same doubtless was true of the priests of ancient Sikyatki and Awatobi.
Belief in a difference in the magic power of certain feathers was deeply
rooted in the primitive mind, and was regarded as of great importance by
the ancient as well as the modern Hopi.

[21] Compare the sand-mosaic of the sun associated with the Powalawû
altar of Oraibi, and the sun emblem shown in fig. 98.

[22] Mallery (_Fourth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn._, p. 47, fig. 12) illustrates
two clusters of characteristic Hopi feathers copied by Mr. G. K. Gilbert
from petroglyphs at Oakley Springs, Arizona. The first cluster belongs
to the type shown in our fig. 57 as eagle tails, the second to that
illustrated in fig. 31. They were identified by the Oraibi chief, Tuba,
and so far as known have not been subsequently figured.

[23] Compare feathers, pl. 90, _wf_.

[24] The only design in modern Hopi symbolism comparable with the
sky-band occurs on a wooden slab on the altar of the Owakülti, a
society priestess whose ancestors are said to have formerly lived at
the historic pueblo of Awatobi. This slab is attached to the uprights
of an altar, by means of flat slabs of wood, some arranged vertically,
others horizontally. On it is depicted, among other symbolic figures, a
representation of a bird.

[25] The author has seen in the American Museum of Natural History, New
York, a single specimen of doubtful provenance, bearing a similar design.

[26] For convenience this may be designated the anterior in distinction
to that on the other side of the sky-band which may be termed the
posterior semicircle.

[27] See also _Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pl. CL, _a_, and
CXLVI, _d_.

[28] The Kokyan, or Spider, clan is not made much of in Hopi legends
gathered at Walpi, but Kokyanwügti, the Spider woman, is an important
supernatural in the earliest mythologies, especially those of the Snake
people. She was the mentor of the Snake youth in his journey to the
underworld and an offering at her shrine is made in the Oraibi Snake
dance. The picture of the spider with that of the sun suggests that the
Spider woman is a form of the earth goddess. No personation of Spider
woman has been seen by the author in the various ceremonies he has
witnessed.

[29] Except that the head bears a jointed antenna this figure might be
identified as a bird, the long extension representing the bird’s bill.

[30] The figures of serpents on the sand mosaic of the Antelope altar at
Walpi bear similar crosses or diagonals, crossing each other at right
angles. The Antelope priests interpret this marking as a sign of the
female.

[31] Rain, lightning, animals, plants, sky, and earth, in the modern Hopi
conception, are supposed to have sex.

[32] The Butterfly in Hopi Myth and Ritual, fig. 61, _f_.

[33] Ibid., p. 586.

[34] Introduced into the Hopi pueblos by colonists from the Rio Grande;
its most conspicuous variant can be seen on the tablets worn in a masked
dance called Humis (Jemez) Kachina.

[35] One symbol of the Sky god has the form of a Lightning god. It has
a single curved horn on the head, lightning symbols on the legs, and
carries a wooden framework in one hand and a bull-roarer in the other.

[36] _Twenty-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn._, pt. 1, fig. 74.

[37] In modern Hopi symbolism the sun is a disk with representations of
eagle feathers around the periphery and radial lines at each quadrant,
symbolic of the sun’s rays. In disks worn on the back where real feathers
are used the radial lines, or the sun’s rays, are represented by
horsehair stained red. In ceremonials the Sky god is personated by a bird
whose figure occurs on Sikyatki pottery.

[38] In the Hopi ceremony, Powatawu, as performed at Oraibi, a picture
representing the sun composed of a number of concentric circles of four
different colors is made of sand on the kiva floor.

[39] If we interpret the sky-band as the path of the sun in the zenith
the solar emblem hanging to it is significant.

[40] Some of the significant sun masks used by the Hopi have the mouth
indicated by a triangle, others by hourglass designs.

[41] Pictures made by prehistoric man embody, first, when possible,
the power of the animal or thing represented, or its essential
characteristics; and second, the realistic form, shape, or outline.

[42] Several Hopi clans celebrate in a slightly different way the return
of their Sun god, which is known by different names among them. The
return of the Sun god of the Kachina clan at Walpi, commonly called Ahül,
is elsewhere described. Shalako, the Sun god of the Patki clans, was
derived from the Little Colorado region, the same source from which the
Zuñi obtained their personage of the same name. His return is celebrated
on the East Mesa of the Hopi at Sichomovi, the “Zuñi pueblo among the
Hopi.” Pautiwa is a Sun god of Zuñi clans at Sichomovi and is personated
as at Zuñi pueblo. Kwataka, or the Sun god whose return is celebrated
at Walpi in the winter solstice, Soyaluna, is associated with the great
plumed serpent, a personation derived from the peoples of the Gila or
some other river who practice irrigation. Eototo is a Sikyatki Sun god,
derived from near Jemez, and is celebrated by Keres colonists.

[43] Fewkes, Hopi Shrines Near the East Mesa, Arizona, pp. 346-375.

[44] The sand picture made by the Antelope priest is regarded as a house
of the rain gods depicted upon it.

[45] _Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._, pt. 2.

[46] The author has a drawing of the Snake altar at Mishongnovi by
an Indian, in which these crooks are not represented vertically but
horizontally, a position illustrating a common method of drawing among
primitive people who often represent vertical objects on a horizontal
plane. An illustration of this is seen in pictures of a medicine bowl
where the terraces on the rim normally vertical are drawn horizontally.

[47] In using this term the author refers to an extreme area in one
corner of which still survive pueblos, the inhabitants of which speak
Keres.

[48] There is no published evidence in Zuñi legends that Sikyatki
received increments from that pueblo.

[49] Since the author’s work at Sikyatki, excavations have been made
by the Field Columbian Museum at this ruin, but nothing bearing on the
relations of symbols has been published so far as known to the writer.

[50] The Tanoan people (clans) also introduced a horned snake, but
different in symbolism from that of the Patki clans.

[51] The oldest pottery in the Zuñi Valley belongs to the same group as
that of the oldest Little Colorado ruins and shows marked Gila Valley
symbolism. The modern pottery of Zuñi is strongly influenced by Tanoan
characters. As these have been transmitted to Hopi they are considered
under the term “Tanoan epoch,” derived from Little Colorado settlements
to which Zuñi culturally belongs.

[52] Pakatcomo in the plain below Walpi was their first Hopi settlement.

[53] As has been pointed out, the designs on ancient Zuñi ware are
closely related to those of ruins farther down the Little Colorado, and
are not Hopi. Modern Zuñi as well as modern Hopi pueblos were influenced
by Keres and Tewa culture superimposed on the preexisting culture, which
largely came from the Gila.

[54] No invariable connection was found in the relative position of
this break and figures of birds or other animals inclosed by the broken
band. The gaps in different encircling bands on the same bowl are either
diametrically opposite each other or separated by a quadrant, a variation
that would appear to indicate that they were not made use of in a
determination of the orientation of the vessel while in ceremonial use,
as is true of certain baskets of modern Navaho.

[55] The author has the following evidence that the inhabitants of the
village at Chevlon were the historic Chipias. The Hopi have a legend
that the large ruin called Tcipiaiya by the Zuñi was also situated on a
river midway between Walpi and Zuñi. The Hopi also say that the Chevlon
pueblo was inhabited by the Piba (Tobacco) clan and that the Awatobi
chief, Tapolo, who brought the Tataukyamû fraternity to Walpi from
Awatobi, belonged to the Tobacco clan. The Tewa name of the Tataukyamû is
Tcipiaiyu, or “men from Tcipia.”

[56] It is known from an inscription on El Morro that a punitive
expedition to avenge the death of Father Letrado was sent out under Lujan
in the spring of 1632, hence the guilty inhabitants may have abandoned
their settlement and departed for Hopi at about that time.

[57] The Buli (Poli) clan is probably Tewa, as the word indicates, which
would show that Tewa as well as Keres clans lived at Awatobi. No legend
mentions Buli clans at Sikyatki, but several traditions locate them at
Awatobi.

[58] A unification of names of these gods would have resulted when the
languages of the many different clans had been fused in religions, as the
language was in secular usage. The survival of component names of Hopi
gods is paralleled in the many ancient religions.

[59] _Twenty-first Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn._

[60] Ibid., p. 76. Eototo, also called Masauû, was the tutelary of
Sikyatki, as Alosaka or Muyinwû was of Awatobi.

[61] A somewhat similar personage to Shalako mana in Aztec ceremonies was
called Xalaquia (Shalakia).

[62] An account of this dance with details of the nine days’ ceremony as
presented in the major or October variant will be found in the _American
Anthropologist_, July, 1892. The minor or Winter ceremony, in which the
Corn maids are personated by girls, is published in the same journal for
1900. The Corn maid has several aliases in this ceremony, among which are
Shalako mana, Palahiko mana, and Marau mana.

[63] This Corn maid is one of the most common figures represented by
dolls.

[64] The two parallel lines on the two outside tail feathers recall the
markings on the face of the War god Puükoñghoya.

[65] A personation of Shalako mana at Oraibi, according to Mr. H. R.
Voth, came from Mishongnovi. This conforms exactly with the legends
that state the Mamzrauti may have been introduced into Mishongnovi from
Awatobi, for at the division of the captive women at Maski many of the
women went to that pueblo.

[66] See Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, pp. 80-138. The New-fire
rites at Walpi are celebrated in November, when four societies, Aaltû,
Wüwütcimtû, Tataukyamû, and Kwakwantû, take part. As in all new-fire
ceremonies, phallic or generative rites are prominent, the Wüwütcimtû and
Tataukyamû who kindle the fire being conspicuous in these rites. Their
bodies have phallic emblems painted on them and the latter bear Zuñi
symbols.

[67] The designs on the wooden slats carried by women in the dance known
as the Marau ceremony are remarkably like some of those on Awatobi and
Sikyatki pottery.

[68] Much of the pottery offered for sale by Harvey and other dealers
in Indian objects along the Santa Fe Railroad in Arizona and New Mexico
is imitation prehistoric Hopi ware made by Nampeo. The origin of this
transformation was due partly to the author, who in the year named was
excavating the Sikyatki ruins and graves. Nampeo and her husband, Lesou,
came to his camp, borrowed paper and pencil, and copied many of the
ancient symbols found on the pottery vessels unearthed, and these she has
reproduced on pottery of her own manufacture many times since that date.
It is therefore necessary, at the very threshold of our study, to urge
discrimination between modern and ancient pottery in the study of Hopi
ware, and careful elimination of imitations. The modern pottery referred
to is easily distinguished from the prehistoric, inasmuch as the modern
is not made with as much care or attention to detail as the ancient.
Also the surface of the modern pottery is coated with a thin slip which
crackles in firing.




AUTHORITIES CITED


  FEWKES, JESSE WALTER. Snake ceremonials at Walpi. _Journal of American
    Ethnology and Archæology_, vol. IV, pp. 1-126. Boston and New York,
    1894.

  ——. Archeological expedition to Arizona in 1895. _Seventeenth Annual
    Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, pt. 2, pp. 519-742.
    Washington, 1898.

  ——. Winter solstice altars at Hano pueblo. _American Anthropologist_,
    n. s. vol. I, no. 2, pp. 251-276. New York, 1899.

  ——. The New-fire ceremony at Walpi. _American Anthropologist_, n. s.
    vol. II, no. 1, pp. 80-138. New York, 1900.

  ——. The lesser New-fire ceremony at Walpi. _American Anthropologist_,
    n. s. vol. III, no. 3, pp. 438-453. New York, 1901.

  ——. Hopi katcinas. _Twenty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of
    American Ethnology_, pp. 13-126. Washington, 1903.

  ——. Two summers’ work in Pueblo ruins. _Twenty-second Annual Report of
    the Bureau of American Ethnology_, pt. 1, pp. 17-195. Washington,
    1904.

  ——. Hopi ceremonial frames from Cañon de Chelly, Arizona. _American
    Anthropologist_, n. s. vol. VIII, no. 4, pp. 664-670. Lancaster,
    1906.

  ——. Hopi shrines near the East Mesa, Arizona. _American Anthropologist_,
    n. s. vol. VIII, no. 2, pp. 346-375. Lancaster, 1908.

  ——. The butterfly in Hopi myth and ritual. _American Anthropologist_,
    n. s. vol. XII, no. 4, pp. 576-594. Lancaster, 1910.

  MALLERY, GARRICK. On the pictographs of the North American Indians.
    _Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 13-256.
    Washington, 1886.

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