Almost every grave at Sikyatki contained stone objects which were
found either in the bowls or in the soil in the immediate neighborhood
of the skeletons. Some of these implements are pecked or chipped,
others are smooth--pebbles apparently chosen for their botryoidal
shape, polished surface, or fancied resemblance to some animal or
other form.
Many of the smooth stones were probably simply polishing stones, used
by the women in rubbing pottery to a gloss before it was fired. Others
were charm stones such as are still employed in making medicine, as
elsewhere described. There were still other stones which, from their
resemblance to animals, may have been personal fetishes. Among the
unusual forms of stones found in this association is a quartz crystal.
As I have shown in describing several ceremonies still observed, a
quartz crystal is used to deflect a ray of sunlight into the medicine
bowl, and is placed in the center of a sand picture of the sun in
certain rites called _Powalawû_; the crystal is also used in divining,
and for other purposes, and is highly prized by modern Tusayan
priests.
A botryoidal fragment of hematite found in a grave reminds me that in
the so-called Antelope rock[154] at Walpi, around which the Snake
dancers biennially carry reptiles in their mouths, there is in one
side a niche in which is placed a much larger mass of that material,
to which prayers are addressed on certain ceremonial occasions, and
upon which sacred meal and prayer emblems are placed.
One or two mortuary bowls contained fragments of stalactites
apparently from the Grand canyon of the Colorado or from some other
locality where water is or has been abundant.
The loose shaly deposit which underlies the Tusayan mesas contains
many cephalopod fossils, a collection of which was made in former
years and deposited in the National Museum. Among these the most
beautiful are small cephalopods called by the Hopi, _koaitcoko_. Among
the many sacred objects in the _tiponi_ baskets of the Lalakonti
society, as described in my account[155] of the unwrapping of that
fetish, there was a specimen of this ammonite; that the shell was
preserved in this sacred bundle is sufficient proof that it is highly
venerated. As a natural object with a definite form it is regarded as
a fetish which is looked upon with reverence by the knowing ones and
pronounced bad by the uninitiated. The occurrence of this fossil in
one of the mortuary bowls is in harmony with the same idea and shows
that it was regarded in a similar light by the ancient occupants of
Sikyatki.
But the resemblance of these and other stones to animal fossils[156]
is not always so remote as in the instances above mentioned. There was
in one grave a single large fetish of a mountain lion, made of
sandstone (plate CLXXII, _b_, _c_), in which legs, ears, tail, and
eyes are represented, and the mouth still retains the red pigment with
which it was colored, although there was no sign of paint on other
parts of the body. This fetish is very similar to the one found at
Awatobi, and is identical in form with those made by the Hopi at the
present time.
It was customary to bury in Sikyatki graves plates or fragments of
selenite or mica, some of which are perforated as if for suspension,
while others are in plain sheets (plate CLXIX, _c_).
Among the stone implements used as mortuary offerings which were found
in the cemeteries, was one made of the same fine lithographic
limestone as the so-called _tcamahia_ (plate CLXXI, _g_) which occur
on the Antelope altar in the Snake ceremonies. The exceptional
character of this fragment is instructive, and its resemblance to the
finely polished stone hoes found in other ruins is very suggestive.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY