Chapter I: Part 1

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 due chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak, they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and driven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was the influence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt an almost waterless area for their habitat.

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

A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive-shaped or conical structure (see Fig. 490) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stones chinked with mud. Yet its modern Zuñi name is _hám´ pon ne_, from _ha we_, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _pó an ne_, covering, shelter or roof (_po a_ to place over and _ne_ the nominal suffix); which, interpreted, signifies a "brush or leaf shelter." This leads to the inference that the temporary shelter with which the Zuñis were acquainted when they formulated the name here given, presumably in their 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_, a contraction of the now obsolete term, _hé sho ta pon ne_, from _hé sho_, gum, or resin-like; _shó tai e_, leaned or placed together convergingly; and _tá po an ne_, a roof of wood or a roof supported by wood.

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

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 experience among the southwestern ruins entitles his judgment to high consideration. In his opinion the rectangular form of architecture, which succeeds the type under discussion, must have been evolved from the circular form by the bringing together, within a limited area, of many houses. This would result in causing the wall of one circular structure to encroach upon that of another, suggesting the partition instead of the double wall. This partition would naturally be built straight as a twofold measure of economy. Supposing three such houses to be contiguous to a central one, each separated from the latter by a straight wall, it may be seen that (as in the accompanying plan) the three sides of a square are already formed, suggesting the parallelogramic as a convenient style of sequent architecture.

All this, I need scarcely add, agrees not only with my own observations in the field but with the kind of linguistic research above recorded. It would also apparently explain the occurrence of the circular semisubterranean _kí wi tsi we_, or estufas. These being sacred have retained the pristine form long after the adoption of a modified type of structure for ordinary or secular purposes, according to the well known law of survival in ceremonial appurtenances.

In a majority of the lava ruins (for example those occurring near Prescott, Arizona), I have observed that the sloping sides rather than the level tops of _mesa_ headlands have been chosen by the ancients as building-sites. Here, the rude, square type of building prevails, not, however, to the entire exclusion of the circular type, which, is represented by loosely constructed walls, always on the _outskirts_ of the main ruins. The rectangular rooms are, as a rule, built row above row. Some of the houses in the upper rows give evidence of having overlapped 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 brings before us.

(1) It is quite probable that the overlapping resulted from an increase in the numbers of the ancient builders relative to available area, this, as in the first instance, leading to a further massing together of the houses. (2) It suggested the employment of rafters and the formation of the _flat_ roof, as a means of supplying a level entrance way and floor to rooms which, built above and to the rear of a first line of houses, yet extended partially over the latter. (3) This is I think the earliest form of the 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 the Southwest _seems_ to connect these first terraced towns with the later not only terraced but also literally cellular buildings, which must be regarded nevertheless as developed from them. The reason for this will become evident on further examination.

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 evidence that the first properly so called houses known to the Pueblos were solitary and built near springs, pools, streams, or well-places. The universal occurrence of the vestiges of single houses throughout the less forbidding tracts of the Pueblo country (see Figs. 496 and 497) leads to this inference and to the supposition that the necessity for protection being at last overcome, the denizens of the lava-fields, where planting was well-nigh impossible, descended, building wherever conditions favored the horticulture which gradually came to be their chief means of support. As irrigation was not known until long afterwards, arable areas were limited, hence they were compelled to divide into families or small clans, each occupying a single house. The traces of these solitary farm-houses show that they were at first single-storied. The name of an upper room indicates how the idea of the 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 was not until after the building of the first small farm-houses (which gave the name to houses) that the caves or rock-shelters of the cliffs were occupied. If predatory border-tribes, tempted by the food-stores of the horticultural farm-house builders, made incursions on the latter, they would find them, scattered as they were, an easy prey.

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

This condition of things would drive the people to seek security in the neighboring cliffs of fertile canons, where not only might they build their dwelling places in the numerous rock-shelters, but they could also cultivate their crops in comparative safety along the limited tracts which these eyries overlooked. The narrow foothold afforded by many of these elevated cliff-shelves or shelters would force the fugitives to construct house over house; that is, build a second or upper story around the roof of the cavern. What more natural than that this upper room should take a name most descriptive of its situation--as that portion built around the cavern-shelter or _ósh ten_--or that, when the intervention of peace made return to the abandoned farms of the plains or a change of condition possible, the idea of the second story should be carried along and the name first applied to it survive, even to the present day? That the upper story took its name from the rock-shelter may be further illustrated. The word _ósh ten_ comes from _ó sho nan te_, the condition of being dusky, dank, or mildewy; clearly descriptive of a cavern, but not of the most open, best lighted, and driest room in a Pueblo house.

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

COMMUNAL PUEBLOS DEVELOPED FROM CONGREGATION OF CLIFF-HOUSE TRIBES.

We may see, finally, how at last the cañons proved too limited and in other ways undesirable for occupation, the result of which was the confederation of the scattered cliff-dwelling clans, and the construction, first on the overhanging cliff-tops, then on _mesas_, and farther and farther away, of great, many-storied towns, any one of which was named, in consequence of the bringing together in it of many houses and clans, _thlu él lon ne_, from _thlu a_, many springing up, and _él lon a_, that which stands, or those which stand; in other words, "many built standing together." This cannot be regarded as referring to the simple fact that a village is necessarily composed of many houses standing together. The name for any other village than a communal 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 all villages save their own and those of ourselves, which latter they regard 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 as briefest and most convincing in indicating the probable sequence of architectural types in the evolution of the Pueblo; from the brush lodge, of which only the name survives, to the recent and present terraced, many-storied, communal structures, which we may find throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and contiguous parts of the neighboring 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 art was so extensively practiced, or where it reached such a degree of perfection, as within the limits of these ancient Pueblo regions. To this statement not even the prolific valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries form an exception.

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

When we see the reasonable probability that the architecture, the primeval arts and industries, and the culture of the Pueblos are mainly indigenous to the desert and semi-desert regions of North America, we are in the way towards an understanding of the origin and remarkable degree of development in the ceramic art.

In these regions water not only occurs in small quantities, but is obtainable only at points separated by great distances, hence to the Pueblos the first necessity of life is the transportation and preservation of water. The skins and paunches of animals could be used in the effort to meet this want with but small success, as the heat and aridity of the atmosphere would in a short time render water thus kept unfit for use, and the membranes once empty would be liable to destruction by drying. So far as language indicates the character of the earliest water vessels which to any extent met the requirements of the Zuñi ancestry, they were tubes of wood or sections of canes. The latter, in ritualistic recitation, are said to have been the receptacles that the creation-priests filled with the sacred water from the ocean of the cave-wombs of earth, whence men and creatures were born, and the name for one of these cane water vessels is _shó tom me_, from _shó e_, cane or canes, and _tóm me_, a wooden tube. Yet, although in the extreme western borders of the deserts, which were probably the first penetrated by the Pueblos, the cane grows to great size and in abundance along the two rivers of that country, its use, if ever extensive, must have speedily given way to the use of gourds, which grew luxuriantly at these places and were of better shapes 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 exception of the interpolated sound significant of form) from _shó tom me_. The gourd itself is called _mó thlâ â_, "hard fruit." The inference is that when used as a vessel, and called _shoṕĭ tom me_, it must have been named after an older form of vessel, instead of after the plant or fruit which produced it.

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

POTTERY ANTICIPATED BY BASKETRY.

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

It is readily conceivable that water-tight osiery, once known, however difficult of manufacture, would displace the general use of gourd-vessels. While the growth of the gourd was restricted to limited areas, the materials for basketry were everywhere at hand. Not only so, but basket-vessels were far stronger and more durable, hence more readily transported full of water, to any distance. By virtue of their rough surfaces, any leakage in such vessels was instantly stopped by a daubing of pitch or mineral asphaltum, coated externally with sand or coarse clay to harden it and overcome its adhesiveness.

We may conclude, then, that so long as the Pueblo ancestry were semi-nomadic, basketry supplied the place of pottery, as it still does for the less advanced tribes of the Southwest, except in cookery. Possibly for a time basketry of this kind served in place of pottery even for cookery, as with one of the above-mentioned tribes, the _Ha va su paí_ or Coçoninos, of Cataract Cañon, Arizona. These people, until recently, were cut off from the rest of the world by their almost impenetrable cañon, nearly half a mile in depth at the point where they inhabit it. For example, when I visited them in 1881, they still hafted sharpened bits of iron, like celts, in wood. They had not yet forgotten how to boil food in water-tight basketry, by means of hot stones, and continued to roast seeds, crickets, and bits of meat in wicker-trays, coated inside with gritty clay. (See Fig. 501.) The method of preparing and using these roasting-trays has an important bearing on several questions to which reference will be made further on. A round basket-tray, either loosely or closely woven, is evenly coated inside with clay, into which has been kneaded a very large proportion of sand, to prevent contraction and consequent cracking from drying. This lining of clay is pressed, while still soft, into the basket as closely as possible with the hands and then allowed to dry. The tray is thus made ready for use. The seeds or other substances to be parched are placed inside of it, together with a quantity of glowing wood-coals. The operator, quickly squatting, grasps the tray at opposite edges, and, by a rapid spiral motion up and down, succeeds in keeping the coals and seeds constantly shifting places and turning over as they dance after one another around and around the tray, meanwhile blowing or puffing, the embers with every breath to keep them free from ashes and glowing at their hottest.

That this clay lining should grow hard from continual heating, and in some instances separate from its matrix of osiers, is apparent. The clay 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 fit for use in cookery and preferable to any previous makeshift. The modern Zuñi name for a parching-pan, which is a shallow bowl of black-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 _thlá we_; the former etymologically interpreted, although of earthenware, is a hemispherical vessel of the same kind and _material_. All this would 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.)

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

These and especially kindred forms of basket-vessels were often quite elaborately ornamented, either by the insertion at proper points of dyed wrapping-splints, singly, in pairs, or in sets, or by the alternate painting of pairs, sets, or series of stitches. Thus were produced angular devices, like serrated bands, diagonal or zigzag lines, chevrons, even terraces and frets. (See Figs. 507, 508, 509.) There can be no doubt that these styles and ways of decoration were developed, along with the weaving of baskets, simply by elaborating on suggestions of the lines and figures unavoidably produced in wicker-work of any kind when strands of different colors happened to be employed together. Even slight discolorations in occasional splints would result in such suggestions, for the stitches would here show, there disappear. The probability of this view of the accidental origin of basket-ornamentation may be enhanced by a consideration of the etymology of a few Zuñi decorative terms, more of which might be given did space admit. A terraced lozenge (see Figs. 510, 511), instead of being named after the abstract word _a wi thlui ap í pä tchi na_, which signifies a double terrace or two terraces joined together at the 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 (see Figs. 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 or oblique 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, in a bottle-shaped basket as it approaches completion the splints of the tapering 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 as that applied to lines resembling it, instead of a derivative from _ä´s sël lai e_, signifying an oblique or leaning line. Where splints variously arranged, or stitches, have given names to decorations--applied even to painted and embroidered designs--it is not difficult for us to see that these same combinations, at first unintentional, must have suggested the forms to which they gave names as decorations.

_Pueblo coiled pottery developed from basketry._--Seizing the suggestion afforded by the rude tray-molded parching-bowls, particularly after it was discovered that if well burned they resisted the effects of water as well as of heat, the ancient potter would naturally attempt in time to reproduce the boiling-basket in clay. She would find that to accomplish this she could not use as a mold the inside of the boiling-basket, as she had the inside of the tray, because its neck was smaller than its body. Nor could she form the vase by plastering the clay outside of the vessel, not only for the same reason, but also because the clay in drying would contract so much that it would crack or scale off. Naturally, then, she pursued the process she was accustomed to in the manufacture of the basket-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 to form the bottom, then spirally upon itself, now widening the diameter of each coil more and more, then contracting as she progressed upward until the desired height and form were attained. As the clay was adhesive, each coil was attached to the one already formed by pinching or pressing together the connecting edges at short intervals as the winding went on. This produced corrugations or indentations marvelously resembling the stitches of basket-work. Hence accidentally the vessel thus built up appeared so similar to the basket which had served as its model that evidently it did not seem complete until this feature had been heightened by art. At any rate, the majority of specimens belonging to this type of pottery--especially those of the older periods during which it was predominant--are distinguished by an indented or incised decoration exactly reproducing the zigzags, serrations, chevrons, terraces, and other characteristic devices of water-tight basketry. (Compare Figs. 516, 517 with Figs. 507, 508.) Evidently with a like intention two little cone-like projections were attached to the neck near the rim of the vessel (see Fig. 518) which may hence be regarded as survivals of the loops whereby it has been seen the ends of the strap-handle were attached to the boiling-basket. (See again Fig. 503, _a_.) Although varied in later times to form scrolls, rosettes, and other ornate figures (see Fig. 519), they continued ever after quite faithful features of the spiral type of pot, and may even sometimes be seen on the cooking-vessels of modern Zuñi. To add yet another link to this chain of connection between the coiled boiling-basket and the spirally-built cooking-pot, the names of the 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 li a k‘ia te´ ni tu li a ton ne_, the former signifying "coiled cooking-basket," the latter "coiled earthenware cooking-basket."

Other very important types of vessels were made in a similar way. I refer especially to canteens and water-bottles. The water-bottle of wicker differed little from the boiling-basket. It was generally rounder-bodied, longer and narrower necked, and provided at one side near the shoulders or rim with two loops of hair or strong fiber, usually braided. (See Fig. 520.) The ends of the burden-strap passed through these loops made suspension of the vessel easy, or when the latter was used simply as a receptacle, the pair of loops served as a handle. Sometimes these basket-bottles were strengthened at the bottom with rawhide or buckskin, stuck on with gum. When, in the evolution of the pitcher, this type of basket was reproduced in clay, not only was the general form preserved, but also the details above described. That is, without reference to usefulness--in fact at no small expense of trouble--the handles were almost always made double (see Fig. 521); indeed, often braided, although of clay. Frequently, especially as time went on, the bottoms were left plain, as if to simulate the smooth skin-bottoming of the basket-bottles. (See Fig. 522.) At first it seems odd that with all these points of similarity the two kinds of water-vessel should have totally dissimilar names; the basket-bottle being known as the _k‘iá pu k‘ia tom me_, from _k‘iá pu kĭa_, "for carrying or placing water in," and _tóm me_; the handled earthen receptacle, as the _í mush ton ne_. Yet when we consider that the latter was designed not for transporting water, for which it was less suited than the former, but for holding it, for which it was even preferable, the discrepancy is explained, since the name _í mush ton ne_ 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 vessels were much more readily made and less liable to become tainted, they were exclusively used as receptacles, removing the necessity of the tedious manufacture of a large number of the basket-bottles. Again, as the pitcher was thus used exclusively as a receptacle, to be set aside in household or camp, the name _í´ mush ton ne_ sufficed without the interpolation _te_--"earthenware"--to distinguish it as of _terra cotta_, instead of osiery.

POTTERY INFLUENCED BY LOCAL MINERALS.

Before discussing the origin of other forms, it may be well to consider briefly some influences, more or less local, which, in addition to the general effect of gourd-forms in suggesting basket-types and of the latter in shaping earthenware, had considerable bearing on the development of ceramic art in the Southwest, pushing it to higher degrees of perfection and diversity in some parts than in others.

Perhaps first in importance among these influences was the mineral character of a locality. Where clay occurred of a fine tough texture, easily mined and manipulated, the work in _terra cotta_ became proportionately more elaborate in variety and finer in quality. There are to be found about the sites of some ancient pueblos, potsherds incredibly abundant and indicating great advancement in decorative art, while near others, architecturally similar, even where evidence of ethnic connection is not wanting, only coarse, crudely-molded, and painted 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 the conquest, when it was the leading "city of the Province of Tusayan," now Moki. Over the entire extent of this ruin, and to a considerable distance around it, fragments of the greatest variety in color, shape, size, and finish of ware occur in abundance. In the immediate neighborhood, however, are extensive, readily accessible formations producing several kinds of clay and nearly all the color minerals used in the Pueblo potter's art. Yet at the greatest ruin on the upper Colorado Chiquito (in an arm of the valley of which river _A´ wat ú i_ itself occurs), where the fallen walls betoken equal advancement in the status of the ancient builders and indicate by their vast extent many times the population of _A´ wat u i_, the potsherds are coarse, irregular in curvature, badly decayed, and exceptionally scarce. In the immediate neighborhood of this ruin, I need not add, clay is of rare 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 finest pottery of the tribe is made there in great quantity, while, notwithstanding the facilities for transportation which the Zuñis now possess, at the opposite farming town of _K‘iáp kwai na kwin_, or Los Ojos 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 local influence was great. In the neighborhood of ruined pueblos which occur near mineral deposits furnishing a great variety of pigment-material, the decoration of the ceramic remains is so surprisingly and universally elaborate, beautiful, and varied as to lead the observer to regard the people who dwelt there as different from the people who had inhabited towns about the sites of which the sherds show not only meager skill and less profuse decorative variety, but almost typical dissimilarity. Yet tradition and analogy, even history in rare instances, may declare that the inhabitants of both sections were of common derivation, if not closely related and contemporaneous. Probably, at no one point in the Southwest was ceramic decoration carried to a higher degree of development than at _A´ wat u i_, yet the Oraibes, by descent the modern representatives of the _A´ wat u i ans_ are the poorest potters and painters among the Mokis. Near their pueblo the clay and other mineral deposits mentioned as abundant at _A´ wat u i_ are meager and inaccessible. Still, it may be urged that time may have introduced other than natural causes for change; this could not be said of another example pertaining to one period and a single tribe. I refer again to the Zuñis. The manufactures of Pescado probably surpass in decorative excellence all other modern Pueblo pottery, while both in their lack of variety and in delicacy of execution of their painted patterns the fictiles of Ojo Caliente are so inferior and diverse from the other Zuñi work that the future archæologist will have need to beware, or (judging alone from the ceramic remains which he finds at the two pueblos) he will attribute them 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 effect on primitive Pueblo pottery: materials employed and methods resorted to in burning.

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

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

Irrespective of the kind of fuel used, the baking by ash-burial made the ware gray, cloudy, or dingy, and not very durable. Pottery burned with sage or grease-wood was firm, light gray unless of ocherous clay, less cloudy than if ash-baked, yet mottled. Turf and dung, although easily managed, did not thoroughly harden the pottery, but burned it very evenly; dead wood or spunk-cakes baked as evenly as any of the materials thus far mentioned, and more thoroughly than the others. Resinous or pitchy woods, while they produced a much higher degree of heat, could be used only when color was unimportant, as they still are used to some extent in the firing of black-ware or cooking pots. The latter, while still hot from a preliminary burning, if coated externally with the mucilaginous juice of green cactus, internally with piñon gum or pitch, and fired a second or even a third time with resinous wood-fuel, are rendered absolutely fire-proof, semi-glazed with a black gloss inside, and wonderfully durable. Tradition represents that by far the most perfect fuel was found to be cannel coal, and that, where abundant, accessible, and of an extremely bituminous quality, it was much used. The traces of little pit-kilns filled with, cinders of mineral coal about many of the ruins in the northwestern portion of the Pueblo region, coupled with the semi-fusion and well-preserved condition of most of the ancient jars found associated with them, certainly give support to this tradition. Happily I have additional confirmation. When, two years ago, I was engaged in making ethnologic collections at Moki for the United States National Museum, some Indians of the _Te wa_ pueblo brought me a quantity of pottery. It had been made with the purpose of deceiving me, in careful imitation of ancient types, and was certainly equal to the latter in lightness and the condition of the burning. I paid these enterprising Indians as good a price as they had been accustomed to getting for genuine ancient specimens, but told them that, being a Zuñi, 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 why they did not burn their household utensils thus, they said it was too uncertain; representing that the pots did not like to be burned in the _u á ko_, probably because it was so hot, hence they broke more frequently than if fired in the common way with dried sheep-dung; furthermore the latter was less troublesome, requiring only to be dug from the corrals near at hand and dried to make it ready for use.

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

EVOLUTION OF FORMS.

Bearing these statements in mind, the discussion of the evolution as well as of the distribution of form, and later of the evolution of decoration, in pottery will become easier. By lingering steps there was early developed a method of building up vessels by a process differing in part from the spiral. As the parching-bowl had been evolved from the roasting-tray, so, we may infer, the food-bowl was suggested by the hemispherical food-trencher of wicker-work. (See Fig. 523.) Yet, curiously enough, the inside of the latter seems not at first to have been used in molding the food-bowl, as, it will be remembered, the tray had been in forming the parching-pan. On the contrary, the clay was coiled around and around the _outside_ of the bottom of an inverted basket bowl (see Fig. 524), instead of being pressed evenly into it. As with the cooking pot, so with this; as the coiling progressed it was corrugated, not so much, however from necessity, as from habit. In consequence of the difficulty experienced in removing these bowl-forms from the bottoms of the baskets--which had to be done while they were still plastic, to keep them from cracking--they were made very shallow. Hence the specimens found among the older ruins and graves are not only corrugated outside, but are also very wide in proportion to their height. (See Fig. 525.) As time went on it was found that bowls might be made deeper, and yet readily be taken off from the basket bottoms, if slightly moistened outside and pressed evenly all around, or, better still, scraped; for, being plastic, this proceeding caused them to grow thinner, consequently larger, thereby to loosen from the basket over which they had been molded. As a result of this scraping, however, the corrugated surface was destroyed, nor could it easily be restored. Therefore bowls when made deep were, as a rule, smooth on the outside as well as on the interior surface. When by a perfectly natural sequence of events--as will be shown further on--ornamentation by painting came to be applied first to the plain interiors of the bowls, the smooth outer surface was found preferable to the corrugated surface, not only because it took paint more readily, but also because the bowl, when painted outside as well as inside, formed a far handsomer utensil for household use than if simply decorated by the older methods. As a consequence, we find that, while the larger vessels continued to be corrugated and indented, the smoothed and painted bowl came into general use. Associated later on with this secondary type of bowls occurred the larger vessels plain at the bottoms, still corrugated at the sides. Nor is this surprising, as the bowl, molded on the basket bottom and there smoothed, could be afterward built up by the spiral process. When in time the huge hemispherical canteens or water carriers of earthen-ware replaced the basket bottles, so also the water jar or _olla_ replaced the handled sitter or pitcher, since it could be made larger to receive more copious supplies of water than the strength of the frail handles on the pitchers would warrant.

The water jar, like the food-bowl, is a conspicuous household article; for which reason the Zuñi woman expends all her ability to render them handsome. Judging by this, the desire to decorate the water-vessel with paint, like its constant companion the food-bowl, would early lead to the attempt to make its surface smooth. This would need to be effected while the article was still soft; which necessity probably led to the discovery that ajar of the corrugated or simply coiled type may be smoothed while still plastic without danger of distortion, no matter what its size, if supported at the bottom in a basket or other mold so that it may be shifted or turned about without direct handling. (See Fig. 526.)

After this discovery was made, the molding of large vessels was no longer accomplished by the spiral method exclusively. A lump of clay, hollowed out (see Fig. 527), was shaped how rudely so ever on the bottom of the basket or in the hand (see Fig. 528), then placed inside of a hemispherical basket-bowl and stroked until pressed outward to conform with the shape, and to project a little above the edges of its temporary mold, whence it was built up spirally (see Fig. 529) until the desired form had been attained, after which it was smoothed by scraping (see Fig. 530).

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

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

Upon the bottoms of many jars of these forms, I have observed the impressions of the wicker bowls in which they had been molded--not entirely to be removed, it seems, by the most assiduous smoothing before burning; for, however smooth any exceptional specimen may appear, a squeeze in plaster will still reveal traces of these impressions.

A characteristic of these older forms of the water-jar is that they are invariably flat or round-bottomed, while more recent and all modern types of the olla (see Fig. 534) are concave or hollowed at the base (see Fig. 535) to facilitate balancing on the head. Outside of this concavity and entirely surrounding it (Fig. 536, _a_) is often to be observed an indentation (see Fig. 536, _b_) usually slight although sometimes pronounced.

This has no use, but there is of course a reason for its occurrence which, if investigated, may throw light on the origin of the modern type of the olla itself. The older or round-bottomed jars were balanced on the head in carrying, by means of a wicker-work ring, a kind of "milk-maid's boss." (See Fig. 537.) These annular mats are still found among the ruins and cave-deposits, and continue in use with the modern Pueblos for supporting convex-bottom cooking pots on the floor as well as for facilitating the balancing of large food-bowls on the head. (See Fig. 538.) Obviously the latter dishes have never been hollowed as the ollas have been, because, since they were used as eating-bowls, the food could be removed from a plain bottom more easily than from a convex surface, which would result from the hollowing underneath. Supposing that a water-jar chanced to be modeled in one of the convex-bottom bread-baskets (see Fig. 539), it would become necessary, on account of the thickness of these wicker bowls, to remove the form from the mold before it dried. By absorption it would dry so rapidly that it would crack, especially in contracting against the convexity in the center of the basket-bottom. (See Fig. 539, _a_.) In order that this form might be supported in an upright position until dry, it would naturally be placed on one of the wicker-rings. Moreover, that the bottom might not sink down or fall out, a wad of some soft substance would be placed within the ring. (See Fig. 540, _a_.) As a consequence the weight of the plastic vessel would press the still soft bottom against the central wad, (Fig. 540, _a_) and the wicker ring (Fig. 540, _c_) sufficiently to cause the rounding upward of the cavity (Fig. 540, _b_) first made by the convex-bottom of the basket-mold, as well as form the encircling indentation (Fig. 540, _c_). Thus by accident, probably, only possibly by intention, was evolved the most useful and distinctive feature of the modern water-jar or olla, the _concave bottom_. This, once produced, would be held to be peculiarly convenient, dispensing with the use of a troublesome auxiliary. Its reproduction would present grave difficulties unless the bottom of the first vessel, thickly coated with sand to prevent cracking, was employed as a mold, instead of the absorbent convex-centered basket-bowl.

I infer this because, to-day, a Zuñi woman is quite at a loss how to hollow the bottom of a water-jar if she does not possess a form or mold made from the base of some previously broken jar of the same type. She therefore, carefully preserves these precious bottoms of her broken ollas, even cementing together fractured ones, when not too badly 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.