In plate CXL, _c_, we have a similar conventional bird symbol where
two birds, instead of one, are represented. In both these instances it
would appear that the diametric band, originally homologous to wings,
had lost its former significance.
It must also be pointed out that there is a close likeness between
some of these so-called conventionalized figures of birds and those of
moths or butterflies. If, for instance, they are compared with the
figures of the six designs of the upper surface of the vase shown in
plate CXXXV, _b_, we note especially this resemblance. While,
therefore, it can hardly be said there is absolute proof that these
highly conventionalized figures always represent birds, we may, I
think, be sure that either the bird or the moth or butterfly is
generally intended.
There are several modifications of these highly conventionalized
figures of birds which may be mentioned, one of the most interesting
of which is figured in plate CXXXIX, _f_. In this representation the
two posterior triangular extensions of the body are modified into
graceful curves, and the tail-feathers are simply parallel lines. The
figure in this instance is little more than a trifid appendage to a
broad band across the inner surface of the food bowl. In addition to
this highly conventionalized bird figure, however, there are two
crosses which represent stars. In this decoration all resemblance to a
bird is lost, and it is only by following the reduction of parts that
one is able to identify this geometric design with the more elaborate
pictures of mythic birds. When questioned in regard to the meaning of
this symbol, the best informed Hopi priests had no suggestion to
offer.
In all the figures of birds thus far considered, the head, with one or
two exceptions, is represented or indicated by symbolic markings. In
that which decorates the vessel shown in plate CXL, _a_, we find a new
modification; the wings, instead of being attenuated into a diametric
line or band, are in this case curved to form a loose spiral. Between
them is the figure of a body and the three tail-feathers, while the
triangular extensions which generally indicate the posterior of the
body are simply two rounded knobs at the point of union of the wings
and tail. There is no indication of a head.
The modifications in the figure of the bird shown in the last
mentioned pictograph, and the highly conventionalized forms which the
wings and other parts assume, give me confidence to venture an
interpretation of a strange figure shown in plate CXLI, _a_. This
picture I regard as a representation of a bird, and I do so for the
following resemblances to figures already studied. The head of the
bird, as has been shown, is often replaced by a terraced rain-cloud
symbol. Such a figure occurs in the pictograph under consideration,
where it occupies the position of the head. On either side of what
might be regarded as a body we find, at the anterior end, two curved
appendages which so closely resemble similarly placed bodies in the
pictograph last discussed that they are regarded as representations of
wings. These extensions at the posterior end of the body are readily
comparable with prolongations in that part on which we have already
commented. The tail, although different from that in figures of birds
thus far discussed, has many points of resemblance to them. The two
circles, one on each side of the bird figure, are important additions
which are treated in following pages.[145]
From the study of the conventionalized forms of birds which I have
outlined above it is possible to venture the suggestion that the
star-shape figure shown in plate CLXVII, _b_, may be referred to the
same group, but in this specimen we appear to have duplication, or a
representation of the bird symbol repeated in both semicircles of the
interior of the bowl. Examining one of these we readily detect the two
tail-feathers in the middle, with the triangular end of the body on
each side. The lateral appendages duplicated on each side correspond
with the band across the middle of the bowl in other specimens, and
represent highly conventionalized wings. The middle of this compound
figure is decorated with a cross, and in each quadrant there is a row
of the same emblems, equidistant from one another.
It would be but a short step from this figure to the ancient sun
symbol with which the eagle and other raptorial birds are intimately
associated. The figure represented in plate CXXXIII, _c_, is a
symbolic bird in which the different parts are directly comparable
with the other bird pictographs already described. One may easily
detect in it the two wings, the semicircular rain-cloud figures, and
the three tail-feathers. As in the picture last considered, we see the
two circles, each with a concentric smaller circle, one on each side
of the mythic bird represented. Similar circular figures are likewise
found in the zone surrounding the centrally placed bird picture.
In the food bowl illustrated in plate CXLI, _b_, we find the two
circles shown, and between them a rectangular pictograph the meaning
of which is not clear. The only suggestion which I have in regard to
the significance of this object is that it is an example of
substitution--the substitution of a prayer offering to the mythic bird
represented in the other bowls for a figure of the bird itself. This
interpretation, however, is highly speculative, and should be accepted
only with limitations. I have sometimes thought that the prayer-stick
or paho may originally have represented a bird, and the use of it is
an instance of the substitution[146] of a symbolic effigy of a bird, a
direct survival of the time when a bird was sacrificed to the deity
addressed.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY