[Illustration: FIG. 274--Upper surface of vase with bird decoration]
I have not ventured, in the consideration of the manifold pictures of
birds on ancient pottery, to offer an interpretation of their probable
generic identification. There is no doubt, however, that they
represent mythic conceptions, and are emblematic of birds which
figured conspicuously in the ancient Hopi Olympus. The modern legends
of Tusayan are replete with references to such bird-like beings which
play important rôles and which bear evidence of archaic origins. There
is, however, one fragment of a food bowl which is adorned with a
pictograph so realistic and so true to modern legends of a harpy that
I have not hesitated to affix to it the name current in modern Tusayan
folklore. This fragment is shown in figure 275.
[Illustration: FIG. 275--Kwataka eating an animal]
According to modern folklore there once lived in the sky a winged
being called Kwataka, or Man-eagle, who sorely troubled the ancients.
He was ultimately slain by their War god, the legends of which have
elsewhere been published. There is a pictograph of this monster near
Walpi,[148] and pictures of him, as he exists in modern conceptions,
have been drawn for me by the priests. These agree so closely with the
pictograph and with the representation on the potsherd from Sikyatki,
that I regard it well-nigh proven that they represent the same
personage. The head is round and bears two feathers, while the star
emblem appears in the eye. The wing and the stump of a tail are well
represented, while the leg has three talons, which can only be those
of this monster. He holds in his grasp some animal form which he is
represented as eating. Across the body is a kilt, or ancient blanket,
with four diagonal figures which are said to represent flint
arrowheads. It is a remarkable fact that these latter symbols are
practically the same as those used by Nahuatl people for obsidian
arrow- or spearpoints. In Hopi lore Kwataka wore a garment of
arrowpoints, or, according to some legends, a flint garment, and his
wings are said to have been composed of feathers of the same
material.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY