SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 

 * * * * *

 A STUDY

 of

 PUEBLO POTTERY

 AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ZUÑI CULTURE GROWTH. 

 BY FRANK HAMILTON CUSHING. 

CONTENTS. 

 Habitations affected by environment 473 Rectangular forms developed from circular 475 Flat and terraced roofs developed from sloping mesa-sites 477 Added stories developed from limitations of cliff-house sites 479 Communal pueblos developed from congregation of cliff-house tribes 480

 Pottery affected by environment 482 Anticipated by basketry 483 Suggested by clay-lined basketry 485 Influenced by local minerals 493 Influenced by materials and methods used in burning 495

 Evolution of forms 497

 Evolution of decoration 506

 Decorative symbolism 510

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

 FIG. Page. 490. --A Navajo hut or hogan 473 491. --Perspective view of earliest or Round-house structures of lava 474 492. --Plan of same 475 493. --Section of same 475 494. --Evolution of rectangular forms in primitive architecture 476 495. --Section illustrating evolution of flat roof and terrace 477 496. --Perspective view of a typical solitary-house 478 497. --Plan of a typical solitary-house 478 498. --Typical cliff-dwelling 479 499. --Typical terraced-pueblo--communal type 480 500. --Ancient gourd-vessel encased in wicker 483 501. --Havasupaí roasting-tray, with clay lining 484 502. --Zuñi roasting-tray of earthenware 485 503. --Havasupaí boiling-basket 486 504. --Sketch illustrating the first stage in manufacture of latter 486 505. --Sketch illustrating the second stage in manufacture of latter 486 506. --Sketch illustrating the third stage in manufacture of latter 486 507. --Typical example of basket decoration 487 508. --Typical example of basket decoration 487 509. --Typical example of basket decoration 487 510. --Terraced lozenge decoration or "Double-splint-stitch-form. " (Shú k‘u tu lia tsí nan) 488 511. --Terraced lozenge decoration or "Double-splint-stitch-form. " (Shú k‘u tu lia tsí nan) 488 512. --Double-splint-stitch, from which same was elaborated 488 513. --Double-splint-stitch, from which same was elaborated 488 514. --Diagonal parallel-line decoration. (Shú k‘ish pa tsí nan) 488 515. --Study of splints at neck of unfinished basket illustrating evolution of latter 489 516. --Example of indented decoration on corrugated ware 490 517. --Example of indented decoration on corrugated ware 490 518. --Cooking pot of spirally built or corrugated ware, showing conical projections near rim 490 519. --The same, illustrating modification of latter 491 520. --Wicker water-bottle, showing double loops for suspension 491 521. --Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing double handle 492 522. --The same, showing also plain bottom 492 523. --Food trencher or bowl of impervious wicker-work 497 524. --Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls 497 525. --Ancient bowl of corrugated ware, showing comparative shallowness 498 526. --Basket-bowl as base-mold for large vessels 499 527. --Clay nucleus illustrating beginning of a vessel 499 528. --The same shaped to form the base of a vessel 499 529. --The same as first placed in base-mold, showing beginning of spiral building 500 530. --First form of vessel 500 531. --Secondary form in mold, showing origin of spheroidal type of jar 501 532. --Scrapers or trowels of gourd and earthen-ware for smoothing pottery 501 533. --Finished form of a vessel in mold, showing amount of contraction in drying 501 534. --Profile of olla or modern water-jar 502 535. --Base of same, showing circular indentation at bottom 502 536. --Section of same, showing central concavity and circular depression 502 537. --"Milkmaid's boss, " or annular mat of wicker for supporting round vessels on the head in carrying 503 538. --Use of annular mat illustrated 503 539. --Section of incipient vessel in convex-bottomed basket-mold 504 540. --Section of same as supported on annular mat and wad of soft substance, for drying 504 541. --Modern base-mold as made from the bottom of water jar 504 542. --Example of Pueblo painted-ornamentation illustrating decorative value of open spaces 506 543 and 544. --Amazonian basket-decorations, illustrating evolution of the above characteristic 507 545. --Bowl, showing open or unjoined space in lines near rim 510 546. --Water-jar, showing open or unjoined space in lines near rim 510 547. --Conical or flat-bellied canteen 512 548 and 549. --The same, compared with human mammary gland 513 550. --Double-lobed or hunter canteen (Me´ wi k‘i lik ton ne), showing teat-like projections and open spaces of contiguous lines 514 551. --Native painting of deer, showing space-line from mouth to heart 515 552. --Native painting of sea serpent, showing space-line from mouth to heart 515 553. --The fret of basket decoration 516 554. --The fret of pottery decoration 516 555. --Scroll as evolved from fret in pottery decoration 516 556. --Ancient Pueblo "medicine-jar" 517 557. --Decoration of above compared with modern Moki rain symbol 517 558. --Zuñi prayer-meal bowl illustrating symbolism in form and decoration 518 559. --Native paintings of sacred butterfly 519 560. --Native painting of sacred migratory "summer bird" 519 561. --Rectangular or Iroquois type of earthen vessel 519 562. --Kidney-shaped type of vessel of Nicaragua 520 563. --Iroquois bark vessel, showing angles of juncture 520 564. --Porcupine quill decoration on bark vessel, for comparison with Fig. 561 521~~~ * * * * *

 A STUDY OF PUEBLO POTTERY AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ZUÑI CULTURE-GROWTH. 

 * * * * *

 BY FRANK H. CUSHING. 

 * * * * *

HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 

It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are duechiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In thissense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product ofa desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak, they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, anddriven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was theinfluence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt analmost waterless area for their habitat. 

It is apparent at least that they entered the country wherein theirremains occur while comparatively a rude people, and worked out therealmost wholly their incipient civilization. Of this there is importantlinguistic evidence. 

[Illustration: FIG. 490. --A Navajo hut. ]

A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive-shaped or conical structure (seeFig. 490) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stoneschinked with mud. Yet its modern Zuñi name is _hám´ pon ne_, from _hawe_, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _pó an ne_, covering, shelteror roof (_po a_ to place over and _ne_ the nominal suffix); which, interpreted, signifies a "brush or leaf shelter. " This leads to theinference that the temporary shelter with which the Zuñis wereacquainted when they formulated the name here given, presumably intheir earliest condition, was in shape like the Navajo hogan, but in_material_, of brush or like perishable substance. 

The archaic name for a building or walled inclosure is _hé sho ta_, acontraction of the now obsolete term, _hé sho ta pon ne_, from _hésho_, gum, or resin-like; _shó tai e_, leaned or placed togetherconvergingly; and _tá po an ne_, a roof of wood or a roof supported bywood. 

[Illustration: FIG. 491. --Perspective view of earliest or Round-housestructure of lava. ]

The meaning of all this would be obscure did not the oldest remains ofthe Pueblos occur in the almost inaccessible lava wastes bordering thesouthwestern deserts and intersecting them and were not the houses ofthese ruins built on the plan of shelters, round (see Figs. 491, 492, 493), rather than rectangular. Furthermore, not only does thelava-rock of which their walls have been rudely constructed resemblenatural asphaltum (_hé sho_) and possess a cleavage exactly like thatof piñon-gum and allied substances (also _hé sho_), but some forms oflava are actually known as _á he sho_ or gum-rock. From theseconsiderations inferring that the name _hé sho ta pon ne_ derivativelysignifies something like "a gum-rock shelter with roof supports ofwood, " we may also infer that the Pueblos on their coming into thedesert regions dispossessed earlier inhabitants or that they chose thelava-wastes the better to secure themselves from invasion; moreoverthat the oldest form of building known to them was therefore aninclosure of lava-stones, whence the application of the contraction_hé sho ta_, and its restriction to mean a walled inclosure. 

[Illustration: FIG. 492. --Plan of Pueblo structure of lava. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 493. --Section of Pueblo structure of lava. ]

RECTANGULAR FORMS DEVELOPED FROM CIRCULAR. 

It may be well in this connection to cite a theory entertained by Mr. Victor Mindeleff, of the Bureau of Ethnology, whose wide experienceamong the southwestern ruins entitles his judgment to highconsideration. In his opinion the rectangular form of architecture, which succeeds the type under discussion, must have been evolved fromthe circular form by the bringing together, within a limited area, ofmany houses. This would result in causing the wall of one circularstructure to encroach upon that of another, suggesting the partitioninstead of the double wall. This partition would naturally be builtstraight as a twofold measure of economy. Supposing three such housesto be contiguous to a central one, each separated from the latter by astraight wall, it may be seen that (as in the accompanying plan) thethree sides of a square are already formed, suggesting theparallelogramic as a convenient style of sequent architecture. 

[Illustration: FIG. 494. --Evolution of rectangular forms in primitivearchitecture. ]

All this, I need scarcely add, agrees not only with my ownobservations in the field but with the kind of linguistic researchabove recorded. It would also apparently explain the occurrence of thecircular semisubterranean _kí wi tsi we_, or estufas. These beingsacred have retained the pristine form long after the adoption of amodified type of structure for ordinary or secular purposes, accordingto the well known law of survival in ceremonial appurtenances. 

In a majority of the lava ruins (for example those occurring nearPrescott, Arizona), I have observed that the sloping sides rather thanthe level tops of _mesa_ headlands have been chosen by the ancients asbuilding-sites. Here, the rude, square type of building prevails, not, however, to the entire exclusion of the circular type, which, isrepresented by loosely constructed walls, always on the _outskirts_ ofthe main ruins. The rectangular rooms are, as a rule, built row aboverow. Some of the houses in the upper rows give evidence of havingoverlapped others below. (See section, Fig. 495. )

FLAT AND TERRACED ROOFS DEVELOPED FROM SLOPING MESA-SITES. 

We cannot fail to take notice of the indications which this bringsbefore us. 

(1) It is quite probable that the overlapping resulted from anincrease in the numbers of the ancient builders relative to availablearea, this, as in the first instance, leading to a further massingtogether of the houses. (2) It suggested the employment of rafters andthe formation of the _flat_ roof, as a means of supplying a levelentrance way and floor to rooms which, built above and to the rear ofa first line of houses, yet extended partially over the latter. (3)This is I think the earliest form of the terrace. 

[Illustration: FIG. 495. --Section illustrating evolution of flat roofand terrace]

It is therefore not surprising that the flat roof of to-day is named_té k‘os kwïn ne_, from _te_, space, region, extension, _k‘os kwi e_, to cut off in the sense of closing or shutting in from one side, and_kwïn ne_, place of. Nor is it remarkable that no type of ruin in theSouthwest _seems_ to connect these first terraced towns with the laternot only terraced but also literally cellular buildings, which must beregarded nevertheless as developed from them. The reason for this willbecome evident on further examination. 

[Illustration: FIG. 496. --Perspective view of a typical solitaryhouse. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 497. --Plan of a typical solitary house. ]

The modern name for house is _k‘iá kwïn ne_, from _k‘iá we_, water, and _kwin ne_, place of, literally "watering place;" which is evidencethat the first properly so called houses known to the Pueblos weresolitary and built near springs, pools, streams, or well-places. Theuniversal occurrence of the vestiges of single houses throughout theless forbidding tracts of the Pueblo country (see Figs. 496 and 497)leads to this inference and to the supposition that the necessity forprotection being at last overcome, the denizens of the lava-fields, where planting was well-nigh impossible, descended, building whereverconditions favored the horticulture which gradually came to be theirchief means of support. As irrigation was not known until longafterwards, arable areas were limited, hence they were compelled todivide into families or small clans, each occupying a single house. The traces of these solitary farm-houses show that they were at firstsingle-storied. The name of an upper room indicates how the idea ofthe second or third story was developed, as it is _ósh ten u thlan_, from _ósh ten_, a shallow cave, or rock-shelter, and _ú thla nai e_, placed around, embracing, inclusive of. This goes to show that it wasnot until after the building of the first small farm-houses (whichgave the name to houses) that the caves or rock-shelters of thecliffs were occupied. If predatory border-tribes, tempted by thefood-stores of the horticultural farm-house builders, made incursionson the latter, they would find them, scattered as they were, an easyprey. 

ADDED STORIES FOR CLIFF DWELLINGS DEVELOPED FROM LIMITATIONS OFCLIFF-HOUSE SITES. 

[Illustration: FIG. 498. --A typical cliff-dwelling. ]

This condition of things would drive the people to seek security inthe neighboring cliffs of fertile canons, where not only might theybuild their dwelling places in the numerous rock-shelters, but theycould also cultivate their crops in comparative safety along thelimited tracts which these eyries overlooked. The narrow footholdafforded by many of these elevated cliff-shelves or shelters wouldforce the fugitives to construct house over house; that is, build asecond or upper story around the roof of the cavern. What morenatural than that this upper room should take a name most descriptiveof its situation--as that portion built around the cavern-shelter or_ósh ten_--or that, when the intervention of peace made return to theabandoned farms of the plains or a change of condition possible, theidea of the second story should be carried along and the name firstapplied to it survive, even to the present day? That the upper storytook its name from the rock-shelter may be further illustrated. Theword _ósh ten_ comes from _ó sho nan te_, the condition of beingdusky, dank, or mildewy; clearly descriptive of a cavern, but not ofthe most open, best lighted, and driest room in a Pueblo house. 

To continue, we may see how the necessity for protection would drivethe petty clans more and more to the cliffs, how the latter at everyavailable point would ultimately come to be occupied, and thus how the"_Cliff-dwelling_" (see Fig. 498), was confined to no one section butwas as universal as the farm-house type of architecture itself, sowidespread, in fact, that it has been heretofore regarded as themonument of a great, now extinct _race_ of people!

COMMUNAL PUEBLOS DEVELOPED FROM CONGREGATION OF CLIFF-HOUSE TRIBES. 

[Illustration: FIG. 499. --Typical terraced communal pueblo. ]

We may see, finally, how at last the cañons proved too limited and inother ways undesirable for occupation, the result of which was theconfederation of the scattered cliff-dwelling clans, and theconstruction, first on the overhanging cliff-tops, then on _mesas_, and farther and farther away, of great, many-storied towns, any one ofwhich was named, in consequence of the bringing together in it of manyhouses and clans, _thlu él lon ne_, from _thlu a_, many springing up, and _él lon a_, that which stands, or those which stand; in otherwords, "many built standing together. " This cannot be regarded asreferring to the simple fact that a village is necessarily composed ofmany houses standing together. The name for any other village than acommunal pueblo is _tí na kwïn ne_, from _tí na_--many sitting around, and _kwïn ne_, place of. This term is applied by the Zuñis to allvillages save their own and those of ourselves, which latter theyregard as Pueblos, in their acceptation of the above native word. 

Here, then, in strict accordance with, the teachings of myth, folk-lore and tradition, I have used the linguistic argument asbriefest and most convincing in indicating the probable sequence ofarchitectural types in the evolution of the Pueblo; from the brushlodge, of which only the name survives, to the recent and presentterraced, many-storied, communal structures, which we may findthroughout New Mexico, Arizona, and contiguous parts of theneighboring Territories. [1]

 [1] See for confirmation the last Annual Report to the Archæological Institute of America, by Adolph F. Bandelier, one of the most indefatigable explorers and careful students of early Spanish history in America. 

POTTERY AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 

There is no other section of the United States where the potter's artwas so extensively practiced, or where it reached such a degree ofperfection, as within the limits of these ancient Pueblo regions. Tothis statement not even the prolific valleys of the Mississippi andits tributaries form an exception. 

On examining a large and varied collection of this pottery, one wouldnaturally regard it either as the product of four distinct peoples oras belonging to four different eras, with an inclination to thechronologic division. 

When we see the reasonable probability that the architecture, theprimeval arts and industries, and the culture of the Pueblos aremainly indigenous to the desert and semi-desert regions of NorthAmerica, we are in the way towards an understanding of the origin andremarkable degree of development in the ceramic art. 

In these regions water not only occurs in small quantities, but isobtainable only at points separated by great distances, hence to thePueblos the first necessity of life is the transportation andpreservation of water. The skins and paunches of animals could be usedin the effort to meet this want with but small success, as the heatand aridity of the atmosphere would in a short time render water thuskept unfit for use, and the membranes once empty would be liable todestruction by drying. So far as language indicates the character ofthe earliest water vessels which to any extent met the requirements ofthe Zuñi ancestry, they were tubes of wood or sections of canes. Thelatter, in ritualistic recitation, are said to have been thereceptacles that the creation-priests filled with the sacred waterfrom the ocean of the cave-wombs of earth, whence men and creatureswere born, and the name for one of these cane water vessels is _shótom me_, from _shó e_, cane or canes, and _tóm me_, a wooden tube. Yet, although in the extreme western borders of the deserts, whichwere probably the first penetrated by the Pueblos, the cane grows togreat size and in abundance along the two rivers of that country, itsuse, if ever extensive, must have speedily given way to the use ofgourds, which grew luxuriantly at these places and were of bettershapes and of larger capacity. The name of the gourd as a vessel is_shoṕ tom me_, from _shó e_, canes, _pó pon nai e_, bladder-shaped, and _tóm me_, a wooden tube; a seeming derivation (with the exceptionof the interpolated sound significant of form) from _shó tom me_. Thegourd itself is called _mó thlâ â_, "hard fruit. " The inference isthat when used as a vessel, and called _shoṕĭ tom me_, it must havebeen named after an older form of vessel, instead of after the plantor fruit which produced it. 

While the gourd was large and convenient in form, it was difficult oftransportation owing to its fragility. To overcome this it was encasedin a coarse sort of wicker-work, composed of fibrous yucca leaves orof flexible splints. Of this we have evidence in a series ofgourd-vessels among the Zuñis, into which the sacred water is said tohave been transferred from the tubes, and a pair of which one of thepriests, who came east with me two years ago, brought from New Mexicoto Boston in his hands--so precious were they considered asrelics--for the purpose of replenishing them with water from theAtlantic. These vessels are encased rudely but strongly in a meshingof splints (see Fig. 500), and while I do not positively claim thatthey have been piously preserved since the time of the universal useof gourds as water-vessels by the ancestry of this people, they arenevertheless of considerable antiquity. Their origin is attributed tothe priest-gods, and they show that it must have once been a commonpractice to encase gourds, as above described, in osiery. 

[Illustration: FIG. 500. --Gourd vessel enclosed in wicker. ]

POTTERY ANTICIPATED BY BASKETRY. 

This crude beginning of the wicker-art in connection withwater-vessels points toward the development of the wonderfulwater-tight basketry of the southwest, explaining, too, theresemblance of many of its typical forms to the shapes ofgourd-vessels. Were we uncertain of this, we might again turn tolanguage, which designates the impervious wicker water-receptacle ofwhatever outline as _tóm ma_, an evident derivation from therestricted use of the word _tóm me_ in connection with gourd or canevessels, since a basket of any other kind is called _tsí ì le_. 

It is readily conceivable that water-tight osiery, once known, howeverdifficult of manufacture, would displace the general use ofgourd-vessels. While the growth of the gourd was restricted to limitedareas, the materials for basketry were everywhere at hand. Not onlyso, but basket-vessels were far stronger and more durable, hence morereadily transported full of water, to any distance. By virtue of theirrough surfaces, any leakage in such vessels was instantly stopped by adaubing of pitch or mineral asphaltum, coated externally with sand orcoarse clay to harden it and overcome its adhesiveness. 

[Illustration: FIG. 501. --Havasupai clay-lined roasting-tray. ]

We may conclude, then, that so long as the Pueblo ancestry weresemi-nomadic, basketry supplied the place of pottery, as it still doesfor the less advanced tribes of the Southwest, except in cookery. Possibly for a time basketry of this kind served in place of potteryeven for cookery, as with one of the above-mentioned tribes, the _Hava su paí_ or Coçoninos, of Cataract Cañon, Arizona. These people, until recently, were cut off from the rest of the world by theiralmost impenetrable cañon, nearly half a mile in depth at the pointwhere they inhabit it. For example, when I visited them in 1881, theystill hafted sharpened bits of iron, like celts, in wood. They had notyet forgotten how to boil food in water-tight basketry, by means ofhot stones, and continued to roast seeds, crickets, and bits of meatin wicker-trays, coated inside with gritty clay. (See Fig. 501. ) Themethod of preparing and using these roasting-trays has an importantbearing on several questions to which reference will be made furtheron. A round basket-tray, either loosely or closely woven, is evenlycoated inside with clay, into which has been kneaded a very largeproportion of sand, to prevent contraction and consequent crackingfrom drying. This lining of clay is pressed, while still soft, intothe basket as closely as possible with the hands and then allowed todry. The tray is thus made ready for use. The seeds or othersubstances to be parched are placed inside of it, together with aquantity of glowing wood-coals. The operator, quickly squatting, grasps the tray at opposite edges, and, by a rapid spiral motion upand down, succeeds in keeping the coals and seeds constantly shiftingplaces and turning over as they dance after one another around andaround the tray, meanwhile blowing or puffing, the embers with everybreath to keep them free from ashes and glowing at their hottest. 

That this clay lining should grow hard from continual heating, and insome instances separate from its matrix of osiers, is apparent. Theclay form thus detached would itself be a perfect roasting-vessel. 

POTTERY SUGGESTED BY CLAY-LINED BASKETRY. 

This would suggest the agency of gradual heat in rendering clay fitfor use in cookery and preferable to any previous makeshift. Themodern Zuñi name for a parching-pan, which is a shallow bowl ofblack-ware, is _thlé mon ne_, the name for a basket-tray being _thlä´lin ne_. The latter name signifies a shallow vessel of twigs, or _thláwe_; the former etymologically interpreted, although of earthenware, is a hemispherical vessel of the same kind and _material_. All thiswould indicate that the _thlä´ lin ne_, coated with clay for roasting, had given birth to the _thlé mon ne_, or parching-pan of earthenware. (See Fig. 502. )

[Illustration: FIG. 502. --Zuñi earthenware roasting tray. ]

Among the Havasupaí, still surviving as a sort of bucket, is thebasket-pot or boiling-basket, for use with hot stones, which form Ihave also found in some of the cave deposits throughout the ancientZuñi country. These vessels (see Fig. 503) were bottle-shaped andprovided near the rims of their rather narrow mouths with a sort ofcord or strap-handle, attached to two loops or eyes (Fig. 503 _a_)woven into the basket, to facilitate handling when the vessel wasfilled with hot water. In the manufacture of one of these vessels, which are good examples of the helix or spirally-coiled type ofbasket, the beginning was made at the center of the bottom. A smallwisp of fine, flexible grass stems or osiers softened in water wasfirst spirally wrapped a little at one end with a flat, limber splintof tough wood, usually willow (see Fig. 504). This wrapped portion wasthen wound upon itself; the outer coil thus formed (see Fig. 505)being firmly fastened as it progressed to the one already made bypassing the splint wrapping of the wisp each time it was wound aroundthe latter through some strands of the contiguous inner coil, with theaid of a bodkin. (See Fig. 506. ) The bottom was rounded upward and thesides were made by coiling the wisp higher and higher, first outward, to produce the bulge of the vessel, then inward, to form the taperingupper part and neck, into which, the two little twigs or splintloop-eyes were firmly woven. (See again Fig. 503 _a_. )

[Illustration: FIG. 503. --Havasupaí boiling-basket. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 504. FIG. 505. FIG. 506. Sketches illustrating manufacture of spirally-coiled basketry. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 507. --Typical basket decoration. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 508. --Typical basket decoration. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 509. --Typical basket decoration. ]

These and especially kindred forms of basket-vessels were often quiteelaborately ornamented, either by the insertion at proper points ofdyed wrapping-splints, singly, in pairs, or in sets, or by thealternate painting of pairs, sets, or series of stitches. Thus wereproduced angular devices, like serrated bands, diagonal or zigzaglines, chevrons, even terraces and frets. (See Figs. 507, 508, 509. )There can be no doubt that these styles and ways of decoration weredeveloped, along with the weaving of baskets, simply by elaborating onsuggestions of the lines and figures unavoidably produced inwicker-work of any kind when strands of different colors happened tobe employed together. Even slight discolorations in occasional splintswould result in such suggestions, for the stitches would here show, there disappear. The probability of this view of the accidental originof basket-ornamentation may be enhanced by a consideration of theetymology of a few Zuñi decorative terms, more of which might be givendid space admit. A terraced lozenge (see Figs. 510, 511), instead ofbeing named after the abstract word _a wi thlui ap í pä tchi na_, which signifies a double terrace or two terraces joined together atthe base, is designated _shu k‘u tu li a tsi´ nan_, from _shu e_, splints or fibers; _k‘u tsu_, a double fold, space, or stitch (seeFigs. 512, 513); _li a_, an interpolation referring to form; and _tsi´nan_, mark; in other words, the "double splint-stitch-form mark. "Likewise, a pattern, composed principally of a series of diagonal oroblique parallel lines _en masse_ (see Fig. 514), is called _shu´k‘ish pa tsí nan_, from _shú e_, splints; _k‘i´sh pai e_, tapering(_k‘ish pon ne_, neck or smaller part of anything); and _tsí nan_, mark; that is, "tapering" or "neck-splint mark. " Curiously enough, ina bottle-shaped basket as it approaches completion the splints of thetapering part or neck all lean spirally side by side of one another(see Fig. 515), and a term descriptive of this has come to be used asthat applied to lines resembling it, instead of a derivative from _ä´ssël lai e_, signifying an oblique or leaning line. Where splintsvariously arranged, or stitches, have given names to decorations--appliedeven to painted and embroidered designs--it is not difficult for us tosee that these same combinations, at first unintentional, must havesuggested the forms to which they gave names as decorations. 

[Illustration: FIG. 510. FIG. 511. Terraced lozenge decoration, or "double-splint-stitch-forms. "]

[Illustration: FIG. 512. FIG. 513. Double-splint-stitch. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 514. --Diagonal parallel-line decoration. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 515. --Splints at neck of unfinished basket. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 516. FIG. 517. Examples of indented decoration on corrugated ware. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 518. --Cooking-pot of corrugated ware, showing conical projections near rim. 

_Pueblo coiled pottery developed from basketry. _--Seizing thesuggestion afforded by the rude tray-molded parching-bowls, particularly after it was discovered that if well burned they resistedthe effects of water as well as of heat, the ancient potter wouldnaturally attempt in time to reproduce the boiling-basket in clay. Shewould find that to accomplish this she could not use as a mold theinside of the boiling-basket, as she had the inside of the tray, because its neck was smaller than its body. Nor could she form thevase by plastering the clay outside of the vessel, not only for thesame reason, but also because the clay in drying would contract somuch that it would crack or scale off. Naturally, then, she pursuedthe process she was accustomed to in the manufacture of thebasket-bottle. That is, she formed a thin rope of soft clay, which, like the wisp of the basket, she coiled around and around a center toform the bottom, then spirally upon itself, now widening the diameterof each coil more and more, then contracting as she progressed upwarduntil the desired height and form were attained. As the clay wasadhesive, each coil was attached to the one already formed bypinching or pressing together the connecting edges at short intervalsas the winding went on. This produced corrugations or indentationsmarvelously resembling the stitches of basket-work. Hence accidentallythe vessel thus built up appeared so similar to the basket which hadserved as its model that evidently it did not seem complete until thisfeature had been heightened by art. At any rate, the majority ofspecimens belonging to this type of pottery--especially those of theolder periods during which it was predominant--are distinguished by anindented or incised decoration exactly reproducing the zigzags, serrations, chevrons, terraces, and other characteristic devices ofwater-tight basketry. (Compare Figs. 516, 517 with Figs. 507, 508. )Evidently with a like intention two little cone-like projections wereattached to the neck near the rim of the vessel (see Fig. 518) whichmay hence be regarded as survivals of the loops whereby it has beenseen the ends of the strap-handle were attached to the boiling-basket. (See again Fig. 503, _a_. ) Although varied in later times to formscrolls, rosettes, and other ornate figures (see Fig. 519), theycontinued ever after quite faithful features of the spiral type ofpot, and may even sometimes be seen on the cooking-vessels of modernZuñi. To add yet another link to this chain of connection between thecoiled boiling-basket and the spirally-built cooking-pot, the names ofthe two kinds of vessels may be given. The boiling-basket was known as_wó li a k‘ia ni tu li a tom me_, the corrugated cooking pot as _wo lia k‘ia te´ ni tu li a ton ne_, the former signifying "coiledcooking-basket, " the latter "coiled earthenware cooking-basket. "

[Illustration: FIG. 519--Cooking-pot of corrugated ware, showing modified projections near rim. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 520. --Wicker water-bottle, showing double loops for suspension. ]

Other very important types of vessels were made in a similar way. Irefer especially to canteens and water-bottles. The water-bottle ofwicker differed little from the boiling-basket. It was generallyrounder-bodied, longer and narrower necked, and provided at one sidenear the shoulders or rim with two loops of hair or strong fiber, usually braided. (See Fig. 520. ) The ends of the burden-strap passedthrough these loops made suspension of the vessel easy, or when thelatter was used simply as a receptacle, the pair of loops served as ahandle. Sometimes these basket-bottles were strengthened at the bottomwith rawhide or buckskin, stuck on with gum. When, in the evolution ofthe pitcher, this type of basket was reproduced in clay, not only wasthe general form preserved, but also the details above described. Thatis, without reference to usefulness--in fact at no small expense oftrouble--the handles were almost always made double (see Fig. 521);indeed, often braided, although of clay. Frequently, especially astime went on, the bottoms were left plain, as if to simulate thesmooth skin-bottoming of the basket-bottles. (See Fig. 522. ) At firstit seems odd that with all these points of similarity the two kinds ofwater-vessel should have totally dissimilar names; the basket-bottlebeing known as the _k‘iá pu k‘ia tom me_, from _k‘iá pu kĭa_, "forcarrying or placing water in, " and _tóm me_; the handled earthenreceptacle, as the _í mush ton ne_. Yet when we consider that thelatter was designed not for transporting water, for which it was lesssuited than the former, but for holding it, for which it was evenpreferable, the discrepancy is explained, since the name _í mush tonne_ is from _i´ mu_, to sit, and _tóm me_, a tube. This indicates, too, why the basket-bottle was not displaced by the earthen bottle. While the former continued in use for bringing water from a distance, the latter was employed for storing it. As the fragile earthen vesselswere much more readily made and less liable to become tainted, theywere exclusively used as receptacles, removing the necessity of thetedious manufacture of a large number of the basket-bottles. Again, asthe pitcher was thus used exclusively as a receptacle, to be set asidein household or camp, the name _í´ mush ton ne_ sufficed without theinterpolation _te_--"earthenware"--to distinguish it as of _terracotta_, instead of osiery. 

[Illustration: FIG. 521. --Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing double handle. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 522. --Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing plain bottom. ]

POTTERY INFLUENCED BY LOCAL MINERALS. 

Before discussing the origin of other forms, it may be well toconsider briefly some influences, more or less local, which, inaddition to the general effect of gourd-forms in suggestingbasket-types and of the latter in shaping earthenware, hadconsiderable bearing on the development of ceramic art in theSouthwest, pushing it to higher degrees of perfection and diversity insome parts than in others. 

Perhaps first in importance among these influences was the mineralcharacter of a locality. Where clay occurred of a fine tough texture, easily mined and manipulated, the work in _terra cotta_ becameproportionately more elaborate in variety and finer in quality. Thereare to be found about the sites of some ancient pueblos, potsherdsincredibly abundant and indicating great advancement in decorativeart, while near others, architecturally similar, even where evidenceof ethnic connection is not wanting, only coarse, crudely-molded, andpainted fragments are discoverable, and these in limited quantity. 

An example in point is the ruined pueblo of _A´ wat u i_ or_Aguatóbi_, as it was known to the Spaniards at the time of theconquest, when it was the leading "city of the Province of Tusayan, "now Moki. Over the entire extent of this ruin, and to a considerabledistance around it, fragments of the greatest variety in color, shape, size, and finish of ware occur in abundance. In the immediateneighborhood, however, are extensive, readily accessible formationsproducing several kinds of clay and nearly all the color mineralsused in the Pueblo potter's art. Yet at the greatest ruin on the upperColorado Chiquito (in an arm of the valley of which river _A´ wat ú i_itself occurs), where the fallen walls betoken equal advancement inthe status of the ancient builders and indicate by their vast extentmany times the population of _A´ wat u i_, the potsherds are coarse, irregular in curvature, badly decayed, and exceptionally scarce. Inthe immediate neighborhood of this ruin, I need not add, clay is ofrare occurrence and poor in quality. 

A more reliable example is furnished by the farming pueblos of Zuñi. At _Hé sho ta tsí nan_ or Ojo del Pescado, fifteen miles east of Zuñi, clays of several varieties and color minerals are abundant. The finestpottery of the tribe is made there in great quantity, while, notwithstanding the facilities for transportation which the Zuñis nowpossess, at the opposite farming town of _K‘iáp kwai na kwin_, or LosOjos Calientes, where clay is scarce and of poor texture, the pottery, although somewhat abundant, is of miserable quality and of bad shape. 

In quality of art quite as much as in that of material this localinfluence was great. In the neighborhood of ruined pueblos which occurnear mineral deposits furnishing a great variety of pigment-material, the decoration of the ceramic remains is so surprisingly anduniversally elaborate, beautiful, and varied as to lead the observerto regard the people who dwelt there as different from the people whohad inhabited towns about the sites of which the sherds show not onlymeager skill and less profuse decorative variety, but almost typicaldissimilarity. Yet tradition and analogy, even history in rareinstances, may declare that the inhabitants of both sections were ofcommon derivation, if not closely related and contemporaneous. Probably, at no one point in the Southwest was ceramic decorationcarried to a higher degree of development than at _A´ wat u i_, yetthe Oraibes, by descent the modern representatives of the _A´ wat u ians_ are the poorest potters and painters among the Mokis. Near theirpueblo the clay and other mineral deposits mentioned as abundant at_A´ wat u i_ are meager and inaccessible. Still, it may be urged thattime may have introduced other than natural causes for change; thiscould not be said of another example pertaining to one period and asingle tribe. I refer again to the Zuñis. The manufactures of Pescadoprobably surpass in decorative excellence all other modern Pueblopottery, while both in their lack of variety and in delicacy ofexecution of their painted patterns the fictiles of Ojo Caliente areso inferior and diverse from the other Zuñi work that the futurearchæologist will have need to beware, or (judging alone from theceramic remains which he finds at the two pueblos) he will attributethem at least to distinct periods, perhaps to diverse peoples. 

POTTERY INFLUENCED BY MATERIALS AND METHODS USED IN BURNING. 

Other influences, to a less extent local, had no inconsiderable effecton primitive Pueblo pottery: materials employed and methods resortedto in burning. 

Only one kind of fuel, except for a single class of vessels, is nowused in pottery-firing; namely, dried cakes or slabs of sheep-dung. Anciently, several varieties, such as extremely dry sage-brush orgrease-wood, piñon and other resinous woods, dung of herbivora whenobtainable, charcoal, and also bituminous or cannel-coal wereemployed. The principal agent seems, however, to have been dead-woodor spunk, pulverized and moistened with some adhesive mixture so thatflat cakes could be formed of it. I infer this not alone from Zuñitradition, which is not ample, but from the fact that the sheep-dungnow used is called, in the condition of fuel, _kú ne a_, while itsname in the abstract or as sheep-dung simply is _má he_. Dry-rot woodor spunk is known as _kú me_. In the shape of flat cakes it would betermed _kú mo we_ or _kú me a_, whence I doubt not the modern word _kúne a_ is derived. 

Of methods, four were in vogue. The simplest and worst consisted inburying the vessel to be burned under hot ashes and building a firearound it, or inverting it over a bed of embers and encircling it witha blazing fire of brush-wood, as is still the practice of theMaricopas and other sedentary tribes of the Gila. The most common wasbuilding a little cone or dome of fuel over the articles to be bakedand firing; the most perfect was to dig or construct under ground alittle cist or kiln, line it evenly with fuel, leaving a central spacefor the green ware, and slowly fire the whole mass. 

Irrespective of the kind of fuel used, the baking by ash-burial madethe ware gray, cloudy, or dingy, and not very durable. Pottery burnedwith sage or grease-wood was firm, light gray unless of ocherous clay, less cloudy than if ash-baked, yet mottled. Turf and dung, althougheasily managed, did not thoroughly harden the pottery, but burned itvery evenly; dead wood or spunk-cakes baked as evenly as any of thematerials thus far mentioned, and more thoroughly than the others. Resinous or pitchy woods, while they produced a much higher degree ofheat, could be used only when color was unimportant, as they still areused to some extent in the firing of black-ware or cooking pots. Thelatter, while still hot from a preliminary burning, if coatedexternally with the mucilaginous juice of green cactus, internallywith piñon gum or pitch, and fired a second or even a third time withresinous wood-fuel, are rendered absolutely fire-proof, semi-glazedwith a black gloss inside, and wonderfully durable. Traditionrepresents that by far the most perfect fuel was found to be cannelcoal, and that, where abundant, accessible, and of an extremelybituminous quality, it was much used. The traces of little pit-kilnsfilled with, cinders of mineral coal about many of the ruins in thenorthwestern portion of the Pueblo region, coupled with thesemi-fusion and well-preserved condition of most of the ancient jarsfound associated with them, certainly give support to this tradition. Happily I have additional confirmation. When, two years ago, I wasengaged in making ethnologic collections at Moki for the United StatesNational Museum, some Indians of the _Te wa_ pueblo brought me aquantity of pottery. It had been made with the purpose of deceivingme, in careful imitation of ancient types, and was certainly equal tothe latter in lightness and the condition of the burning. I paid theseenterprising Indians as good a price as they had been accustomed togetting for genuine ancient specimens, but told them that, being aZuñi, I was almost one of themselves, hence they could not deceive me, and asked them how they had so cleverly succeeded in burning the ware. They laughingly replied that they had simply dug some bituminous coal(_u á ko_) and used it in little pits. When I further asked them whythey did not burn their household utensils thus, they said it was toouncertain; representing that the pots did not like to be burned in the_u á ko_, probably because it was so hot, hence they broke morefrequently than if fired in the common way with dried sheep-dung;furthermore the latter was less troublesome, requiring only to be dugfrom the corrals near at hand and dried to make it ready for use. 

This partially explains why the art of water-tight basket-making hashere gradually declined since the Spanish conquest, as the ceramicindustry has increased with the introduction of the sheep, whichfurnishes fuel for the burning, and the horse, before unknown, hasfacilitated transportation, whereby trade for this class of basketrywith the distant nomadic tribes who still make it is rendered easy. Withal, however, the quality of pottery has not improved, but hasdeteriorated; as sheep-dung is but an inferior fuel for firing. 

EVOLUTION OF FORMS. 

[Illustration: FIG. 523. --Food trencher of wicker-work. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 524. --Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls]

Bearing these statements in mind, the discussion of the evolution aswell as of the distribution of form, and later of the evolution ofdecoration, in pottery will become easier. By lingering steps therewas early developed a method of building up vessels by a processdiffering in part from the spiral. As the parching-bowl had beenevolved from the roasting-tray, so, we may infer, the food-bowl wassuggested by the hemispherical food-trencher of wicker-work. (See Fig. 523. ) Yet, curiously enough, the inside of the latter seems not atfirst to have been used in molding the food-bowl, as, it will beremembered, the tray had been in forming the parching-pan. On thecontrary, the clay was coiled around and around the _outside_ of thebottom of an inverted basket bowl (see Fig. 524), instead of beingpressed evenly into it. As with the cooking pot, so with this; as thecoiling progressed it was corrugated, not so much, however fromnecessity, as from habit. In consequence of the difficulty experiencedin removing these bowl-forms from the bottoms of the baskets--whichhad to be done while they were still plastic, to keep them fromcracking--they were made very shallow. Hence the specimens found amongthe older ruins and graves are not only corrugated outside, but arealso very wide in proportion to their height. (See Fig. 525. ) As timewent on it was found that bowls might be made deeper, and yet readilybe taken off from the basket bottoms, if slightly moistened outsideand pressed evenly all around, or, better still, scraped; for, beingplastic, this proceeding caused them to grow thinner, consequentlylarger, thereby to loosen from the basket over which they had beenmolded. As a result of this scraping, however, the corrugated surfacewas destroyed, nor could it easily be restored. Therefore bowls whenmade deep were, as a rule, smooth on the outside as well as on theinterior surface. When by a perfectly natural sequence of events--aswill be shown further on--ornamentation by painting came to be appliedfirst to the plain interiors of the bowls, the smooth outer surfacewas found preferable to the corrugated surface, not only because ittook paint more readily, but also because the bowl, when paintedoutside as well as inside, formed a far handsomer utensil forhousehold use than if simply decorated by the older methods. As aconsequence, we find that, while the larger vessels continued to becorrugated and indented, the smoothed and painted bowl came intogeneral use. Associated later on with this secondary type of bowlsoccurred the larger vessels plain at the bottoms, still corrugated atthe sides. Nor is this surprising, as the bowl, molded on the basketbottom and there smoothed, could be afterward built up by the spiralprocess. When in time the huge hemispherical canteens or watercarriers of earthen-ware replaced the basket bottles, so also thewater jar or _olla_ replaced the handled sitter or pitcher, since itcould be made larger to receive more copious supplies of water thanthe strength of the frail handles on the pitchers would warrant. 

[Illustration: FIG. 525. --Ancient bowl of corrugated ware. ]

The water jar, like the food-bowl, is a conspicuous household article;for which reason the Zuñi woman expends all her ability to render themhandsome. Judging by this, the desire to decorate the water-vesselwith paint, like its constant companion the food-bowl, would earlylead to the attempt to make its surface smooth. This would need to beeffected while the article was still soft; which necessity probablyled to the discovery that ajar of the corrugated or simply coiled typemay be smoothed while still plastic without danger of distortion, nomatter what its size, if supported at the bottom in a basket or othermold so that it may be shifted or turned about without directhandling. (See Fig. 526. )

[Illustration: FIG. 526. --Basket-bowl as base-mold for large vessels. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 527. --Clay nucleus for a vessel. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 528. --Clay nucleus shaped to form the base of a vessel. ]

After this discovery was made, the molding of large vessels was nolonger accomplished by the spiral method exclusively. A lump of clay, hollowed out (see Fig. 527), was shaped how rudely so ever on thebottom of the basket or in the hand (see Fig. 528), then placed insideof a hemispherical basket-bowl and stroked until pressed outward toconform with the shape, and to project a little above the edges of itstemporary mold, whence it was built up spirally (see Fig. 529) untilthe desired form had been attained, after which it was smoothed byscraping (see Fig. 530). 

[Illustration: FIG. 529. --Clay nucleus in base-mold, with beginning of spiral building. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 530. --First form of vessel. ]

The necks and apertures of these earliest forms of the water jar weremade very small in proportion to their other dimensions, presumably onaccount of the necessity of often carrying them full of water oversteep and rough _mesa_ paths, coupled perhaps with the imitation ofother forms. To render them as light as possible they were also madevery thin. One of the consequences of all this was that when largethey could not be stroked inside, as the shoulders or uttermost upperperipheries of the vessel could not be reached with the hand orscraper through the small openings. The effect of the pressure exertedin smoothing them on the outside, therefore, naturally caused theupper parts to sink down, generating the spheroidal shape of the jar. (see Fig. 531), one of the most beautiful types of the olla ever knownto the Pueblos. At Zuñi, wishing to have an ancient jar of this formwhich I had seen, reproduced, I showed a drawing of it to a womanexpert in the manufacture of pottery. Without any instructions from mebeyond a mere statement of my wishes, she proceeded at once tosprinkle the inside of a basket-bowl with sand, managing the clay ina way above described and continuing the vessel-shaping upward byspiral building. She did not at first make the shoulders low orsloping, but rounded or arched them upward and outward (see again Fig. 529). At this I remonstrated, but she gave no heed other than toejaculate "_wá na ni, àná!_" which meant "just wait, will you!" Whenshe had finished the rim, she easily caused the shoulders to sink, simply by stroking them--more where uneven than elsewhere--with a wetscraper of gourd (see Fig. 532, _a_) until she had exactly reproducedthe form of the drawing. She then set the vessel aside _in_ thebasket. Within two days it shrank by drying at the rate of about oneinch in twelve, leaving the basket far too large. (See Fig. 533. ) Itcould hence be removed without the slightest difficulty. 

[Illustration: FIG. 531. --Secondary form, in the mold. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 532. --Scrapers of gourd and earthenware for smoothing pottery. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 533. --Finished form of vessel in mold, showing amount of contraction in drying. ]

The sand had prevented contact with the basket which would have causedthe clay vessel to crack as the latter was very thin. This processexists in full force to-day with the Oraibes in the modeling ofconvex-bottomed vessels, and the Zuñis thus make their large bowls andhuge drum-jars. 

Upon the bottoms of many jars of these forms, I have observed theimpressions of the wicker bowls in which they had been molded--notentirely to be removed, it seems, by the most assiduous smoothingbefore burning; for, however smooth any exceptional specimen mayappear, a squeeze in plaster will still reveal traces of theseimpressions. 

[Illustration: FIG. 534. --Profile of olla, or modern water-jug. ]

A characteristic of these older forms of the water-jar is that theyare invariably flat or round-bottomed, while more recent and allmodern types of the olla (see Fig. 534) are concave or hollowed at thebase (see Fig. 535) to facilitate balancing on the head. Outside ofthis concavity and entirely surrounding it (Fig. 536, _a_) is often tobe observed an indentation (see Fig. 536, _b_) usually slight althoughsometimes pronounced. 

[Illustration: FIG. 535. --Base of olla. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 536. --Section of olla. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 537. --Annular mat of wicker, or "milkmaid's boss. "]

[Illustration: FIG. 538. --Use of annular mat illustrated. ]

This has no use, but there is of course a reason for its occurrencewhich, if investigated, may throw light on the origin of the moderntype of the olla itself. The older or round-bottomed jars werebalanced on the head in carrying, by means of a wicker-work ring, akind of "milk-maid's boss. " (See Fig. 537. ) These annular mats arestill found among the ruins and cave-deposits, and continue in usewith the modern Pueblos for supporting convex-bottom cooking pots onthe floor as well as for facilitating the balancing of largefood-bowls on the head. (See Fig. 538. ) Obviously the latter disheshave never been hollowed as the ollas have been, because, since theywere used as eating-bowls, the food could be removed from a plainbottom more easily than from a convex surface, which would result fromthe hollowing underneath. Supposing that a water-jar chanced to bemodeled in one of the convex-bottom bread-baskets (see Fig. 539), itwould become necessary, on account of the thickness of these wickerbowls, to remove the form from the mold before it dried. By absorptionit would dry so rapidly that it would crack, especially in contractingagainst the convexity in the center of the basket-bottom. (See Fig. 539, _a_. ) In order that this form might be supported in an uprightposition until dry, it would naturally be placed on one of thewicker-rings. Moreover, that the bottom might not sink down or fallout, a wad of some soft substance would be placed within the ring. (See Fig. 540, _a_. ) As a consequence the weight of the plastic vesselwould press the still soft bottom against the central wad, (Fig. 540, _a_) and the wicker ring (Fig. 540, _c_) sufficiently to cause therounding upward of the cavity (Fig. 540, _b_) first made by theconvex-bottom of the basket-mold, as well as form the encirclingindentation (Fig. 540, _c_). Thus by accident, probably, only possiblyby intention, was evolved the most useful and distinctive feature ofthe modern water-jar or olla, the _concave bottom_. This, onceproduced, would be held to be peculiarly convenient, dispensing withthe use of a troublesome auxiliary. Its reproduction would presentgrave difficulties unless the bottom of the first vessel, thicklycoated with sand to prevent cracking, was employed as a mold, insteadof the absorbent convex-centered basket-bowl. 

[Illustration: FIG. 539. --Section of incipient vessel in basket-mold. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 540. --Section of vessel supported for drying. ]

I infer this because, to-day, a Zuñi woman is quite at a loss how tohollow the bottom of a water-jar if she does not possess a form ormold made from the base of some previously broken jar of the sametype. She therefore, carefully preserves these precious bottoms of herbroken ollas, even cementing together fractured ones, when not toobadly shivered, with a mixture of pitch or mineral asphaltum and sand. I have seen as many as a dozen or more of these molds (see Fig. 541)in a single store room. 

[Illustration: FIG. 541. --Base-mold (bottom of water-jar). ]

As the practice of molding all new vessels of this class in thebottoms of older ones was general--I might say invariable--anypeculiarities of form in the originals must have been communicated tothose ensuing; from the latter to others, and so on, though in lessand less degree, to the present time. This theory is but tentative, yet it would also explain, on the score of association, why the Pueblowomen slightly prefer the jars showing the indentation in question tomore regular ones. With the change from elevated cliff or _mesa_habitations to more accessible ones, the Pueblo Indians were enabledto enlarge the apertures of their water-jars, since not only did theconcave bases of the latter make the balancing of them more secure, but the trails over which they had to be carried from watering placeto habitation were less rugged. A natural result of this enlargementof the openings, which admitted access with the scraper to theinterior peripheries of the thin-walled jars, was the rounding upwardof their shoulders, making them taller in proportion to theirdiameters. This modification of form in the water-jar, taken inconnection with the fact that thus changed, it displaced the daily useof the canteen, explains the totally dissimilar names which wereapplied to the two types. The older, or spheroidal olla, was known asthe _k‘iáp ton ne_, from _k‘ia pu_, to place or carry water in, and_tóm me_; while the newer _olla_ is called _k‘iá wih na k‘ia té èle_, from _k‘iá wih na ki‘a na ki‘a_, for bringing of water: _té_, earthen-ware, and _ë´ le_ or _ë´l lai e_, to stand or standing. Thelatter term, _té è le_, is generic, being applied to nearly all _terracotta_ vessels which are taller than they are broad. _Té_, earthenware, is derived from _t’eh´_, the root also of _té ne a_, to resound, to sound hollow; while _é le_, from _ë´l le_ or _ël´ lai ê_, to stand, is obviously applied in significance of comparative height as well asof function. 

Thus I have thrown together a few conjectures and suggestions relativeto the origin of the Southwestern pottery and the evolution of itsprincipal forms. 

EVOLUTION OF DECORATION

I might go on, appealing to language to account for nearly everyvariety of pottery found existing as a _type_ throughout the regionreferred to; but a subject inseparably connected with this, throwinglight on it in many ways, and possessing in itself great interest, claims treatment on the few remaining pages of this essay. I refer tothe evolution and significance or symbolism of Pueblo ceramicdecorations. 

Before proceeding with this, however, I must acknowledge that I am asmuch indebted to the teachings of Mr. E. B. Tylor, in his remarkableworks on Man's Early History and Primitive Culture, to Lubbock, DanielWilson, Evans, and others, for the direction or _impetus_ of theseinquiries, as I am to my own observations and experiments for itsdevelopment. 

The line of gradual development in ceramic decorations, especially ofthe symbolic element, treated as a subject, is wider in itsapplicability to the study of primitive man, because more clearlyillustrative of the growth of culture. I regret, therefore, that itmust here be dealt with only in a most cursory manner. Largecollections for illustration would be essential to a fuller treatment, even were space unlimited. 

[Illustration: FIG. 542. --Example of Pueblo painted ornamentation. ]

Decoratively, Pueblo pottery is characterized by two marked features:angular designs predominate and ornamental effect depends as much onthe open or undecorated space as on the painted lines and areas in thedevices. (See Fig. 542. ) While this is true of recent and modernwares, it is more and more notably the case with other specimens in aratio increasing in proportion to their antiquity. 

[Illustration: FIG. 543. & FIG. 544. --Amazonian basket decorations. ]

We cannot explain these characteristics, and the conventional aspectof the higher and symbolic Pueblo ceramic decorations which grew outof them, in a better way than to suppose them, like the forms of thispottery, to be the survivals of the influence of basketry. (See, forcomparison, Figs. 543, 544. ) I shall be pardoned, therefore, forelaborating suggestions already made in this direction, in theparagraphs which treated of the ornamentation of spiral ware, and ofthe derivation of basket decorations from stitch- and splint-suggestedfigures. All students of early man understand his tendency toreproduce habitual forms in accustomed association. This feeling, exaggerated with savages by a belief in the actual relationship ofresemblance, is shown in the reproduction of the decorations of basketvessels on the clay vessels made from them or in imitation of them. 

In entire conformity with this, the succession in the methods of theornamentation of Pueblo pottery seems to have been first by incisionor indentation; then by relief; afterward by painting in black on anatural or light surface; finally, by painting in color on a white orcolored surface. 

As before suggested, the patterns on the coiled, regularly indentedpottery (which came to be first known to the world as a type, the"corrugated, " through the earlier explorations and reports of Mr. William H. Holmes) were produced simply by emphasized indentation, more rarely by incision, and were almost invariably angular, reproducing exactly the designs on wicker work. Even in comparativelyrecent examples of the corrugated ware this is true; for, onceconnected with a type, a style of decoration, both seem to have beenever after inseparable, with at most but slight modification of thelatter. One of these modifications, in both method and effect, was inthe adoption of the raised or relief style of ornamentation found, with rare exceptions in the Southwest, only on corrugated ware, and onthe class which in modern times has replaced it there, vessels used incookery. Although never universal, this style deserves passingattention as the outgrowth of an effort to attain the effect ofcontrast produced by dyed or painted splints on wicked work before theuse of paint was known in connection with pottery. The same kind ofinvestigation indicates that the Pueblos largely owed their textileindustries and designs, as well as their potter's art, to thenecessity which gave rise to the making of water-tight basketry. Theterms connected with the rudimentary processes of weaving andembroidery, and the principal patterns of both (on, for example, blankets, kirtles, sacred girdles, and women's belts), are mostlysusceptible of interpretation, like the terms in pottery, as having ameaning connected with the processes of basket plaiting and painting. This renders the conventional character of Pueblo textile ornamentseasy of comprehension, as well, as the very early, if not theearliest, origin of loom-weaving among our Indians in the desertregions of America. 

Henceforward, then, we have only to consider decoration by painting. The probability is that this began as soon as the smooth surface inpottery was generally made; evidence of which seemingly exists; aseating bowls are, even to the present day, decorated principally onthe interior; not, as may be supposed, because the exterior is morehidden from view, but because, as we have seen on a former page, bowlswere made plain inside before the corrugated type formed on basketbottoms had been displaced by the smoothed type; and were naturallyfirst decorated there with paint. It must be constantly borne in mindthat a style of decoration once coupled with a kind of ware, or even aportion of a vessel, retained its association permanently. 

It must have been early observed that clay of one kind, applied eventhinly to the exterior of a vessel of another kind, produced, whenburned, a different color. With the discovery that clays of differentkinds burned in a variety of colors, to some extent irrespective ofthe methods and the materials used in firing, there must likewise havebeen hinted, we may safely conclude, the efficacy of clay washes aspaint, and of paint as a decorative agent. 

Among the ceramic remains from the oldest pueblo sites of theSouthwest, pottery occurs, mostly in four varieties: the corrugated orspiral; the plain, yet rough gray; white decorated with geometricfigures in black; and red, either plain or decorated with geometricdevices in black and white. The gray or dingy brown, rough variety, resulted when a corrugated or coiled jar had been simply smoothed withthe fingers and scraper before it was fired. A step in advance, easilyand soon taken, was the additional smoothing of the vessel by slightlywetting and rubbing its outer surface. Even this was productive onlyof a moderately smooth surface, since, as learned by the Indianpotters long before, in their experience with the clay-plasteredparching-tray, it was necessary to mix the clay of vessels with atempering of sand, crushed potsherds, or the like, to prevent it fromcracking while drying; this, of course, no amount of rubbing wouldremove. Hence, by another easy step, clay unmixed with agrit-tempering, made into a thin paste with water, and thickly appliedto the half-dried jar with a dab or brash of soft fiber, gave abeautifully smooth surface, especially if polished afterward byrubbing with water-worn pebbles. The vessel thus prepared, whenburned, assumed invariably a creamy, pure white, red-brown or, othercolor, according to the quality or kind of the clay used in making thepaste with which it had been smoothed or washed. 

Thus was achieved the art of producing at will fictiles of differentcolors, with which simple suggestion painting also became easy. Black, aside from clay paste, was almost the first pigment discovered; quitelikely because the mineral blacks from iron ores, coal, and thevarious rocks used universally among Indians for staining splints, etc. , would be the earliest tried, and then adopted, as they remainedunchanged by firing. Thus it came about, as evidenced by the sequenceof early remains in the Southwest, that the white and black varietiesof pottery were the first made, then the red and black, and later thered with white and black decoration. Take, as an example, the latter. Of course it was a simple mode to employ the red (ocherous) clay forthe wash, the blue clay (which burned white) for the white pigment inmaking lines, and any of the black minerals above mentioned for othermarking. 

In these earliest kinds of painted pottery the angular decorations ofthe corrugated ware or of basketry were repeated, or at the farthestonly elaborated, although on some specimens the suggestions of thecurved ornament already occurred. These resulted, I may not fear toclaim, from carelessness or awkwardness in drawing, for instance, thecorners of acute angles, which, "cutting across-lot" would, it may beseen, produce the wavy or meandering line from the zigzag, theellipsoid from the rectangle, and so on. 

Precisely in accordance with this theory were the studies of mypreceptor, the lamented Prof. Charles Fred. Hartt. In a paper "OnEvolution in Ornament, " published in several periodicals, among themthe Popular Science Monthly of January, 1875, this gifted naturalistillustrated his studies by actual examples found on decorated burialurns from Marajó Island. I must take the liberty of suggesting, however, that upon some antecedent kind of vessel, the eyes of theAmazonian Islanders may have been, to give Professor Hartt's idea, "trained to take physiological and æsthetic delight in regularlyrecurring lines and dots"; not on the pottery itself, as he seemed tothink, for decoration was old in basketry and the textiles whenpottery was first made. 

DECORATIVE SYMBOLISM. 

[Illustration: FIG. 545. --Food-bowl. FIG. 546. --Water-jar. (Showing open or joined space in line near rim. )]

On every class of food- and water-vessels, in collections of bothancient and modern Pueblo pottery (except, it is important to note, onpitchers and some sacred receptacles), it may be observed as asingular, yet almost constant feature, that encircling lines, ofteneven ornamental zones, are left open or not as it were closed at theends. (See Figs. 545, _a_, 546, _a_. ) This is clearly a conventionalquality and seemingly of intentional significance. An explanation mustbe sought in various directions, and once found will be useful inguiding to an understanding of the symbolic element in Pueblo ceramicart. I asked the Indian women, when I saw them making these littlespaces with great care, why they took so much pains to leave themopen. They replied that to close them was _a´k ta ni_, "fearful!"--thatthis little space through the line or zone on a vessel was the "exittrail of life or being", _o´ ne yäthl kwái na_, and this was all. Howit came to be first left open and why regarded as the "exit trail, "they could not tell. If one studies the mythology of this people andtheir ways of thinking, then watches them closely, he will, however, get other clews. When a woman has made a vessel, dried, polished, andpainted it, she will tell you with an air of relief that it is a "MadeBeing. " Her statement is confirmed as a sort of article of faith, whenyou observe that as she places the vessel in the kiln, she also placesin and beside it food. Evidently she vaguely gives something about thevessel a personal existence. The question arises how did these peoplecome to regard food-receptacles or water-receptacles as possessed ofor accompanied by conscious existences. I have found that the Zuñiargues actual and essential relationship from similarity in theappearance, function, or other attributes of even generically diversethings. [2]

 [2] I would refer those, who may wish to find this characteristic more fully set forth, to the introductory pages of my essay on Zuñi Fetiches, published in the second volume of Contributions to North American Ethnology by the Bureau of Ethnology; also to a paper read before the American Academy of Sciences on the Relations to one another of the Zuñi Mythologic and Sociologic Systems, published, I regret to say, without my revision, in the Popular Science Monthly, for July, 1882. 

I here allude to this mental bias because it has both influenced thedecoration of pottery and has been itself influenced by it. In thefirst place, the noise made by a pot when struck or when simmering onthe fire is supposed to be the voice of its associated being. Theclang of a pot when it breaks or suddenly cracks in burning is the cryof this being as it escapes or separates from the vessel. That it hasdeparted is argued from the fact that the vase when cracked orfragmentary never resounds as it did when whole. This vague existencenever cries out violently unprovoked; but it is supposed to acquirethe power of doing so by imitation; hence, no one sings, whistles, ormakes other strange or musical sounds resembling those of earthenwareunder the circumstances above described during the smoothing, polishing, painting, or other processes of finishing. The being thusincited, they think, would surely strive to come out, and would breakthe vessel in so doing. In this we find a partial explanation of thenative belief that a pot is accompanied by a conscious existence. Therest of the solution of this problem in belief is involved in thenative philosophy and worship of water. Water contains the source ofcontinued life. The vessel holds the water; the source of life_accompanies_ the water, hence its dwelling place is in the vesselwith the water. Finally, the vessel is supposed to contain thetreasured source, irrespective of the water--as do wells and springs, or even the places where they have been. If the encircling linesinside of the eating bowl, _outside_ of the water jar, were closed, there would be no exit trail for this invisible source of life or forits influence or breath. Yet, why, it maybe asked, must the source oflife or its influence be provided with a trail by which to pass outfrom the vessel? In reply to this I will submit two considerations. Ithas been stated that on the earliest Southwestern potteries decorationwas effected by incised or raised ornamentation. Any one who has oftenattempted to make vessels according to primitive methods as I have hasfound how difficult it is to smoothly join a line incised around astill soft clay pot, and that this difficulty is even greater when theornamental band is laid on in relief. It would be a natural outgrowthof this predicament to leave the ends unjoined, which indeed thesavage often did. When paint instead of incision or relief came to bethe decorative agent, the lines or bands would be left unjoined inimitation. As those acquainted with Tylor's "Early History" willrealize, and myth of observation like the above would come to beassigned in after ages. This may or may not be true of the case inquestion; for, as before observed, some classes of sacred receptacles, as well as the most ancient painted bowls, are not characterized bythe unjoined lines. Whether true or not, it is an insufficientsolution of the problem. 

[Illustration: FIG. 547. --Conical or flat-bellied canteen. ]

It is natural for the Pueblo to consider water as the prime source oflife, or as accompanied by it, for without the presence of livingwater very few things grow in his desert land. During many a droughtchronicled in his oral annals, plants, animals, and men have died asof a contagious scourge. Naturally, therefore, he has come to regardwater as the milk of adults, to speak of it as such, and as theall-sufficient nourishment which the earth (in his conception of it asthe mother of men) yields. In the times when his was a race of cliffand mesa dwellers, the most common vessel appertaining to his dailylife was the flat-bellied canteen or water-carrier. (See Fig. 547. )This was suspended by a band across the forehead, so as to hangagainst the back, thus leaving the hands as well as the feet free forassistance in climbing. It now survives only for use on long journeysor at camps distant from water. The original suggestion of its formseems to have been that of the human mammary gland, or perhaps itspeculiar form may have suggested a relationship between the two. (Compare Figs. 548, 549. ) At any rate, its name in Zuñi is _me´ he tonne_, while _me´ ha na_ is the name of the human mammary gland. _Me´ heton ne_ is from _me´ ha na_, mamma, _e´ ton nai e_, containing within, and _to´m me_. From _me´ ha na_ comes _wo´ ha na_, hanging or placedagainst anything, obviously because the mammaries hang or are placedagainst the breast; or, possibly, _mé ha na_ may be derived from _wóha na_ by a reversal of reasoning, which view does not affect theargument in question. It is probable that the _me´ he ton_ was atfirst left open at the apex (Fig. 549. _a_) instead of at the top (Fig. 549. _b_); but, being found liable to leak when furnished with theaperture so low, this was closed. A surviving superstition inclines meto this view. When a Zuñi woman has completed the _me´ he ton_ nearlyto the apex, by the coiling-process, and before she has inserted thenozzle (Fig. 549. _b_), she prepares a little wedge of clay, and, asshe closes the apex with it, she turns her eyes away. If you ask herwhy she does this, she will tell you that it is _a´k ta ni_ (fearful)to look at the vessel while closing it at this point; that, if shelook at it during this operation, she will be liable to become barren;or that, if children be born to her, they will die during infancy; orthat she maybe stricken with blindness; or those who drink from thevessel will be afflicted with disease and wasting away! My impressionis that, reasoning from analogy (which with these people means actualrelationship or connection, it will be remembered), the Zuñi womansupposes that by closing the apex of this _artificial_ mamma shecloses the exit-way for the "source of life;" further, that the womanwho closes this exit-way knowingly (in her own sight, that is)voluntarily closes the exit-way for the source of life in her _own_mammæ; further still, that for this reason the privilege of bearinginfants may be taken away from her, or at any rate (experience showingthe fallacy of this philosophy) she deserves the loss of the sense(sight) which enabled her to "_knowingly_" close the exit-way of thesource of life. 

[Illustration: FIG. 548. FIG. 549. Conical canteen compared with human mammary gland. ]

By that tenacity of conservative reasoning which is a marked mentalcharacteristic of the sedentary Pueblo, other types of the canteen, oflater origin, not only retained the name-root of this primeval form, but also its attributed functions. For example, the _me´ wi k‘i likton ne_ (See Fig. 550) is named thus from _me we_, mammaries, _i kílïk toì e´_, joined together by a neck, and _to´m me_. 

Now, when closing the ends (Fig. 550, _c_, _c_) of this curious vesselin molding it, the women are as careful to turn the eyes away as inclosing the apex of the older form. As the resemblance of either ofthe ends of this vessel to the mamma is not striking, they place oneither side of the nozzle a pair of little conical projections, resembling the teats, and so called. (Fig. 550, _b_. ) There are fourof these, instead of, as we might reasonably expect, two. The reasonfor this seems to be that the _me´ wi k’i lik ton ne_ is the canteendesigned for use by the hunter in preference to all other vessels, because it may be easily wrapped in a blanket and tied to the back. Other forms would not do, as the hunter must have the free use notonly of his hands but also of his head, that he may turn quickly thisway or that in looking for or watching game. The proper nourishment ofthe hunter is the game he kills; hence, the source of his life, likethat of the young of this game, is symbolized in the canteen by themammaries, not of human beings, but of game-animals. A feature inthese canteens dependent upon all this brings us nearer to anunderstanding of the question under discussion. When ornamental bandsare painted around either end of the neck of one of them (Fig. 550, _b_), they are interrupted at the little projections (Fig. 550, _b, _). Indeed, I have observed specimens on which these lines, if placedfarther out, were interrupted at the top (Fig. 550, _a a_) oppositethe little projections. So, by analogy, it would seem the Pueblos cameto regard paint, like clay, a barrier to the exit of the source oflife. This idea of the source of life once associated with the canteenwould readily become connected with the water-jar, which, if not theoffspring of the canteen, at least usurped its place in the householdeconomy of these people. From the water-jar it would pass naturally todrinking-vessels and eating-bowls, explaining the absence of theinterrupted lines on the oldest of these and their constant occurrenceon recent and modern examples; for the painted lines being left openat the apexes, or near the projections on the canteens, they shouldalso be unjoined on other vessels with which the same ideas wereassociated. 

[Illustration: FIG. 550. --Double lobed or hunter canteen. ]

So, also, it will be observed that in paintings of animals there isnot only a line drawn from the mouth to the plainly depicted heart, but a little space is left down the center or either side of thisline (see Figs. 551, 552), which is called the _o ne yäthl kwa´ tona_, or the "entrance trail" (of the source or breath of life). 

[Illustration: FIG. 551. --Painting of deer. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 552. --Painting of sea-serpent. ]

By this long and involved examination of _one_ element in thesymbolism of Pueblo ceramic decoration, we gain some idea how manyothers not quite so striking, yet equally curious, grew up; how, also, they might be explained. Their investigation, however, would beattended with such intricate studies, involving so many subjects notat sight related to the one in hand, that I must hasten to present twoother points. 

Much wonder has been expressed that the Pueblos, so advanced inpottery decoration, have not attempted more representations of naturalobjects. There is less ground for this wonder than at first appears. It should be remembered that the original angular models which thePueblo had, out of which to develop his art, bequeathed to him anextremely conventional conception of things. This, added to hispeculiar way of interpreting relationship and personifying phenomenaand even functions, has resulted in making his depictions obscure. Inpoint of fact, in the decoration of certain classes of his pottery hehas attempted the reproduction of almost everything and of everyphenomenon in nature held as sacred or mysterious by him. On certainother classes he has developed, imitatively, many typical decorationswhich now have no special symbolism, but which once had definitesignificance; and, finally, he has sometimes relegated definitemeanings to designs which at first had no significance, except asdecorative agents, after ward using them according to thisinterpretation in his attempts to delineate natural objects, theirphenomena, and functions. I will illustrate by examples, the lastpoint first. 

[Illustration: FIG. 553. --The fret of basket decoration. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 554. --The fret of pottery decoration. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 555. --Scroll as evolved from fret in pottery decoration. ]

Going back to basketry, we find already the fully developed fret. (SeeFig. 553. ) I doubt not that from this was evolved, in accordance withProfessor Hartt's theory, the scroll or volute as it appears later onpottery. (See Figs. 554, 555. ) To both of these designs, andmodifications of them ages later, the Pueblo has attached meanings. Those who have visited the Southwest and ridden over the wide, barrenplains, during late autumn or early spring, have been astonished tofind traced on the sand by no visible agency, perfect concentriccircles and scrolls or volutes yards long and as regular as thoughdrawn by a skilled artist. The circles are made by the wind drivingpartly broken weed-stalks around and around their places ofattachment, until the fibers by which they are anchored sever and thestalks are blown away. The volutes are formed by the stems of red-topgrass and of a round-topped variety of the _chenopodium_, driftedonward by the whirlwind yet around and around their bushy adhesivetops. The Pueblos, observing these marks, especially that they areabundant after a wind storm, have wondered at their similarity to thepainted scrolls on the pottery of their ancestors. Even to-day theybelieve the sand marks to be the tracks of the whirlwind, which is aGod in their mythology of such distinctive personality that thecircling eagle is supposed to be related to him. They have naturally, therefore, explained the analogy above noted by the inference thattheir ancestors, in painting the volute, had intended to symbolize thewhirlwind by representing his tracks. Thenceforward the scroll wasdrawn on certain classes of pottery to represent the whirlwind, modifications of it (for instance, by the color-sign belonging to anyone of the "six regions") to signify other personified winds. So, also, the semicircle is classed as emblematic of the rainbow (_a´ mito lan ne_); the obtuse angle, as of the sky (_a´ po yan ne_); thezigzag line as lightning (_wi´ lo lo an ne_); terraces as the skyhorizons (_a´wi thlui a we_), and modifications of the latter as themythic "ancient sacred place of the spaces" (_Te´ thlä shi na kwïn_), and so on. 

[Illustration: FIG. 556. --Ancient Pueblo "medicine-jar. "]

By combining several of these elementary symbols in a single device, sometimes a mythic idea was beautifully expressed. Take, as anexample, the rain totem adopted by the late Lewis H. Morgan as a titleillumination, from Maj. J. W. Powell, who received it from the Moki. Pueblos of Arizona as a token of his induction into the rain gens ofthat people. (See Fig. 557, _a_. ) An earlier and simpler form of thisoccurs on a very ancient "sacred medicine jar" which I found in theSouthwest. (See Fig. 556. ) By reference to an enlarged drawing of thechief decoration of this jar (see Fig. 557), it may be seen that thesky, _a_, the ancient place of the spaces (region of the sky gods), _b_, the cloud lines, _c_, and the falling rain, _d_, are combined anddepicted to symbolize the storm, which was the objective of theexhortations, rituals, and ceremonials to which the jar was anappurtenance. 

[Illustration: _a. _ Modern Moki rain symbol. _b. _ Enlarged decoration of "medicine-jar. " FIG. 557. --Decoration of ancient medicine-jar compared with rain symbol of modern Moki totem. ]

Thus, upon all sacred vessels, from the drums of the esoteric medicinesocieties of the priesthood and all vases pertaining to them to thekeramic appurtenances of the sacred dance or _Kâ´ kâ_, all decorationswere intentionally emblematic. Of this numerous class of vessels, Iwill choose but one for illustration--the prayer-meal-bowl of the _Kâ´kâ_. In this, both form and ornamentation are significant. (See Fig. 558. ) In explaining how the form of this vessel is held to be symbolicI will quote a passage from the "creation myth" as I rendered it in anarticle on the origin of corn, belonging to a series on "ZuñiBreadstuff, " published this year in the "Millstone" of Indianapolis, Indiana. "Is not the bowl the emblem of the earth, our mother? Forfrom her we draw both food and drink, as a babe draws nourishment fromthe breast of its mother; and round, as is the rim of a bowl, so isthe horizon, terraced with mountains whence rise the clouds. " Thisalludes to a medicine bowl, not to one of the handled kind, but I willapply it as far as it goes to the latter. The two terraces on eitherside of the handle (Fig. 558, _a a_) are in representation of the"ancient sacred place of the spaces, " the handle being the line of thesky, and sometimes painted with the rainbow figure. Now thedecorations are a trifle more complex. We may readily perceive thatthey represent tadpoles (Fig. 558, _b b_), dragonflies (Fig: 558, _cc_), with also the frog or toad (Fig. 558); all this is of easyinterpretation. As the tadpole frequents the pools of spring time hehas been adopted as the symbol of spring rains; the dragon-fly hoversover pools in summer, hence typifies the rains of summer; and thefrog, maturing in them later, symbolizes the rains of the laterseasons; for all these pools are due to rain fall. When, sometimes, the figure of the sacred butterfly (see Fig. 559, _a b_) replaces thatof the dragon-fly, or alternates with it, it symbolizes thebeneficence of summer; since, by a reverse order of reasoning, theZuñis think that the butterflies and migratory birds (see Fig. 560)_bring_ the warm season from the "Land of everlasting summer. "

[Illustration: FIG. 558. --Zuñi prayer-meal-bowl. ]

Upon vessels of special function, like these we have just noticed, peculiar figures may be regarded as emblematic; on other classes, nomatter how evidently conventional and expressive decorations may seem, excepting always, totemic designs, it is wise to use great caution intheir interpretation as intentional and not merely imitative. 

A general examination, even of the most modern of Pueblo pottery, shows us that certain types of decoration have once been confined tocertain types of vessels, all which has its due signification but anexamination of which would properly form the subject of another essay. 

[Illustration: FIG. 559. --Paintings of sacred butterfly. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 560. --Painting of "summer-bird. "]

Happily, a work collateral to the one which I have here merely begun, will, I have reason to hope, be carried to a high degree of perfectionin the forthcoming monographs on the exhaustless ceramic collectionsof the United States National Museum by Mr. William H. Holmes. Thisauthor and artist will approach his task from a standpoint differingfrom mine, reaching thereby, it may be, conclusions at variance withthe foregoing; but by means of his wealth of material and illustrationstudents will have opportunity of passing a judgment upon the meritsof not only his work, but of my own. 

[Illustration: FIG. 561. --Rectangular type of earthen vessel. ]

In conclusion, let me very briefly refer to two distinctive Americantypes of pottery, unconnected with the Southwestern, which, considered in conjunction with those of the latter region, seem tome to indicate that the ceramic art has had independent centers oforigin in America. For the sake of convenience, I may name these typesthe rectangular (see Fig. 561) or Iroquois, and the bisymmetrical orkidney-shaped (see Fig. 562), of Nicaragua. The one is almost constantin the lake regions of the United States, the other equally constantin sections of Central America. In collections gathered from any tribeof our Algonquin or Iroquois Indians, one may observe vessels of thetough birch- or linden-bark, some of which are spherical orhemispherical. To produce this form of utensil from a single piece ofbark, it is necessary to cut pieces out of the margin and fold it. Each fold, when stitched together in the shaping of the vessel, formsa corner at the upper part. (See Fig. 563. ) These corners and theborders which they form are decorated with short lines andcombinations of lines, composed of coarse embroideries with dyedporcupine quills. (See Fig. 564) May not the bark vessel have givenrise to the rectangular type of pottery and its quill ornamentation tothe incised straight-line decorations? (Compare Fig. 561. )

[Illustration: FIG. 562. --Kidney-shaped vessel, Nicaragua. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 563. --Iroquois bark-vessel. ]

So, too, in the unsymmetrical urns of Central and Isthmean America, which are characterized by the location of the aperture at the upperpart of one of the extremities and by streak-like decorations, wehave a decided suggestion of the animal paunch or bladder and of thevisible veins on its surface when distended. 

[Illustration: FIG. 564. --Porcupine quill decoration. ]

If these conjectures be accepted as approximately correct, even intendency, we may hope by a patient study of the ceramic remains of apeople, no matter where situated, to discover what was the type oftheir pre-ceramic vessels, and thereby we might also learn whether, atthe time of the origin of the potter's art or during its development, they had, like the Pueblos, been indigenous to the areas in which theywere found, or whether they had, like some of the Central Americans, (to make a concrete example and judge it by this method) apparentlyimmigrated in part from desert North America, in part from thewilderness of an equatorial region in South America. 

 * * * * *

INDEX

Awatui pottery 493

Basketry anticipated pottery 483-485Basketry cooking utensils 484-486Basketry copied in pottery 449Basketry declined, Manufacture of watertight 496Boiling basket 485Burning influence pottery, Materials and methods used in 495, 496

Cane tubes to carry water 482Cliff-dwellings 478, 479-480Coal used in pottery firing, Mineral 495-496Coiled pottery, how made 500Communal Pueblos 480, 481

Environments affecting habitations 473Environments affecting pottery 482

Flat and terraced roofs 477Form evolved in pottery from basketry 497Fuel used in pottery firing 495

Gourd vessels to carry water 482, 483

Habitations affected by environment 473Hogan, or hut, Navajo 473Houses built near water, Pueblo 477

Lava inclosure earliest form of Navajo hut 475Linguistic indications as to habitations 474Linguistic indications as to primitive water vessels 482

Mindeleff, Victor, on development of rectangular architecture 475Minerals influencing pottery 493Mode of making pottery vessels 499-500Moki pottery 493

Navajo hogan, or hut 473

Ojo Caliente pottery 491Ollas 498, 500Ornament, Ceramic 488Ornamentation of coiled basketry 487

Pescado pottery 494Pottery affected by environment 482Pottery anticipated by basketry 483-485Pottery declined in quality with introduction of domestic animals 496Pottery developed from basketry 485Pueblo primitive habitations 475Pueblos, Communal 480, 481

Rectangular forms developed from circular in architecture 475Roasting tray 484

Stories added in cliff-buildings 479

Tusayan, Province of 493

Water important to Pueblos, Transportation and preservation of 482Wicker cover for gourd vessels 483

Zuñi priests' journey to the Atlantic 483Zuñi skill on water jars 498, 500