Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Part 27

But the resemblance of these and other stones to animal fossils[156]

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

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

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

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CORN GRINDER FROM SIKYATKI]

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

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

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

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

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

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

OBSIDIAN

Many fragments of obsidian, varying in size, are found strewn over the surface of the majority of ancient ruins in Tusayan, and the quant.i.ty of this material on some mounds indicates its abundance in those early habitations. This material must have been highly prized for knives, arrowpoints, and weapons of various kinds, as several of the graves contained large fragments of it, some more or less chipped, others in natural forms. The fact of its being deemed worthy of deposit in the graves of the Sikyatkians would indicate that it was greatly esteemed.

I know of no natural deposit of obsidian near Sikyatki or in the province of Tusayan, so that the probability is that these fragments had been brought a considerable distance before they were buried in the earth that now covers the dead of the ancient pueblos.

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STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM PALATKI, AWATOBI, AND SIKYATKI]

NECKLACES, GORGETS, AND OTHER ORNAMENTS

The Sikyatki people buried their dead adorned with necklaces and other ornaments as when living. The materials most highly prized for necklaces were turquois and sh.e.l.l which were fashioned into beads, some of which were finely made. These necklaces did not differ from those now worn, and the sh.e.l.ls employed were mostly marine varieties of the genus _Pectunculus_. The turquois beads are often as finely cut as any now worn, and their presence in the graves led to the only serious trouble which I had with my native workmen, as they undoubtedly appropriated many which were found. Some of these turquois beads are simply flat fragments, perforated at one end, others are well formed. Many skeletons had a single turquois near the mastoid process of the skull, showing that they had been worn as ear pendants.

On the neck of one skeleton we found a necklace of many strands, composed of segments of the leg bones of the turkey, stained green.

There were other specimens of necklaces made of turkey bones, which were smoothly finished and apparently had not been stained.

Necklaces of perforated cedar berries were likewise found, some of them still hanging about the necks of the dead, and in one instance, a small saucer like vessel (plate CXX, _d_) was filled with beads of this kind, as if the necklace had thus been deposited in the grave as a votive offering.

For gorgets the Sikyatki people apparently prized slabs of lignite (plate CLXXII, _d_) and plates of selenite. It was likewise customary to make small clay imitations of birds and sh.e.l.ls for this and for other ornamental purposes; these, for the most part, however, were not found in the graves, but were picked up on the surface or in the debris within the rooms.

The three forms imitating birds shown in plate CLXXIII, _g_, _h_, _i_, are rude in character, and one of them is crossed by a black line from which depend parallel lines, representing falling rain; all of these specimens have a perforated knot on the under side for suspension, as shown in the figure between them.

The forms of imitations of sh.e.l.ls, in clay, of which examples are shown in plate CLXXIII, _j_, _k_, _l_, are rude in character; they are often painted with longitudinal or vertical black lines, and have a single or double perforation for suspension. The sh.e.l.l imitated is probably the young _Pectunculus_, a Pacific-coast mollusk, with which the ancient Hopi were familiar.

TOBACCO PIPES

I have elsewhere mentioned that every modern Tusayan ceremony opens and closes with a ceremonial smoke, and it is apparent that pipes were highly prized by the ancient Sikyatkians.

The form of pipe used in most ceremonials today has a bowl with its axis at right angles to the stem, but so far as I have studied ancient Pueblo pipes this form appears to be a modern innovation.[158] To determine the probable ancient form of pipe, as indicated by the ritual, I will invite attention to one of the most archaic portions of the ceremonies about the altar of the Antelope priesthood, at the time of the Snake dance at Walpi:[159]

"The songs then ceased, and Wi-ki sent Ka-tci to bring him a light.

Ka-tci went out, and soon returned with a burning corncob, while all sat silently awaiting Wi-ki's preparation for the great _o-mow-uh_ smoke, which was one of the most sacred acts performed by the Antelope priests in these ceremonials.

"The _wu-ko-tco-no_ is a huge, stemless pipe, which has a large opening in the blunt end, and a smaller one in the pointed. It is five inches long, one inch in diameter at the large aperture, and its greatest circ.u.mference is seven and a half inches. The pipe is made of some black material, possibly stone, and as far as could be seen was not ornamented. The bowl had previously been filled with leaves carefully gathered from such places as are designated by tradition. In the subsequent smokes the ashes, "dottle," were saved, being placed in a small depression in the floor, but were not again put in the pipe.

"Wi-ki took the live ember from Ka-tci and placed it in the large opening of the pipe, on the leaves which filled its cavity. He then knelt down and placed the pipe between the two _ti-po-nis_, so that the pointed end rested on the head of the large fetish, between the ears. Every one remained silent, and Wi-ki blew several dense clouds of smoke upon the sand altar, one after another, so that the picture was concealed. The smoke was made by blowing through the pipe, the fire being placed in the bowl next the mouth, and the whole larger end of the pipe was taken into the mouth at each exhalation.

"At the San Juan pueblo, near Santa Fe, where I stopped on my way to Tusayan, I purchased a ceremonial headdress upon which several spruce twigs were tied. Wi-ki received some fragments of these with grat.i.tude, and they formed one of the ingredients which were smoked in the great _o-mow-uh_ pipe. The scent of the mixture was very fragrant, and filled the room, like incense. The production of this great smoke-cloud, which is supposed to rise to the sky, and later bring the rain, ended the first series of eight songs.

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PAINT GRINDER, FETISH, KAOLIN DISKS, AND LIGNITE FROM SIKYATKI]

"Immediately after this event, Ha-ha-we filled one of the small-stemmed pipes lying near the fireplace with native tobacco, and after lighting it puffed smoke on the altar. He pa.s.sed the pipe to Wi-ki, holding it near the floor, bowl foremost, as he did so, and exchanging the customary terms of relationship. Wi-ki then blew dense clouds of smoke over the two _ti-po-nis_ and on the sand picture.

Ha-ha-we, meanwhile, lit a second pipe, and pa.s.sed it to Ko-pe-li, the Snake chief, who enjoyed it in silence, indiscriminately puffing smoke on the altar, to the cardinal points, and in other directions.

Ko-pe-li later gave his pipe to Ka-kap-ti, who sat at his right, and Wi-ki pa.s.sed his to Na-syun-'we-ve, who, after smoking, handed the pipe to Kwa-a, who in turn pa.s.sed it to Ka-tci, by whom it was given to Ha-ha-we. Ka-tci, the last priest to receive it before it was returned to the pipe-lighter, smoked for a long time, and repeatedly puffed clouds of smoke upon the sand picture. Meanwhile Ka-kap-ti had handed his pipe to Ha-ha-we, both exchanging terms of relationship and carefully observing the accompanying ceremonial etiquette. Ha-ha-we, as was his unvarying custom, carefully cleaned the two pipes, and laid them on the floor by the side of the fireplace."

The form of pipe used in the above ceremony is typical of ancient Pueblo pipes, several of which were found at Sikyatki. One of these, much smaller than the _o-mow-uh_ pipe, was made of lava, and bore evidence of use before burial. It is evident, however, that these straight pipes were not always smoked as above described. The most interesting pipes found at Sikyatki were more elongated than that above mentioned and were made of clay. Their forms are shown in plate CLXXIII, _b_, _c_, _d_, _f_. One of these (_b_) is very smooth, almost glazed, and enlarged into two lateral wings near the mouth end, which is perforated with a small hole. The cavity at the opposite end is large enough to hold sufficient for a good smoke, and shows evidence of former use. The whole median region of the exterior is formed by a collar incised with lines, as if formerly wrapped with fiber. In some of the modern ceremonials, as that of the Bear-Puma dramatization in the Snake dance, a reed cigarette is used, ancient forms of which have been found in sacrificial caves, and there seems no doubt that this pipe is simply a clay form of those reeds. The markings on the collar would by this interpretation indicate the former existence of a small fabric wrapped about it. The two pipes shown, in plate CLXXIII, _b_, _f_, are tubular in shape,[160] highly polished, and on one of them (_f_) we see scratches representing the same feature as the collar of _b_, and probably made with the same intent.

The fragment of a pipe shown in plate CLXXIII, _d_, is interesting in the same connection. The end of this pipe is broken, but the stem is intact, and on two sides of the bowl there are elevations covered with crosshatching. The pipe is of clay and has a rough external surface.

It is improbable that these pipes were always smoked as the _wu-ko-tco-no_ of the Snake ceremony, but the smaller end was placed to the mouth, and smoke taken into the mouth and exhaled. It is customary in ceremonials now practiced, to wind a wisp of yucca about the stem of a short pipe, that it may not become too hot to hold in the hand. This may be a possible explanation[161] of the scratches on the sides of the ancient tube pipes from Sikyatki.

PRAYER-STICKS

One of the most important objects made in the secret ceremonials of the modern Pueblos is sacrificial in nature, and is called a paho or "water wood," which is used as an offering to the G.o.ds (figure 357).

These pahos are made of a prescribed wood, of length determined by tradition, and to them are tied appendages of symbolic meaning. They are consecrated by songs, about an altar, upon which they are laid, and afterward deposited in certain shrines by a special courier.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 357--Mortuary prayer-stick (natural size)]

In modern times the forms of these pahos differ very greatly, the shape depending on the society which makes them, the G.o.d addressed, and the purpose for which they are used, as understood by the initiated. Among many other uses they are sometimes mortuary in character, and are deposited in the graves of chiefs, as offerings either to the G.o.d of Death, or to other deities, to whom they may be presented by the shade or breath body of the deceased. This use of pahos is of ancient origin in Tusayan, as shown by the excavations at Sikyatki, where they were found in mortuary bowls or vases deposited by the relatives or surviving members of the sacerdotal societies to which the deceased had belonged.

This pre-Spanish custom in Tusayan was discovered in my excavations at Awatobi, but the prayer-sticks from that place were fragmentary as compared with the almost perfect pahos from Sikyatki. These pahos are of many forms;[162] some of them are of considerable size, and the majority are of distinctive forms (plates CLXXIV-CLXXV). There are also many fragments, the former shapes of which could not be determined. When it is considered that these wooden objects with their neat carvings were fashioned with stone implements, the high character of the work is very remarkable. They show, in several instances, the imprint of attached strings and feathers, portions of which still remain; also, in one instance, fragments of a pine needle. They are painted with green and black mineral pigments, the former of which had undoubtedly done much to preserve the soft wood of which they were manufactured. As at the present day, cottonwood and willow were the favorite prescribed woods for pahos, and some of the best were made of pine. The forms of these ancient prayer offerings, as mentioned hereafter, differ somewhat from those of modern make, although in certain instances there is a significant resemblance between the two kinds.

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