THE HO PI INDIANS OF ARIZONA. 



741 



and sisters, but she has already trained her back to meet the re- 

 quirements of the low-placed corn mills. From her tenth year to 

 her last it has been estimated that every Hopi woman spends on an 

 average three hours out of every twenty-four on her knees stoop- 

 ing over a metate, or corn-grinder, for corn forms about ninety per 

 cent of the vegetable food of the Hopis. 



In every house you will find, in a corner, a row of two, three, 

 or four square boxlike compartments or bins of thin slabs of sand- 

 stone set on edge. Each bin contains a metate set at an angle with 

 its lower edge slightly below the level of the floor. There is a 

 clear space around each stone to permit of a better disposition of 

 the corn and meal. The texture of the metates is graduated from 

 the first to the last, the final ibt>.-aa^-*«»5«. c«.« 



one being capable of grind- 

 ing the finest meal. Accom- 

 panying the metate is a 

 crushing or grinding stone 

 about a foot in length and 

 from three to four inches 

 wide. Its under surface is 

 flat, while its upper surface 

 is convex to a slight extent, 

 so as to permit of its being 

 grasped firmly by the thumb 

 and fingers of both hands. 

 The corn is ground between 

 these two stones, the upper 

 one being worked up and 

 down the metate by a mo- 

 tion of the operator not un- 

 like that of a woman wash- 

 ing clothes on a washboard. 



Woman of Okaibi AiAKiNci Goileu 1'ottebv. 



The favorite position assumed by the 

 woman while working is to sit on her knees, her toes resting against 

 the wall of the house behind her. Of the many colors of corn used 

 by the Hopis, blue is the most common, and corn of this color is 

 ordinarily employed in the making of bread ; other colors, however, 

 are used for the piki consumed in ceremonial feasts. 



The stone used by the Oraibians for making piki is from a 

 sandstone quarry near Burro Springs. It is about twenty inches 

 long by fourteen broad, and is three inches thick. The upper sur- 

 face is first dressed by means of stone picks, and is polished by a 

 hard rubbing-stone, and then finally treated with pitch and other 

 ingredients until its surface is as smooth as glass. It is mounted 

 on its two long edges by upright slabs, so that it stands about ten 



