Mohave Pottery Part 3

_p_, 1712, l. 155. Design name: racc.o.o.n hand.

_q_, 4319, l. 225. Design name: coyote teeth.

_r_, 4356, l. 177.

_s_, 13807, l. 210.

_Shapes_

Hollow, rattling handles, consisting of a three-cornered box, are found on _e_,_f_,_r_. In each case, the end is modeled into a rude quail's head, showing eyes and beak (or topknot?).

Some rudiments of a quail head, but without hollow compartment, appear also in _a_-_d_,_q_; possibly in _i_,_k_.

The foregoing have the outer edges, toward the top, somewhat raised and a bit incurved. This sort of an edge shows also in _g_,_h_,_j_, which however possess no rudiments of the quail's head. The edge faces forward (if the hollow of the spoon is regarded as its front).

Another group of spoons have their edge rather turned outward--that is, away from the hollow. This group includes _l_-_p_ and _s_. These average somewhat flatter, and the apex is generally rounder, than in those with forward-turned edge: see especially _n_,_o_,_p_,_s_; also _m_; only _l_ comes to a point. Also, the total width ratio is greater in this group.

The cla.s.sification thus is:

A. Edge raised, turned forward; apex pointed 1. Quail head apex, hollow rattling compartment 2. Quail head or rudiment 3. Plain apex B. Edge facing outward, top usually rounder, total shape shallow, broad.

Additional spoons are shown in plates 7,_i_ and 8,_i_-_k_; and in 7,_a_-_h_ appear the _back_ patterns of eight spoons whose fronts are reproduced in plate 4. This comes to a total of 23 pieces; which seriate in size, and group as to subcla.s.s, as follows:

======================================== Pl. | L. (mm.)| Subcla.s.s ------+---------+----------------------- 7,_i_ | 226 | | | | B | 4,_h_ | 225 | | | A3 | | 4,_q_ | 225 | | A2r | | | 4,_s_ | 210 | | | | B | 4,_m_ | 207 | | | | B | 4,_b_ | 201 | | A2r | | | 4,_l_ | 198 | | | | B | 4,_f_ | 194 | A1q | | | | 4,_j_ | 190 | | | A3 | | 4,_k_ | 186 | | A2r | | | 4,_c_ | 182 | | A2r | | | 4,_i_ | 178 | | A2r | | | 4,_r_ | 177 | A1q | | | | 4,_g_ | 175 | | | A3 | | 4,_d_ | 175 | | A2r | | | 4,_a_ | 174 | | A2r | | | 8,_k_ | 167 | [A] | | | | 4,_n_ | 156 | | | | B | 4,_p_ | 155 | | | | B | 8,_j_ | 140 | | | | B | 8,_i_ | 135 | | | | B | 4,_e_ | 123 | A1q | | | | 4,_o_ | 113 | | | | B | ------+---------+-----+-------+----+---+

Note A: Handle retroflex

It will be seen that all four subcla.s.ses of spoons are represented by examples both above and below the median 178 mm. length. Also, the three longest spoons in the collection belong to three different subcla.s.ses.

The salient feature is that the blunt-ended "B" spoons have a bimodal distribution: from 198 mm. up, from 156 down. I should not be surprised if B forms turned up in the intervening range; but I should expect the bimodality to remain even if many additional specimens became available.

For the rest, it may be significant that the pointed-end cla.s.ses A2, A3 are unrepresented below 170; and the clear quail-head (and rattle-box) cla.s.s A1 not above 195. It may be that beyond a certain size the firing of the juxtaposed solid head and hollow rattle was difficult for the Mohave.

_Designs_

The great majority of spoons are painted inside, usually outside (on the back) also, though there mostly with longitudinal lines or stripes only.

The angled-and-forking overall pattern so characteristic of bowls occurs in spoons, but is rare: _b_ is an example. The area of a scoop is generally hardly wide and large enough for this design. In _b_ it reduces in effect to a sort of cramped swastika.

One of the two most frequent patterns of spoons is that of _g_,_h_,_i_,_j_,_m_--the last in negative effect and unsprinkled with dots. The central feature is a column of three (or two and a half) rhomboids. These are flanked and meshed by four (or three) triangles.

The rhomboids and the triangles are separated by three lines, making, with their own boundaries, five parallel lines in all (though this number is sometimes reduced); and where points of triangles meet (and sometimes of rhomboids also) the corners are solid. It is obvious that this pattern is related in several features to the commonest pattern of bowls, but with adaptation to a more cramped field--chiefly by omission of forking and back-angled elements. The only name obtained--once--was kyauelkyau, which is said to mean zigzag or angled.

Another spoon pattern has two or three tiers of light rhomboids separated by pairs of dark triangles, apex to apex (hourgla.s.s): see _a_,_d_. There is no thin-line bordering or separating in this pattern.

For _d_, the design names cited were ta-hlame-hlame, "patches," and "b.u.t.terfly inside"; but I do not know which of these names refers to the hollow rhomboids and which to the paired solid triangles.

Another tiered design arrangement is shown in _l_ and _q_. Both were called coyote teeth, which speaks for itself. It will be seen that the teeth are in opposite rows, geared into diastemas--which does not hold for plate 2,_d_. In one of these spoons the solid-color teeth have a line border, in the other a row of dots. In both there are two longer double-toothed bands across the middle, two shorter one-way-facing bands of teeth at the ends. "Coyote teeth" appears as a face paint--a cross-barred line--in Handbook, figure 61,_b_.

A second design of outstanding frequency in spoons is represented by _e_,_f_,_k_,_o_, (s). It was twice designated as fish backbone (with adhering ribs). The backbone itself appears only twice in the five examples in plate 4 (_e_,_o_), and is by no means dominant then. The sets of parallel ribs or chevrons number from 10 to nearly 20, and make either 3 or 5 bends (i.e., are formed by 4 or 6 lines). The bends are filled in with small solid triangles in _f_,_k_,_s_. Rows of dots show in _e_ and _s_.

Other designs each occur only once in the collection.

_c_, polka dots only.

_n_, a fishnetlike design, no name obtained, vertical corners filled in solidly.

_p_, racc.o.o.n hand (first mistranslated "otter," but the otter is "water-racc.o.o.n" in Mohave), with five hollow-line toes, background of fine dots. There is some reminiscence of the forking bowl design, but without angling back or hooks.

_s_, perhaps a simplified version of the pattern of _g_-_j_,_m_?

There is no marked correlation between any of these designs and the shape cla.s.ses of spoons that have been defined.

PLATE 5: JARS, POTS, JUGS, CUPS

_a_, water jar, 1723, recorded as "hapurui, small olla for seeds, or for water in summer"; diameter mouth 128 mm., height 200 mm.

Neck d. about 83 per cent of mouth, body d. about double that of neck and greater than height. There is an annular base which is not present in the two other water jars. Design: t.i.t?ok style of face paint.

_b_, water jar, 13792, mouth d. 177, h. 194. Neck d. 81 per cent of mouth, body d. equals height.

_c_, fire-blackened cook pot, 13789, mouth d. 250, h. 192. Neck d, 227, body d. 250.

_d_, handled jug (spoutless pitcher), 1725, mouth d. 85, h. 95.

Design: ta-skilye-skilye, viz., outside points of chin tattooing.

_e_, handled jug, 1724, mouth d. 86, h. 90. Design: hotahpave, viz., halter pattern of face painting.

_f_, handled jug, 13795, mouth d. 105, h. 147. This piece had not been used when collected, and may have been a model for sale.

_g_, handled jug, 1739, called hapurui, jar, mouth d. 92, h. 140.

Design: fish backbone.

_h_, small, handled cup, 13796, mouth d. 88, h. 47. Used and somewhat worn.

_i_, handled cup, 2-7359, mouth d. 128, h. 90. From older (pre-1901) University collections, provenience and collector not recorded. a.s.sumed to be Mohave, but condition suggests the vessel was made for sale and not used.

The two water jars are of about the same height, toward 8 in., but _a_ is smaller-mouthed and bigger-bellied than _b_. The neck diameters are around 5/6 to 4/5 of the mouths. _a_ is somewhat greater through the body than it is high; _b_, nearly the same. Another and larger jar is shown in plate 8,_a_.

The cook pot, _c_, has the opening as large as the body diameter; the neck is only 9 to 10 per cent smaller than the mouth, the height only 77 per cent of the width. This pot is somewhat higher in silhouette proportion than any of the bowls, but not much higher than the highest of them, viz., 2,_g_ and 8,_h_.

The four handled jugs fall into two cla.s.ses: _d_ and _e_, medium; _f_ and _g_, high. In the former, the height is about a tenth greater than the mouth diameter, in the latter, about a half greater. Also, in the medium jugs, the base of the handle springs from the lower half of the vessel; in the high ones, from the middle or above. In all cases the handle rises somewhat above the lip. The neck is less than the mouth by 12 to 15 per cent.

The cups are like the jugs except that they are lower and the main painted designs come inside. In fact, the cups seem to be small bowls with a handle attached.

I am quite uncertain whether the handled jugs and cups are native Mohave forms or derived in imitation of Caucasian shapes. It is unclear what specific function their handles would have served in Mohave life, in sand-floored houses empty of furniture or apparatus. Yet probably _g_ and certainly _h_ have been used. And the ware of the jugs and cups, as well as their painted designs, are typical Mohave. They look like an "acculturation acceptance"--a new trait adopted into the old native pattern. The problem will probably be solved when enough datable precontact and protocontact ware from the Mohave and kindred Yuman tribes becomes available.

With these round vessels the forking-and-angled design of the bowl interiors recurs: in the jar _a_, the jug _f_, on the interior of cup _i_. It will be seen that these come with and without dot stippling. The pattern of jug _d_ was called tattoo points; but it is the same as the coyote teeth of plate 4,_l_,_q_. Similarly, _e_, though called hotahpave halter, resembles plate 4,_g_-_i_; and _g_, called fish backbone, lines up with the fish backbone designs on spoons: plate 4,_e_,_f_,_k_,_o_,_s_.