The studies of the conventional bird figures which are developed in
the preceding pages make it possible to interpret one of the two
pictures on the food bowl represented in plate CLII, while the
realistic character of the smaller figure leaves no question that we
can rightly identify this also as a bird. In the larger figure the
wings are of unequal size and are tipped with appendages of a more or
less decorative nature. The posterior part of the body is formed of
two triangular extensions, to which feathers are suspended, and the
tail is composed of three large pointed feathers. The head bears the
terraced rain-cloud designs almost universal in pictographs of birds.
It is hardly necessary for me to indicate the head, body, wings, and
legs of the smaller figure, for they are evidently avian, while the
character of the beak would indicate that a parrot or raptorial genus
was intended. The same beak is found in the decoration of a vase with
a bird design, which will later be considered.
From an examination of the various figures of birds on the Sikyatki
pottery, and an analysis of the appendages to the wings, body, and
legs, it is possible to determine the symbolic markings characteristic
of two different kinds of feathers, the large wing or tail feathers
and the so-called breath or body feathers. There is therefore no
hesitation, when we find an object of pottery ornamented with these
symbols, in interpreting them as feathers. Such a bowl is that shown
in plate CXLI, _c_, in which we find a curved line to which are
appended three breast feathers. This curved band from which they hang
may take the form of a circle with two pendent feathers as in plate
CXLI, _d_.
In the design on the bowl figured in plate CXLI, _e_, tail-feathers
hang from a curved band, at each extremity of which is a square design
in which the cross is represented. It has been suggested that this
represents the feathered rainbow, a peculiar conception of both the
Pueblo and the Navaho Indians. The design appearing on the small food
bowl represented in plate CXLI, _f_, is no doubt connected in some way
with that last mentioned, although the likeness between the appendages
to the ring and feathers is remote. It is one of those
conventionalized pictures, the interpretation of which, with the
scanty data at hand, must be largely theoretical.
Figures of feathers are most important features in the decoration of
ancient Sikyatki pottery, and their many modifications may readily be
seen by an examination of the plates. In modern Tusayan ceremonials
the feather is appended to almost all the different objects used in
worship; it is essential in the structure of the _tiponi_ or badge of
the chief, without which no elaborate ceremony can be performed or
altar erected; it adorns the images on the altars, decorates the heads
of participants, is prescribed for the prayer-sticks, and is always
appended to aspergills, rattles, and whistles.
In the performance of certain ceremonials water from sacred springs is
used, and this water, sometimes brought from great distances, is kept
in small gourd or clay vases, around the necks of which a string with
attached feathers is tied. Such a vase is the so-called _patne_ which
has been described in a memoir on the Snake ceremonies at Walpi.[147]
The artistic tendency of the ancient people of Sikyatki apparently
exhibited itself in painting these feathers on the outside of similar
small vases. Plate CXLII, _a_, shows one of these vessels, decorated
with an elaborate design with four breath-feathers suspended from the
equator. (See also figure 273.) On the vases shown in plate CXLII,
_b_, _c_, are found figures of tail-feathers arranged in two groups on
opposite sides of the rim or orifice. One of these groups has eight,
the other seven, figures of these feathers, and on the two remaining
quadrants are the star emblems so constantly seen in pottery decorated
with bird figures. The upper surface of the vase (figure 274) shows a
similar arrangement, although the feathers here are conventionalized
into triangular dentations, seven on one side and three on the other,
individual dentations alternating with rectangular designs which
suggest rain-clouds. This vase (plate CXLIII, _a_, _b_) is also
striking in having a well-drawn figure of a bird in profile, the head,
wings, tail, and legs suggesting a parrot. The zone of decoration of
this vessel, which surrounds the rows of feathers, is strikingly
complicated, and comprises rain-cloud, feather, and other designs.
[Illustration: FIG. 273--Pendent feather ornaments on a vase.]
In a discussion of the significance of the design on the food bowl
represented in plate CXXXIX, _a_, _b_, I have shown ample reason for
regarding it a figure of a highly conventionalized bird. On the upper
surface of the vase (plate CXLIV, _a_, _b_) are four similar designs,
representing birds of the four cardinal points, one on each quadrant.
The wings are represented by triangular extensions, destitute of
appendages but with a rounded body at their point of juncture with the
trunk. Each bird has four tail-feathers and rain-cloud symbols on the
anterior end of the body. As is the case with the figures on the food
basins, there are crosses representing stars near the extended wings.
A broad band connects all these birds, and terraced rain-cloud
symbols, six in number and arranged in pairs, fill the peripheral
sections between them. This vase, although broken, is one of the most
beautiful and instructive in the rich collection of Sikyatki
ceramics.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY