Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Part 19

Among the inhabitants of an arid region, where rain-making forms a dominant element in their ritual, water animals are eagerly adopted as symbols. Among these the tadpole occupies a foremost position. The figures of this batrachian are very simple, and are among the most common of those used on ceremonial paraphernalia in Tusayan at the present time. In none of these is anything more than a globular head and a zigzag tail represented, and, as in nature, these are colored black. The tadpole appears on several pieces of painted pottery from Sikyatki, one of the best of which is the food bowl ill.u.s.trated in plate Cx.x.xIII, _a_. The design represents a number of these aquatic animals drawn in line across the diameter of the inner surface of the bowl, while on each side there is a row of rectangular blocks representing rain clouds. These blocks are separated from the tadpole figures by crescentic lines, and above them are short parallel lines recalling the symbol of falling rain.

One of the most beautiful forms of ladles from Sikyatki is figured in plate Cx.x.xIII, _b_, a specimen in which the art of decoration by spattering is effectively displayed. The interior of the bowl of this dipper is divided by parallel lines into two zones, in each of which two tadpoles are represented. The handle is pointed at the end and is decorated. This specimen is considered one of the best from Sikyatki.

The rudely drawn picture on the bowl figured in plate Cx.x.xII, _f_, would be identified as a frog, save for the presence of a tail which would seem to refer it to the lizard kind. But in the evolution of the tadpole into the frog a tailed stage persists in the metamorphosis after the legs develop. In modern pictures[138] of the frog with which I am familiar, this batrachian is always represented dorsally or ventrally with the legs outstretched, while in the lizards, as we have seen, a lateral view is always adopted. As the sole picture found on ancient pottery where the former method is employed, this fact may be of value in the identification of this rude outline as a frog rather than as a true reptile.

b.u.t.tERFLIES OR MOTHS

One of the most characteristic modern decorations employed by the Hopi, especially as a symbol of fecundity, is the b.u.t.terfly or moth.

It is a constant device on the beautiful white or cotton blankets woven by the men as wedding gifts, where it is embroidered on the margin in the forms of triangles or even in more realistic patterns.

This symbol is a simple triangle, which becomes quite realistic when a line is drawn bisecting one of the angles. This double triangle is not only a constant symbol on wedding blankets, but also is found on the dadoes of houses, resembling in design the arrangement of tiles in the Alhambra and other Moorish buildings. This custom of decorating the walls of a building with triangles placed at intervals on the upper edge of a dado is a feature of cliff-house kivas, as shown in Nordenskiold's beautiful memoir on the cliff villages of Mesa Verde.

While an isosceles triangle represents the simplest form of the b.u.t.terfly symbol, and is common on ancient pottery, a few vessels from Sikyatki show a much more realistic figure. In plate Cx.x.xIV, _f_, is shown a moth with extended proboscis and articulated antennae, and in _d_ of the same plate another form, with the proboscis inserted in a flower, is given. As an a.s.sociate with summer, the b.u.t.terfly is regarded as a beneficent being aside from its fecundity, and one of the ancient Hopi clans regarded it as their totem. Perhaps the most striking, and I may say the most inexplicable, use of the symbol of the b.u.t.terfly is the so-called _Hokona_ or b.u.t.terfly virgin slab used in the Antelope ceremonies of the Snake dance at Walpi, where it is a.s.sociated with the tadpole water symbol.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 270--Outline of plate Cx.x.xV, _b_]

The most beautiful of all the b.u.t.terfly designs are the six figures on the vase reproduced in plate Cx.x.xV, _b_. From the number of these pictures it would seem that they bore some relationship to the six world-quarters--north, west, south, east, zenith, and nadir. The vase has a flattened shoulder, and the six b.u.t.terfly figures are represented as flying toward the orifice. These insect figures closely resemble one another, and are divided into two groups readily distinguished by the symbolism of the heads. Three have each a cross with a single dot in each quadrant, and each of the other three has a dotted head without the cross. These two kinds alternate with each other, and the former probably indicate females, since the same symbols on the heads of the snakes in the sand picture of the Antelope altar in the Snake dance are used to designate the female.[139]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. Cx.x.xV

VASES WITH FIGURES OF b.u.t.tERFLIES FROM SIKYATKI]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. Cx.x.xVI

VASES WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI]

Two antennae and a double curved proboscis are indicated in all the figures of b.u.t.terflies on the vase under consideration. The zones above and below are both cut by a "line of life," the opening through which is situated on opposite equatorial poles in the upper and under rim.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 271--b.u.t.terfly design on upper surface of plate Cx.x.xV, _b_]

The rectangular figures a.s.sociated with the b.u.t.terflies on this elaborately decorated vase are of two patterns alternating with each other. The rectangles forming one of these patterns incloses three vertical feathers, with a triangle on the right side and a crook on the left. The remaining three rectangles also have three feathers, but they are arranged longitudinally on the surface of the vase.

The elaborate decoration of the zone outside the six b.u.t.terflies is made up of feathers arranged in three cl.u.s.ters of three each, alternating with key patterns, crosshatched crooks, triangles, and frets. The wealth of ornament on this part of the vase is noteworthy, and its interpretation very baffling. This vase may well be considered the most elaborately decorated in the whole collection from Sikyatki.

There are several figures of b.u.t.terflies, like those shown in plate Cx.x.xI, _a_, in which the modifications of wings and body have proceeded still further, and the only features which refer them to insects are the jointed antennae. The pa.s.sage from this highly conventionalized design into a triangular figure is not very great.

There are still others where the head, with attached appendages, arises not from an angle of a triangle, but from the middle of one side. This gives us a very common form of b.u.t.terfly symbol, which is found, variously modified, on many ancient vessels. In such designs there is commonly a row of dots on each side, which may be represented by a sinuous line, a series of triangles, bars, or parallel bars.

The design reproduced in plate Cx.x.xIV, _d_, represents a moth or b.u.t.terfly a.s.sociated with a flower, and several star symbols. It is evidently similar to that figured in _a_ of the same plate, and has representations of antennae and extended proboscis, the latter organ placed as if extracting honey from the flower. The conventional flower is likewise shown in _e_ of this plate. The two crescentic designs in plate Cx.x.xV, _a_, are regarded as b.u.t.terflies.

The jar ill.u.s.trated in plate CXLV, _b_, is ornamented with highly conventionalized figures on four sides, and is the only one taken from the Sikyatki cemeteries in which the designs are limited to the equatorial surface. The most striking figure, which is likewise found on the base of the paint saucer shown in plate CXLVI, _f_, is a diamond-shape design with a triangle at each corner (figure 276). The pictures drawn on alternating quadrants have very different forms, which are difficult to cla.s.sify, and I have therefore provisionally a.s.sociated this beautiful vessel with those bearing the b.u.t.terfly and the triangle. The form of this vessel closely approaches that of the graceful cooking pots made of coiled and coa.r.s.e indented ware, but the vessel was evidently not used for cooking purposes, as it bears no marks of soot.[140]

DRAGON-FLIES

Among the most constant designs used in the decoration of Sikyatki pottery are figures of the dragon-fly. These decorations consist of a line, sometimes enlarged into a bulb at one end, with two parallel bars drawn at right angles across the end, below the enlargement. Like the tadpole, the dragon-fly is a symbol of water, and with it are a.s.sociated many legends connected with the miraculous sprouting of corn in early times. It is a constant symbol on modern ceremonial paraphernalia, as masks, tablets, and pahos, and it occurs also on several ancient vessels (plates CXL, _b_; CLXIII, _a_), where it always has the same simple linear form, with few essential modifications.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. Cx.x.xVII

VESSELS WITH FIGURES OF HUMAN HAND, BIRDS, TURTLE, ETC. FROM SIKYATKI]

The symbols of four dragon-flies are well shown on the rim of the square box represented in plate CXXVIII, _a_. This box, which was probably for charm liquid, or possibly for feathers used in ceremonials, is unique in form and is one of the most beautiful specimens from the Sikyatki cemeteries. It is elaborately decorated on the four sides with rain-cloud and other symbols, and is painted in colors which retain their original brilliancy. The interior is not decorated.

The four dragon-flies on the rim of this object are placed in such a way as to represent insects flying about the box in a dextral circuit, or with the heads turned to the right. This position indicates a ceremonial circuit, which is exceptional among the Tusayan people, although common in Navaho ceremonies. In the sand picture of the Snake society, for instance, where four snakes are represented in a border surrounding a mountain lion, these reptiles are represented as crawling about the picture from right to left. This sequence is prescribed in Tusayan ceremonials, and has elsewhere been designated by me as the sinistral circuit, or a circuit with the center on the left hand. The circuit used by the decorator of this box is dextral or sunwise.

Several rectangular receptacles of earthenware, some with handles and others without them, were obtained in the excavations at Sikyatki. The variations in their forms may be seen in plates CXXVIII, _a, c,_ and CXXV, _f_. These are regarded as medicine bowls, and are supposed to have been used in ancient ceremonials where asperging was performed.

In many Tusayan ceremonials square medicine bowls, some of them without handles, are still used,[141] but a more common and evidently more modern variety are round and have handles. The rim of these modern sacred vessels commonly bears, in its four quadrants, terraced elevations representing rain-clouds of the cardinal points, and the outer surface of the bowl is decorated with the same symbols, accompanied with tadpole or dragon-fly designs.

One of the best figures of the dragon-fly is seen on the saucer shown in plate CXX, _f_. The exterior of this vessel is decorated with four rectangular terraced rain-cloud symbols, one in each quadrant, and within each there are three well-drawn figures of the dragon-fly. The curved line below represents a rainbow. The terrace form of rain-cloud symbol is very ancient in Tusayan and antedates the well-known semicircular symbol which was introduced into the country by the Patki people. It is still preserved in the form of tablets[142] worn on the head and in sand paintings and various other decorations on altars and religious paraphernalia.

BIRDS

The bird and the feather far exceed all other motives in the decoration of ancient Tusayan pottery, and the former design was probably the first animal figure employed for that purpose when the art pa.s.sed out of the stage where simple geometric designs were used exclusively. A somewhat similar predominance is found in the part which the bird and the feather play in the modern Hopi ceremonial system. As one of the oldest elements in the decoration of Tusayan ceramics, figures of birds have in many instances become highly conventionalized; so much so, in fact, that their avian form has been lost, and it is one of the most instructive problems in the study of Hopi decoration to trace the modifications of these designs from the realistic to the more conventionalized. The large series of food bowls from Sikyatki afford abundant material for that purpose, and it may incidentally be said that by this study I have been able to interpret the meaning of certain decorations on Sikyatki bowls of which the best Hopi traditionalists are ignorant.[143] In order to show the method of reasoning in this case I have taken a series ill.u.s.trating the general form of an unknown bird.

There can be no reasonable doubt that the decoration of the food basin shown in plate Cx.x.xVII, _a_, represents a bird, and a.n.a.logy would indicate that it is the picture of some mythologic personage. It has a round head (figure 272), to which is attached a headdress, which we shall later show is a highly modified feather ornament. On each side of the body from the region of the neck there arise organs which are undoubtedly wings, with feathers continued into arrowpoints. The details of these wings are very carefully and, I may add, prescriptively worked out, so that almost every line, curve, or zigzag is important. The tail is composed of three large feathers, which project beyond two triangular extensions, marking the end of the body.

The technic of this figure is exceedingly complicated and the colors very beautiful. Although this bowl was quite badly broken when exhumed, it has been so cleverly mended by Mr Henry Walther that no part of the symbolism is lost.

While it is quite apparent that this figure represents a bird, and while this identification is confirmed by Hopi testimony, it is far from a realistic picture of any known bird with which the ancients could have been familiar. It is highly conventionalized and idealized with significant symbolism, which is highly suggestive.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. Cx.x.xVIII

FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI]

Bearing in mind the picture of this bird, we pa.s.s to a second form (plate Cx.x.xVIII, _a_), in which we can trace the same parts without difficulty. On a round head is placed a feathered headdress. The different parts of the outstretched wings are readily h.o.m.ologized even in details in the two figures. There are, for instance, two terminal wing feathers in each wing; the appendages to the shoulder exist in both, and the lateral spurs, exteriorly and interiorly, are represented with slight modifications.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 272--Man-eagle]

The body is ornamented in the same way in both figures. It is continued posteriorly on each side into triangular extensions, and the same is true of its anterior, which in one figure has three curved lines, and in the other a simple crook. There are three tail-feathers in each figure. I believe there can be no doubt that both these designs represent the same idea, and that a mythologic bird was intended in each instance.

The step in conventionalism from the last-mentioned figure of a bird to the next (plate CXLVII, _a_) is even greater than in the former.

The head in this picture is square or rectangular, and the wings likewise simple, ending in three incurved triangles without appendages. The tail has five feathers instead of three, in which, however, the same symbolic markings which distinguish tail-feathers are indicated.

The conventionalized wings of this figure are repeated again and again in ancient Tusayan pottery decorations, as one may see by an examination of the various birds shown in the plates. In many instances, however, all the other parts of the bird are lost and nothing but the triangular feathers remain; but as these have the same form, whatever organs are missing, the presumption is that their meaning has not changed.

In pa.s.sing to the figure of the bird shown in plate Cx.x.xVIII, _b_, we find features h.o.m.ologous with those already considered, but also detect considerable modification. The head is elongated, tipped with three parallel lines, but decorated with markings similar to those of the preceding figure. The outstretched wings have a crescentic form, on the anterior horn of which are round spots with parallel lines arising from them. This is a favorite figure in pottery decoration, and is found very abundantly on the exterior of food bowls; it represents highly conventionalized feathers, and should be so interpreted wherever found. The figure of the body of the bird depicted is simple, and the tail is continued into three tail-feathers, as is ordinarily the case in highly conventionalized bird figures.

The most instructive of all the appendages to the body are the club-shape bodies, one on each side, rising from the point of union of the wings and the breast. These are spatulate in form, with a terraced terminal marking. They, like other appendages, represent feathers, but that peculiar kind which is found under the wing is called the breath feather.[144] This feather is still used in certain ceremonials, and is tied to certain prayer offerings. Its ancient symbolism is very clearly indicated in this picture, and is markedly different from that of either the wing or tail feathers, which have a totally different ceremonial use at the present time.

For convenience of comparison, a number of pictures which undoubtedly refer to different birds in ancient interpretations will be grouped in a single series.