Chapter V: Part 5

At the beginning of the burning white smoke is apt to be given off, but too much smoke is regarded as a bad sign, since it signifies that the dung cakes are not sufficiently dried. After fifteen minutes or so, that is when the process is about half finished, the amount of smoke has greatly diminished (pl. 26, a). About this time more kindling is added through openings made by temporarily removing a piece of tin, and new cakes of dung are added where necessary, usually on the top of the oven.

The Indians say that they judge of the condition of the pottery in the oven by its color; the paste and slip must be of just the proper shade before the vessels are

The building of an oven. a. A double layer of bowls is on the grate; the woman is placing a can between a dung-slab and a bowl. b. The wall of dung-cakes completed. c. The oven finished, but the chinks not yet filled.]

a. The oven fired. The chinks between the dung-slabs have been partly closed by smaller pieces of dung. b. A firing completed and a grate prepared for a second firing. Two vessels to be burned are warming on hot dung-slabs; the pots that have just been taken from the fire are cooling in the shadow of the house.]

thoroughly burned; if they are too dark the burning must continue.[49] Some potters seem to pay little or no attention to the color of the vessels in the oven.

When the potter considers that the burning has been completed, the cakes of dung on the top of the oven are lifted off with a pair of pokers, and those in the ring around the grate are tipped outward. Thus the vessels on the grate are exposed, and their removal is begun at once. Some are tipped on shovels or hay forks; pokers are inserted under and into others. They are then deposited upon tins which have been placed on the ground within six or eight feet of the oven, and are left there from ten to twenty minutes to cool. The women often complain about the heat from the oven during the removal of the vessels. As soon as the grate has been cleared, preparations are begun for the next burning (pl. 26, b).

In one instance a potter decided that a certain vessel which had been removed from the grate was not sufficiently burned. Another fire was already in progress, but when the third was built the vessel was replaced on the grate and burned again. When it came out, however, one side was badly overfired.

The time occupied by various burnings is given in the following table. The first four columns represent burnings by Maria Martinez; the last three by Antonita Roybal. The seventh column records the oven in which the partly fired piece was reburned, and in which a cooking vessel was also placed.

TABLE X

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) _Minutes_ Preparation and building of oven begun 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Fire started 25 15 06 12 15 15 09 More kindling and dung added 45 25 25 57 Oven broken up 52 37 36 41 72 40 27 Last bowl removed from grate 58 41 42 47 77 45 30

The time required for burning the different wares varies only slightly. Some potters say that red ware takes less fuel, less heat, and less time than polychrome ware; others place both wares in the same oven. The difference in the time required for these two wares is probably no greater than the chance variations in the length of burning as given in Table X. Cooking vessels need to be fired only from one-half to two-thirds as long as the two wares just mentioned (cf. Table X, column 7). The polished black ware will be considered later.

The changes in color before and after firing, and when hot and cool, are very noticeable in some pigments and slips. The orange-red paint is yellow before firing, firing turns it orange-red, almost the color of burnt sienna; cooling produces no noticeable change in this shade. Burning has only a fugitive effect on the red and dark-red slips. While still hot, upon removal from the oven, these are both a dark chocolate shade. As the vessels cool the different reds gradually reappear, until when cold they are the same color as before firing. In some cases, these pigments seem to be just a shade darker after firing than before. The two kinds of white slip are a dead white when applied; after firing they take on a slight pinkish-brown tinge, more cream than white. Cooling produces no further change.

The most interesting change caused by firing is in the black vegetable pigment (guaco). It has already been pointed out (p. 66), that when this paint is laid on thickly, the line made is a little raised and glossy, like a glaze. This “body” to the paint is probably formed by vegetable matter in suspension in the solution. When the vessels with such decorations are removed from the oven after burning, these lines are seen to be white or grey. The material which formed the body of the pigment has been reduced to white ash, which adheres to the surface, but can be rubbed off with the finger or a cloth, while the black color itself has been burned into the clay. Where a thin layer of the pigment was applied, the line, after burning, is light grey, because the black under the thin coat of ash shows through. In those vessels on which a thick solution of pigment was used, the decorations are dead white, and the surface of the ash is often crackled. The thickness of this ash seems to have some effect upon the manner in which the black pigment is burned into the clay, for in decorations covered with a thick layer of ash, the black is of an irregular color with streaks of grey in it. When the thin pigment is used, the resulting black on the finished vessel is of a uniform shade. The glossiness and raised character of the pigment is of course completely destroyed during burning. Guaco lines do not change in shade while the vessel is cooling.

The color of the paste is little affected by burning. In both the red and the white clays, the change is simply one of tone, that is, the clay is lighter after burning than before. The cooking-vessel clay before burning is greyish yellow, but after it has been removed from the oven it is a rich orange-yellow. These cooking vessels eventually become blackened by use over an open fire.

Vessels destined to be polished black ware are treated in quite a different manner during the firing stage, for they are to be subjected to a smothered fire, which will result in the deposition of carbon, thus turning them from red to black. The oven is built in the same way, but greater care is taken to fill gaps, so that more of the heat may be retained. Enough spaces remain, however, to permit free circulation of air. More kindling is used, for a hotter fire is necessary. When the fire has reached the stage at which other wares are removed, it is smothered with new, pulverized, loose manure. Just before the smothering the vessels have the dark chocolate color typical of the red wares while hot. The potter always attempts to smother the entire oven at once by dumping upon it a whole washtubful of fine loose manure. If there is a wind, flames are apt to break out in one or two places. They are, however, hurriedly extinguished. When the loose manure is added, the arch of the oven is, of course, broken, and both cakes and loose manure come in contact with the vessels. For this reason the potter does not exercise particular care in building the oven to keep the cakes from touching the vessels, as they are to be entirely black in the end and a little premature smoking does no harm. After the manure has been added, the mound is continually prodded with a poker to redistribute the loose manure and make certain that all the pieces are equally covered. An extra supply of loose manure is at hand, and this is added in large and small quantities from time to time, as occasion demands. Two washtubsful are generally used, sometimes three. The mound of manure gives off a dense white smoke after the smothering has begun (pl. 27, a). Great care is taken to prevent flames from appearing, since these would remove the carbon from the vessel.

a. A fire smothered with loose manure to produce polished black ware. b. Wiping vessels that have become cool enough to handle. One woman wipes off the ashes with a dry rag, then passes them to her companion, who goes over them with a slightly greasy cloth.]

Ten or fifteen minutes after the smothering the first piece is dug out of the mound with the poker. It is placed a foot or two from the oven and hastily wiped with a dry cloth to remove all manure. The surface of the vessel is a beautiful shiny black color, which does not change at all on cooling. If black ware paint (see p. 24) has been used, it changes from the greenish-yellow color that it had before burning to a dead matte black which contrasts very effectively with the polished surface of the vessel (see pl. 8, a). At first the vessels come from the smoking mound slowly, and all holes left in the pile by the removal of vessels are carefully filled again, but later they are taken out as quickly as possible, and toward the end no attempt is made to keep the pieces still in the pile thoroughly covered. If, when a vessel is removed, its condition does not quite suit the potter, it is replaced in the smoking manure and completely covered.

Certain polished black vessels are further manipulated in such a way as to produce an irregular red blotch upon them.[50] Specimens destined to receive this red blotch, which is usually placed near the rim, are reburied in the hot manure lying round the edge of the pile with that portion which is to have the blotch left uncovered. Against this exposed portion is placed a smoking fragment of a dung-slab. The action of the heat and air results in the removal of the carbon from the surface, so that that part of the vessel which is not covered with manure and ashes regains its former color, the red of the pigment. Since the pot is pushed about a good deal during this process, the line between the red and the black surface is not always very definite, which improves the appearance. The Indians themselves cannot tell beforehand just what shape the blotch is going to take, and must therefore watch the vessel continually. Sometimes burning shreds of cedar bark are placed against the exposed surface to hasten the process, but actual flames are not necessary in order to obtain the desired result. If the red blotch is too large, part of it is simply recovered with hot manure-ashes, and a few minutes later will again become jet black. So far as looks are concerned the success or failure of this red blotch upon black ware depends largely upon the artistic sense of the potter making it. In one group of thirty-three polished black vessels fired together, sixteen were given a red blotch; eight or ten of these were excellent pieces.

The time consumed in burning polished black ware is shown in Table XI. It should be noted that before the loose manure was added, the vessels were subjected to the fire about the same length of time as those of other wares.

TABLE XI

_Minutes_ Preparation and building of oven begun 00 00 Fire started 16 18 More fuel added 41 39 Oven smothered with loose manure 46 45 First bowl removed 59 59 Last bowl removed 74 99

ACCIDENTS

The accidents which may occur in firing are of two general classes--those which result from faulty treatment during the construction of the vessel itself and those which are due to careless manipulation in burning. The latter are the more frequent.

A vessel may crack or flake badly in the oven; often the entire base breaks off. The fault in this case lies in the original moulding, because small stone fragments or air-bubbles were allowed to remain embedded in the paste. Since the rate of expansion under heat varies for different substances, a great strain develops about such stones or air-bubbles during firing, and the natural result is cracking or flaking of the clay. In some larger vessels the slip flakes away around the shoulder, where the two areas of the surface met when the polishing was done (see p. 64). In the potter’s opinion these flakes, which are exceedingly small, are probably caused by minute air-bubbles that had lodged under the slip while the line about the shoulder was being polished. A third type of accident is merely a blemish; it is due to flies settling on a vessel before burning; the resulting fly-specks are burned into the clay, and the surface of the pot is sprinkled with dots quite as black as guaco decorations.

The most common form of blemish caused by careless manipulation during firing is the “smoke-cloud” or “fire-cloud”, a circular blackened area, the darkest part of which is at the centre. There is no question but that this is caused by contact between the vessel and a dung-cake, and the result is probably due to moisture in the dung which brings about a deposit of carbon on the surface. If, during the burning, a cake of dung falls, it will probably come in contact with the surface of some bowl. If it is removed at once there is little danger of a smoke-cloud, and the potter, when she notices such an accident, immediately tries to secure the fallen cake with two pokers. With much skill she carefully extricates it from within the oven without disturbing the other cakes about the place from which it fell. Fire-clouds may be produced upon the bases of vessels by setting them on hot cakes of dung before firing; or upon damp, or relatively damp, ground immediately after firing. Excessive dampness, such as steam from wet ground under the oven, may in addition to discoloration, produce warping of the vessels. Another sort of blemish is occasionally caused by rust from a tin can resting upon a vessel during firing; such a spot is usually reddish brown in color, and covers a very small area.

If light areas appear on polished black ware, it is safe to assume that they were brought about by lack of proper ventilation within the oven during the preliminary burning, such as would occur if two vessels were so close together as to prohibit the free passage of air. If white slip is touched just before burning, the oil from the fingers is apt to be fired in, thus ruining the uniform appearance of the surface by the potter’s indelible fingerprint. To avoid such an accident, polychrome vessels are usually handled only by the interior of the rim on the day they are burned.

Underfiring and overfiring, with consequent damage to the ware, are usually due to gross carelessness on the part of the potter in the irregular placing of kindling. The wind also has something to do with it. If there is a stiff breeze blowing, the probabilities are that the windward surfaces of vessels within the oven will be underfired, while those in the lee of the vessels will be overfired.

_Courtesy Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._

ZUÑI. PREPARING CLAY

a. Pulverizing dry ingredients on flat stone slab with a _mano_ or hand stone.

b. Wetting, mixing, and kneading clay; water-container in foreground; prepared clay in bowl.]

_Courtesy Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._

ZUÑI. MOULDING

a. Lower part of vessel completed; potter forming roll of clay with which to continue building.

b. Applying roll of clay; left hand guides roll; right hand welds it to side of vessel.]

_Courtesy Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._

ZUÑI. SURFACING

a. Going over outside of vessel with moulding tool to smooth out irregularities.

b. Vessel has been removed from base-mould and covered with white slip from bowl in foreground. Potter now polishing slip with rubbing stone.]

ZUÑI. PAINTING AND FIRING

a. Applying design with yucca-leaf brush. Black pigment in shallow stone mortar, red in small white bowl. b. Building oven of dung cakes--note kindling at feet of figure at right. c. Oven domed over and set afire.

(Photographs from American Museum of Natural History).]

In underfired vessels the color of the pigments is not true, being usually midway between the unfired color and the fired color; as a rule the paste is also dark and friable. Overfiring is more easily detected than underfiring. A slight overfiring may be first noticed in the black guaco paint, which has a tendency to become bluish and light if burned too much. Other bad results follow in quick succession as overfiring is increased: at an early stage the white slip becomes smoky; in severe overfiring it may turn black, as in a smoke-cloud; the paint of the designs is apt to flake off; and finally, in a bad case, the guaco will turn nearly white.

TREATMENT AFTER BURNING

Polished black vessels, when removed from the fire, are set directly upon the ground within a foot or two of the oven. They are at once wiped hastily with a dry cloth to prevent any fragments of the new manure from sticking to the surface. When the vessels are sufficiently cooled they are again wiped with a clean dry cloth and taken into the house for storage. Occasionally the first wiping, while the bowl is still hot, is omitted.

When pieces of polychrome ware or red ware are removed from the oven they are placed on the ground some six or eight feet from the fire, resting on tins in order to prevent possible discoloration from contact with the damp soil, as well as to prevent dust and dirt from sticking to their bases. The vessels are piled on these tins in any manner, often three or four on top of one another. When the pottery first comes from the fire, it is still much too hot to touch, and radiates heat copiously. Ten or fifteen minutes later, when the vessels are cool enough to handle, they are removed from the tins and collected at some convenient place to await wiping.

First the pieces are gone over with a clean dry cloth to take off the guaco ashes and any dust that may remain from the oven (pl. 27, b). Each vessel is then wiped with a slightly greasy cloth, which gives a faint sheen to the surface and removes the blue tinge which is apt to be found in the black guaco-covered areas. Some potters have substituted a chamois skin for this second cloth. It took the two women shown in pl. 27, b, just fifteen minutes to wipe with the two kinds of cloths the twenty-two vessels figured. When the wiping is done, the pottery is carried to the house and stored in one of the rooms. The pieces are placed on the floor, usually with a carpet or rug under them, and covered with a sheet to keep off dust and flies.

The time occupied in each of the individual stages of pottery making has been considered, but the total time, from the beginning of the moulding until the finished vessels are placed in the store room under a sheet, is far in excess of the mere sum of the separate hours and minutes used in each process. Household duties and other tasks are constantly interfering with the work. About nine o’clock on a certain morning one potter began moulding the first of a group of perhaps forty pieces. The scraping was commenced on the morning of the third day, and the polishing on the fourth morning. Nothing was done on the fifth day, but early on the sixth the painting began. A fiesta interrupted the work for two more days, and the burning was done on the morning of the tenth day, although it could have taken place on the seventh. Another potter finished burning several large ollas at noon on the ninth day.

PAINTING OF DESIGNS

By means of the decorations on the vessels the potter expresses her personality. The type of design used by any one potter is very constant, and is distinctly individual. It is a comparatively easy matter, by an inspection of the design alone, to distinguish the vessels made by one potter from those of another.

The designs are planned in several different ways. Maria Martinez sits with the bowl in her hands for a few minutes doing nothing; apparently she is working out in her mind the combination of elements which she will use. Designs so conceived are generally simple. Maximiliana Martinez begins painting almost at once. While she is working ideas occur to her and are incorporated. Occasionally, after the painting has been completed and the vessel set aside, she will pick it up again to add some detail. This method of working is apt to cause somewhat involved figures. Antonita Roybal, in choosing her designs, refers to drawings of her own, or to photographs which have come into her hands, of old San Ildefonso vessels. This potter uses a pencil to outline very sketchily the design upon the vessel, as an aid in obtaining the proper symmetry. The figures obtained in this manner are usually very elaborate.[51]

The first lines drawn in a design are almost without exception the enclosing lines under the rim. These are followed by the enclosing lines near the shoulder (in the case of an olla), or near the bottom of the interior (in the case of a bowl). When the design consists of panels, the vertical division-lines are then added. If there are to be four panels, one division-line is drawn, and then the one on the opposite side of the bowl, dividing the surface into halves. Each of these halves is then bisected. The next step is to double all the vertical division-lines. Occasionally each quadrant is judged by the eye only, and the division lines are drawn in sequence about the vessel. When there are to be either more or less than four panels, they are outlined one after the other. No measuring instrument of any kind is used.

After the skeleton of the design has been completed, the outlines of the figure within each panel are drawn. All the lines are first placed in one panel, then the second panel is finished, and so on, until all have been filled with the outlines. All the areas on the vessel that are to be colored black are then filled, followed by the areas which are to be red. The strokes taken in outlining are not always made in the same order in the various panels. Such variation is entirely natural and should be expected in work done without the use of a visible pattern.

When a design is attached to the lower enclosing line of a panel, it usually consists of a repetition of some small figure of one or two elements. The position of such added figures has absolutely no relation in the mind of the potter to the panel-design.

When a design consists of a repetition of figures not enclosed within panels, the painter always refers, before adding another figure, to the amount of the surface as yet unfilled. The correctness of the painter’s judgment is therefore easily determined by the proportions of the last figure in the design as compared with the remaining figures. As a rule, with the product of the present-day potters of San Ildefonso, it is exceedingly difficult to determine in a finished vessel, which of the figures was the last one drawn.

In designs which consist of a single figure, or of two or more figures, with several complex elements, the development of the design upon the vessel is necessarily at variance with that described above. As a general rule, each element is completed, including the filling of areas, before the next element is outlined. Similarly, each figure is finished before the next is begun.

In considering generally the ornamentation of San Ildefonso vessels, a distinct group-similarity can be observed. The polychrome vessels are painted in black and orange-red upon a white base. The red-ware vessels are decorated only in black. The designs usually consist of several almost identical figures, each composed of a small number of rather simple elements, in which curved lines are common. And yet, in spite of this almost indefinable similarity among the vessels, the differences between the designs made by different potters of the village are clear-cut and distinct.

Maria Martinez specializes in constricted-mouthed and similarly shaped bowls of polychrome ware. Her lines are relatively narrow, and the black of the design is very uniform in color. She uses panelled designs almost exclusively. The elements within the panels are simple, and few in number. Her work is easily recognized because of its simplicity and pleasing composition (see pl. 6). Maximiliana Martinez generally confines herself to red ware in the form of small ollas and small bowls with a slightly constricted lip. Her lines are somewhat wider and more uneven than those of Maria, and the black is of varying shades. As a result of her custom of developing the design as the work progresses, the figures are rather complex and intricate, or, as the Indians themselves say, “mixed up”. The outstanding characteristic of her work is the use of one or more elements entirely detached from the figure proper. Antonita Roybal devotes most of her time to making large ollas of red ware. Her lines are relatively broad, often indeed of double width. Her blacks are also uneven. The designs upon her vessels are usually composed of two or four very large, complex figures, in which spiral curves are conspicuous. Dotting, crosshatching, and filling of many small areas characterize her work. The products of a man painter, Julian Martinez, are easily recognized by the abundant use of very narrow lines. The figures, which are usually composed of many intricate elements, impress one with the amount of detailed and careful work lavished upon them. Julian has obviously been strongly influenced by the technique of modern Hopi potters, such as the famous Nampeo, whose work he of course often sees in the curio-stores and in the State Museum at Santa Fe.

In the following pages typical designs of Maria, Maximiliana, and Antonita are discussed in detail, with the aid of figures upon which the direction and order of the strokes have been indicated. These drawings are given in order to amplify and clarify the general statements made above.

DRAWING NO. 1 (fig. 9); original by Maria Martinez. This design was on a constricted-mouthed polychrome bowl, and consisted of four identical panels, each four and one-half inches long by two and one-half inches wide. The work was divided into four distinct sections, or stages, each of which was completed in all four panels, one after the other, before the next stage was begun.

_First stage_ (fig. 9, a); construction of the framing lines. Lines 1-4 are drawn completely around the bowl; then lines 5-8. The corresponding two pairs of lines are then drawn upon the other half of the bowl, thus dividing the space into four sections.

_Second stage_ (fig. 9, b); placing of the outlines within each panel. The first three lines drawn (9-11) divide the panel into three triangles. Then the details are

outlined in each triangle in turn. When the outlining of one panel has been completed, each of the other panels is treated in turn in the same manner. The work of Maria is noteworthy in that the order and direction of the lines and the filling of spaces is hardly ever changed from one panel to the next.

_Third stage_ (fig. 9, c); filling certain areas with solid black paint. The largest area (I) is always filled first. No order is followed in filling areas II, III, and IV, and in making the dot (V). In one panel, IV is filled before II, in another V precedes the other three. After this the dots (VI) are placed below line 21. In the different panels the number of these dots varies from six to eight. The last area filled in this stage is the triangle VII. When the first panel has been completed the other three are treated in like manner before the fourth stage is begun.

_Fourth stage_ (fig. 9, d); filling of areas with red paint (shown in the reproduction by shading). In some panels area VIII precedes area IX, in others the reverse is the

Design by Maria Martinez]

case. With the completion of this fourth stage in all the panels, the painting of this comparatively simple design is finished. The time consumed was twenty-five minutes.

DRAWING NO. 2 (pl. 32); original by Maria Martinez. This design may be placed upon either a constricted-mouthed bowl or an olla-bowl. It is made up of five identical panels. During the painting the bowl is turned counterclockwise. There are eleven distinct stages.

_First stage_ (pl. 32, a); the enclosing lines of the panels are produced. Each panel is four inches long and one and a half inches wide. The horizontal lines (1-4) are drawn completely around the bowl before the dividing lines (5-8) are drawn.

_Second stage_ (pl. 32, b); lines 9 and 10 are drawn, dividing each of the five panels into a semicircle and two triangles.

_Third stage_ (pl. 32, c); the plumes are outlined in each of the panels by means of lines 11 to 20.

_Fourth stage_ (pl. 32, d); the two triangles (areas I and II) are filled with black pigment. Sometimes area I is filled first, sometimes area II.

_Fifth stage_ (pl. 32, e); when the triangles in all five panels have been filled, the dots are placed in two of the five plumes in each panel (areas III and IV). These dots are sometimes six in number, sometimes seven. They are painted from the base of the plume upwards.

_Sixth stage_ (pl. 32, b); areas V to VII are filled with red pigment, thus completing the panel-design.

_Seventh stage_ (pl. 32, g); now that the design in the panel has been finished, the second half of the figure, that below the bottom enclosing line, is begun. A series of small semicircles (lines numbered 21) are appended to the lowest enclosing line. The position of the semicircles bears no relation whatever to the series of panels. Three and a half to four semicircles fall below each panel or a total of from seventeen to twenty in the entire extent of the design as it encircles the vessel.

_Eighth stage_ (pl. 32. g); by means of lines 22 and 23, a triangle is outlined below each of the semicircles.

_Ninth stage_ (pl. 32, h); a very small semicircle (24) is drawn just below the point of each triangle.

_Tenth stage_ (pl. 32, h); another similar semicircle (line 25) is drawn just below line 24.

_Eleventh stage_ (pl. 32, i); the triangles (areas numbered VIII) are filled with black pigment.

Although this figure is based upon the panel-design, it differs from pure panel-decoration in the use of a series of simple figures appended to the bottom enclosing-line of the panel. The time required to paint this design was thirty-five minutes.

DRAWING NO. 3 (pl. 33); original by Maria Martinez. This design is of an entirely different type, in that there is no use of a panel. It was placed upon a constricted-mouthed bowl.

_First stage_ (pl. 33, a); the enclosing lines (1, 2) are drawn around the rim of the vessel. These are immediately followed by the three lines (3 to 5) which form the outlines of the five spirals composing the design. The proportions of the figures were determined by constantly watching the position of the first spiral as the bowl was turned counterclockwise.

_Second stage_ (pl. 33, b); the outlines of the details (lines 6 to 17) are drawn on each spiral in turn.

_Third stage_ (pl. 33, c); the outlining is completed by adding to each spiral a horizontal triangle at the base of the curve. It is interesting to note that line 18, the first of the group 18 to 21, was the first one drawn, although it was entirely detached at that time from the main figure.

_Fourth stage_ (pl. 33, d); the filling of areas is begun by painting the four small triangles on the upward curve of the spiral (areas I to IV). The order in which they are filled is apt to vary with the different spirals.

_Fifth stage_ (pl. 33, e); the large triangle at the base of the spiral (area V) is filled with black pigment.

_Sixth stage_ (pl. 33, f); the triangle at the bottom (area VI) is filled in each unit.

_Seventh stage_ (pl. 33, g); this consists in placing a series of dots along the median line of the leaf-shaped area in the base of the spiral. In the various spirals these dots vary in number from eight to ten.

_Eighth stage_ (pl. 33, h); the design is completed by filling the red areas (VIII and IX). In the first spiral so treated, area VIII was filled first, but in all the others area IX preceded area VIII.

The base of each spiral is four and one-half inches long. The width of the design is three inches.

DRAWING NO. 4 (pl. 34); original by Maximiliana Martinez. This rosette was placed in the interior bottom of a small constricted-mouthed bowl of red ware. A cloud-design which was painted on the rim of the same bowl is described and illustrated in fig. 6.

_First stage_ (pl. 34, a); the outlines of one set of four leaves are drawn (lines 1-8).

_Second stage_ (pl. 34, b); the areas within these enclosing lines are hatched (areas I-IV). These four areas are filled in clockwise rotation.

_Third stage_ (pl. 34, c); the same areas (numbered V-VIII) are crosshatched, starting at the tip of each area and working towards the centre.

_Fourth stage_ (pl. 34, d); four more leaves are drawn between the four already made. After lines 9 and 10 are drawn, the area between them is filled with black pigment, leaving an oblique white bar, before lines 11 and 12 are placed upon the vessel. Each of the four leaves is entirely completed before the next is begun.

_Fifth stage_ (pl. 34, e); this consists in the placing of four lines (17-20) at the end of each of the four longer leaves. These four groups of lines are drawn upon the design in clockwise rotation.

_Sixth stage_ (pl. 34, f); at this point Maximiliana glanced at the drawing which the writer was making in his notes. By accident the ends of the shorter leaves had there been made more pointed than the actual painting. When she saw this, she pointed the tips of these leaves with black to make them correspond in shape to the writer’s drawing.

Design by Maria Martinez]

Design by Maximiliana Martinez]

This is an excellent example of the type of work done by a painter who develops her pattern while drawing it. The contrast between this and the simple strength of the first three designs (fig. 9 and pls. 32, 33) should be noticed.

DRAWING NO. 5 (fig. 10); original by Maximiliana Martinez. This is a border decoration that was applied to the edge of the constricted-mouthed bowl on which was produced Drawing No. 4.

_First stage_ (fig. 10, a); this is the drawing of the two enclosing lines (1 and 2) about the lip of the bowl. These are followed at once by 3 to 5, which outline three small semicircles. Eight of these triple semicircles complete the circumference of the bowl.

_Second stage_ (fig. 10, b); the three semicircles are filled with dots of pigment, two in each of the upper ones, three in the lower.

_Third stage_ (fig. 10, c); the three small lines are added to the lowest of the three semicircles.

The painting of the rosette (pl. 34) and the eight sets of semicircles took just sixteen minutes.

DRAWING NO. 6 (pl. 35); original by Antonita Roybal. This elaborate decoration was placed upon a large red ware olla. Antonita, it may be noted, specializes

in vessels of this sort, and her designs, while not slavishly repeated, all have a strong family resemblance, due to her bold use of scrolls and step-figures. The small upper drawing illustrates the method by which the design under consideration is applied to the vessel. In the larger one it is projected flat; the centre circle represents the mouth of the olla. The time taken for painting the various parts of the pattern is incorporated in the description; the total time at the end of each stage being given immediately thereafter.

_Framework lines._ The heavy double-width line forming the middle of the central square is drawn first. Then two narrower lines are drawn, one inside and one outside, thus completing the square (sixteen minutes; 00:00-16:00).

The two lines encircling the mouth of the olla are next produced (four minutes; 16:00-20:00).

_Neck-design within the square._ Each of the four corners of the square is ornamented with a small scroll-ended element. Each element is first outlined and then filled with black before the next is begun (twelve and one-half minutes; 20:30-32:00).

Small irregularly placed spots are then dotted into the remaining surface within the square (six minutes; 33:00-39:00).

_The medallions._ Appended to each of the four corners of the original square is a flower-like medallion. The drawing of each is done as follows. The outer line is first traced, then the inner one. Next the inner part is filled with black, except for a narrow band across the middle. To the exterior ring are added the outlines of the nine radiating elements. As a last step these are filled with black. The olla is then turned counterclockwise and the next medallion is begun.

Each medallion is completed more quickly than the last. The time: No. 1, ten minutes (39:00-49:00); No. 2, eight minutes (49:00-57:00); No. 3, seven and one-half minutes (57:00-64:30); No. 4, six and one-half minutes (64:30-71:00).

_The side patterns._ Each of the four sides of the square bears a design composed of two scrolls with a double stepped element and two long appendages between them. Each design is completed before the next is begun. The drawing proceeds as follows:

1. The outlining of the scrolls and the drawing of the crossbar between them.

2. The outlining of the central stepped figures.

3. The filling of the stepped figures with black.

4. The outlining of the two long appendages between the scrolls.

5. The filling of the appendages with black, leaving two narrow crossbars in the ground color.

6. The addition of the two small appendages between the stepped figures.

7. The outlining of a central streak ending in a small circle in each of the scrolls.

8. The filling of the scrolls with black, leaving the central streak and small circle in the ground color.

As in the case of the medallions, each one of the side patterns is completed more quickly than the last. The time: No. 1, twenty-six minutes (71:00-97:00); No. 2, twenty-two and a half minutes (97:00-119:30); No. 3, twenty-one and a half minutes (119:30-141:00); No. 4, fourteen and a half minutes (141:00-155:30). The entire time required for painting the design was thus two hours, thirty-five minutes, and thirty seconds.

Black design on red jar by Antonita Roybal (the small drawing above shows how this design is applied to the olla).]

SYMBOLISM[52]

Symbolism of one kind or another, plays a very important part in the existence of the Pueblo Indian. It is generally agreed that even the minor acts of everyday life have a certain religious symbolic meaning. For example, the gourd spoons, or kajepes, used in moulding pottery, must apparently be consecrated before they may be used. Similarly, a new technique in pottery making must pass through a period of consecration before it becomes completely established. On the other hand, white men often overemphasize the importance of symbolism in studying any civilization whose customs and philosophy differ radically from their own.

In the light of what is known of the mental attitude of the Pueblo Indian, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the designs on their pottery have some symbolical meaning. Whether this symbolism is in any sense religious, or is merely the symbolism of conventionalization of design, is an open question.[53] It is probable that vessels made before the time when pottery became to some extent an article of commerce between the Indian and the tourist, bore designs of symbolical meaning. It may be that the vessels made today for their own use also have such meanings, but there is every reason to believe that much of the ware now turned out by the San Ildefonso potters for sale to tourists bears designs of no special meaning.

It is true that through bitter experience, the Indians have learned to guard carefully their religious and secular philosophy, and it would require many years of study, living with them, to gain an intimate knowledge of their beliefs. If, however, there are definite meanings associated with the designs upon commercial pottery, the inhabitants of San Ildefonso have become past masters of the art of concealment.

An attempt to obtain some idea of the general reason why vessels are decorated and of what was taking place in the mind of the painter while at work, proved wholly fruitless. Inquiries as to the meaning of whole designs, figures, and elements met with three kinds of response. One family, who have enjoyed considerable contact with investigators of Indian customs, were ready and eager with explanations of the meanings of various elements. They could not, however, explain the meaning of the entire design upon any vessel. Other potters met the inquiry with a frank statement of ignorance, such as “I don’t know”, or “Ask the men, the women don’t know”. A third group exhibited great uncertainty. These people would usually translate the questions into Tewa for the benefit of the rest of the Indians present. Then, after much laughter and discussion, the potter would sometimes offer a meaning, at other times say nothing. One old man explained with great gusto that the design which he had just finished upon a small globular olla represented four small clouds sailing across the sky, one behind the other, from west to east. His manner was very similar to that which one of us might adopt in telling an improbable yarn to a particularly guileless listener.

Some potters gave meanings for whole figures. Another potter, however, composed her figures as the work advanced, evidently with no clear idea, when she began it, of the ultimate form of the figures and therefore probably with no idea in regard to their meaning. It has been suggested that minor variation in similar figures on the same vessel have some meaning. The more probable explanation would seem to be that these variations are due to the lack of a visible pattern. At one time a potter was distinctly annoyed because she noticed, after completing a figure, that she had filled the wrong part of a small detail.

It is equally fallacious to lay too great importance upon alternating figures in a panel design. For example, one potter in filling the areas in a four-panel decoration filled the same areas in the first and third panels, and different areas in the second. When she began to fill the areas of the fourth panel in the same way as the first and third, her attention was called to the areas in the second, the order of which she obviously considered a mistake. The result was that the fourth panel was filled as the second had been, thus giving the vessel a panel-design with alternating figures.

The fact that in excavations no two vessels have ever been found with identical designs has been attributed to something in the Indian’s way of thinking. Yet one potter at San Ildefonso placed upon one constricted-mouthed bowl out of a group of vessels a design identical with that on a bowl of the same shape in the previous group made.

Among older pots the “line-break”, a small space left in the horizontal enclosing-line at the lip of the vessel, is a constant element. At San Ildefonso its use has become almost obsolete but one of the informants did employ it. Careful questioning on the subject with another potter as interpreter, brought out the fact that the line-break is called a “door”, through which a spirit may enter or depart. Persistent questioning in regard to the nature of the spirit caused an animated discussion among those present. The potter was clearly puzzled by the questions. Then, after a single sentence by her, the Indians all laughed heartily. Finally, the interpreter stated that the potter had said, in effect, that if the door was going to cause all that trouble she would close it. The matter was finally settled by the interpreter, who pointed out a passage in the advertising pamphlet of a Santa Fe curio-dealer which explained that the line-break was a passage through which the spirits of the dead might pass.

The ready answers given by some potters in response to inquiries as to the meaning of elements of a design, seem to show that the elements are actually conventionalized symbols of definite objects. In one instance the potter, on noticing a dance-costume lying on the bed, pointed out certain parts of it, and then drew the elements representing those parts. Other potters simply deny all knowledge of the meaning of elements. Still others by their hesitancy, seem to grope for a plausible meaning and offer the first which occurs to them. Whether the elements do represent definite objects or not, it nevertheless remains a fact that the meanings given cause apparent contradictions. To elements essentially the same widely different meanings are often given and, conversely, the same idea or object

is often represented by entirely different elements. This is also true of more complex figures.

The elements illustrated in figure 11, give examples of the type of idea or object said to be represented, and incidentally illustrate some of the contradictions spoken of above. Numbers 1 and 6 both refer to hills. On the other hand, No. 7 is a mountain, although it bears little resemblance to the “hills”. It resembles more closely No. 2 which one informant described as a pueblo and another as a kiva. The same regular zigzag appears in No. 12, which represents a tablita, or dance mask, with small feathers tied to the points of the zigzags. No. 17, in which the zigzag also appears, represents kiva-steps. Nos. 11 and 16 represent feathers, and No. 21 is a bunch of feathers on the end of a dance-pole. But No. 22 represents the poles of the kiva-ladder, and No. 3 is rain, which is falling a long way off. No. 10 represents fringed woolen armlets, and yet there is as close a resemblance between Nos. 3 and 10, as there is between Nos. 14 and 19, both of which represent the tassels on a man’s dance-belt. No. 8 is called rain-water, but a single spiral, as in No. 25, is a buffalo horn. The dots of No. 13 represent rain-drops in dust, but in No. 21 the dots are markings on feathers, and in No. 15 they represent a procession of bugs on the rib of a leaf. No. 18 represents water dripping through a hole in the roof and making a small cup-like depression in the floor, represented by a semicircle, or a whole circle with a dot in the centre of it; but No. 23, which is also a triangle, is called a leaf, as is also the case with No. 15. And yet No. 4 is also a leaf, although if placed horizontally it more closely resembles the clouds represented in No. 5. But No. 9 is also a cloud, this time a big black cloud with an open space in it through which a small cloud may be seen. Nos. 20 and 24 represent respectively the sun and a star.

In the light of the small amount of material obtained on the subject of symbolism, all that can be said is that the evidence is purely negative. If the elements do represent definite ideas and objects, which seems to the writer improbable, the meanings are so deeply hidden that only an intensive specialized study will result in an acceptable solution.

MEANING OF ELEMENTS

(M.--Maria. A.--Antonita)

1--“hillside”, M. 2--“pueblo”, M.; “kiva”, A. 3--“rain falling far away”, A. 4--“leaf”, M. 5--“clouds”, M.; A. 6--“hill”, M. 7--“mountain”, M. 8--“rainwater”, A. 9--“black cloud with open space through which one can see a small cloud”, A. 10--“fringed woolen dance armlets”, M. 11--“feather”, M. 12--“tableta (wooden headdress) with feathers on points”, M. 13--“rain-drops on dust”, A. 14--“tassel on man’s dance-belt”, M. 15--“leaf with bugs on it”, M. 16--“feather”, M. 17--“kiva-steps, the two small points fireplaces”, A. 18--“water dripping through holes in roof and making holes in dirt floor”, M. 19--“tassel on man’s dance-belt”, M. 20--“sun”, A. 21--“feathers on dance-pole, spots are markings on feathers”, M. 22--“ladder-poles”, A. 23--“leaf”, M. 24--“star”, A. 25--“buffalo horn”, A.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BINNS, C. F.

1910. The potter’s craft. New York, 1910.

HARRINGTON, J. P.

1916. The ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians. _Twenty-ninth Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology._ Washington, 1916.

1916, a. Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians (In collaboration with W.
W. Robbins and B. Friere-Marreco). _Bulletin 55, Bureau of American
Ethnology._ Washington, 1916.

HOLMES, W. H.

1886. Pottery of the ancient Pueblos. _Fourth Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology_, pp. 257-360. Washington, 1886.

KIDDER, A. V.

1924. An introduction to the study of Southwestern archaeology,
with a preliminary account of the excavations at Pecos. _Papers of
the Phillips Academy Southwestern Expedition_, no. 1. New Haven,
1924.

KIDDER, M. A. and A. V.

1917. Notes on the pottery of Pecos. _American Anthropologist_,
n.s., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 325-360. Lancaster, 1917.

STEVENSON, J.

1883. Illustrated catalogue of the collections obtained from the
Indians of New Mexico and Arizona in 1879. _Second Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 307-465. Washington, 1883.

1884. Illustrated catalogue of the collections obtained from the
pueblos of Zuñi, New Mexico, and Wolpi, Arizona, in 1881. _Third
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 511-594. Washington, 1884.

STEVENSON, M. C.

1904. The Zuñi Indians, their mythology, esoteric fraternities, and
ceremonies. _Twenty-third Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology._ Washington, 1904.

1915. Ethnobotany of the Zuñi Indians. _Thirtieth Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, pp. 31-102. Washington, 1915.

WOOTON, E. O. AND STANDLEY, PAUL C.

1915. Flora of New Mexico. _Contributions from the United States
National Herbarium_, Vol. 19. Washington 1915.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A brief history of Pecos, and a description of the work so far done at the site, are contained in “An Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology, with a Preliminary Account of the Excavations at Pecos”, by A. V. Kidder; No. 1 of the present series.

[2] Kidder, 1924.

[3] Kidder, M. A. and A. V., 1917, p. 330.

[4] A searching study of San Ildefonso decoration has been made by K. M. Chapman of Santa Fe. When this is published it will throw much light on the morphology of Pueblo design, and upon the relation of San Ildefonso symbolism to that of other Rio Grande pueblos.

[5] A vocabulary of the Tewa terms for clays, paints, and other ingredients; articles of paraphernalia; types of pottery; processes of pottery making, etc., was recorded by Dr. Guthe, and is available at Andover for consultation.

[6] See Harrington, 1916, Map 19, point 63. Under the nearby point (60; p. 314) he says: “Clay ... is obtained at this place; just where could not be learned.”

[7] Stevenson, to whom with Mrs. Stevenson we are indebted for practically our only comparative material, wrote in 1879 of Zuñi: “The clay mostly used by the Zuñians in the manufacture of pottery is a dark, bluish, carbonaceous clayey shale found in layers usually near the tops of the mesas” (1883, p. 329). Later, Mrs. Stevenson described at some length the ceremony of securing pottery clay (1904, p. 374). Among the San Ildefonso Indians of today there is no outward evidence of any such ceremony.

[8] At Zuñi the ingredients are ground and mixed, and the clay is kneaded on a stone slab. (See pl. 28, facing p. 76.)