Small and large ladles, with long handles, occurred in large numbers
in Sikyatki graves, but there was little variation among them except
in the forms of their handles. Many of these utensils were much worn
by use, especially on the rim opposite the attachment of the handle,
and in some specimens the handle itself had evidently been broken and
the end rounded off by rubbing long before it was placed in the grave.
From the comparatively solid character of the bowls of these dippers
they were rarely fractured, and were commonly found to contain smaller
mortuary objects, such as paint, arrowheads, or polishing stones.
The ladles, unlike most of the cups, are generally decorated on the
interior as well as on the exterior. Their handles vary in size and
shape, are usually hollow, and sometimes are perforated at the end. In
certain specimens the extremity is prolonged into a pointed, recurved
tip, and sometimes is coiled in a spiral. A groove in the upper
surface of one example is an unusual variation, and a right-angle bend
of the tip is a unique feature of another specimen. The Sikyatki
potters, like their modern descendants,[113] sometimes ornamented the
tip of a single handle with the head of an animal and painted the
upper surface of the shaft with alternate parallel bars, zigzags,
terraces, and frets.
Several spoons or scoops of earthenware, which evidently had been used
in much the same way as similar objects in the modern pueblos, were
found. Some of these have the shape of a half gourd--a natural object
which no doubt furnished the pattern. These spoons, as a rule, were
not decorated, but on a single specimen bars and parallel lines may be
detected. In the innovations of modern times pewter spoons serve the
same purpose, and their form is sometimes imitated in earthenware.
More often, in modern and probably also in ancient usage, a roll of
paper-bread or _piki_ served the same purpose, being dipped into the
stew and then eaten with the fingers. Possibly the Sikyatkian drank
from the hollow handle of a gourd ladle, as is frequently done in
Walpi today, but he generally slaked his thirst by means of a clay
substitute.[114]
Several box-like articles of pottery of both cream and red ware were
found in the Sikyatki graves, some of them having handles, others
being without them (plate CXXV). They are ornamented on the exterior
and on the rim, and the handle, when not lacking, is attached to the
longer side of the rectangular vessel. Not a single bowl was found
with a terraced rim, a feature so common in the medicine bowls of
Tusayan at the present time.[115]
In addition to the various forms of pottery which have been mentioned,
there are also pieces made in the form of birds, one of the most
typical of which is figured in plate CXII, _c_. In these objects the
wings are represented by elevations in the form of ridges on the
sides, and the tail and head by prolongations, which unfortunately
were broken off.
Toys or miniature reproductions of all the above-mentioned ceramic
specimens occurred in several graves. These are often very roughly
made, and in some cases contained pigments of different colors. The
finding of a few fragments of clay in the form of animal heads, and
one or two rude images of quadrupeds, would seem to indicate that
sometimes such objects were likewise deposited with the dead. A clay
object resembling the flaring end of a flageolet and ornamented with a
zigzag decoration is unique in the collections from Sikyatki, although
in the western cemetery there was found a fragment of an earthenware
tube, possibly a part of a flute.
In order to show more clearly the association of mortuary objects in
single graves a few examples of the grouping of these deposits will be
given.
In a grave in the western cemetery the following specimens were found:
1, ladle; 2, paint grinder; 3, paint slab; 4, arrowpoints; 5,
fragments of a marine shell (_Pectunculus_); 6, pipe, with fragments
of a second pipe, and 7, red paint (sesquioxide of iron).
In the grave which contained the square medicine bowl shown in plate
CXXVIII, _a_, a ladle containing food was also unearthed.
The bowl decorated with a picture of a girl's head was associated with
fragments of another bowl and four ladles.
Another single grave contained four large and small cooking pots and a
broken metate.
In a grave 8 feet below the surface in the western cemetery we found:
1, decorated food vessel; 2, black shoe-shape cooking pot resting in a
food bowl and containing a small rude ladle; 3, coarse undecorated
basin.
A typical assemblage of mortuary objects comprised: 1, small decorated
bowl containing polishing stones; 2, miniature cooking pot blackened
by soot; 3, two small food bowls.
In modern Hopi burials the food bowls with the food for the dead are
not buried with the deceased, but are placed on the mound of soil and
stones which covers the remains. From the position of the mortuary
pottery as regards the skeletons in the Sikyatki interments, it is
probable that this custom is of modern origin. Whether in former times
food bowls were placed on the burial mounds as well as in the grave I
am not able to say. The number of food bowls in ancient graves exceeds
those placed on modern burials.
The Sikyatki dead were apparently wrapped in coarse fabrics, possibly
matting.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY