FEWKES: A PREHISTORIC STONE MORTAR 



463 



The custom of decorating mortars and paint grinders with 

 animal figures points to Mexican rather than Pueblo customs and 

 kinship. The serpent as an element in sculpture is especially 

 Mexican, although figures of the rattlesnake occur on pipes and 

 stone or shell objects throughout the mound-builders and Pueblo 

 areas; while painting of the same on pottery, and as pictographs 

 ascribed to prehistoric times, are no less frequent. The cult of 

 the Plumed Snake or, as some prefer to call it, the Horned Snake, 

 occurs so constantly in Indian mythology and ritual that this 



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Fig. 3. Egyptian slate palette. Size 3| by 5^ inches. 



being is frequently represented on ceremonial paraphernalia ; but 

 there are, so far as I know, few if any mortars of prehistoric In- 

 dians of North America with sculptured figures that artistically 

 excel the snake mortar above figured. The snake-entwined mor- 

 tar is another evidence that the prehistoric culture of the Gila 

 had a close relationship to that of the aborigines of northern 

 Mexico. 



