Copper bells are said to be used in the secret ceremonials of the
modern Tusayan villages, and in certain of the ceremonial foot races
metal bells of great age and antique pattern are sometimes tied about
the waists of the runners. Small copper hawk bells,[93] found in
southern Arizonian ruins, are identical in form and make with those
used by the ancient Nahuatl people. So far as the study of the
antiquities of the ruins of Tusayan immediately about the inhabited
towns has gone, we have no record of the finding of copper bells of
any great age. It was, therefore, with considerable interest that I
exhumed from one of the rooms of the westernmost or oldest section of
Awatobi a clay bell (figure 261) made in exact imitation of one of the
copper bells that have been reported from several southern ruins
(plate CLXXIII, _a_). While it may be said that it would be more
decisive evidence of the prehistoric character of this object if
Awatobi had not been under Spanish influence for over a century,
still, from the position where it was dug up and its resemblance to
metal bells which are undoubtedly prehistoric, there seems to be
little reason to question its age. As with the imitation of marine
shells in clay, it is probable that in this bell we have a facsimile
of a metal bell with which the ancient Tusayan people were undoubtedly
familiar.[94]
[Illustration: FIG. 261--Clay Bell from Awatobi (natural size)]