30 



BUKLETIN" 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Sometimes pottery was worked as stone. This piece (fig. 47) is 

 remarkable for the amount of labor which has been expended in drill- 

 ing, grinding, and finishing a fragment of 

 pottery to produce a result requiring some 

 ingenuity to interpret. It is a good example, 

 however, of the working of pottery in the 

 manner of stone, examples of which, usually 

 quite simple, are observed in the spindle 

 whorls, scrapers, and disks found with com- 

 parative frequency in the ruins in the Pueblo region. The carving 

 appears to represent an animal or perhaps two and mny be a puzzle 

 figure. (Cat. No. 231814, U.S.N.M. ; length, 1^ 

 inches ; width, 1 inch ; Spur Ranch, Luna, New 

 Mexico.) 



Fig. 46. — Lava block with 

 scorings from blue. 



CRYSTALS AND BEFLECTOBS. 



Quartz crystals are found among the house 

 plans in every ruin, though the specimens are fig. 47.— carved pottery 

 not plentiful. Occasionally they are found in ornament from spur 



T • 1111 Ranch. 



graves. It is probable that quartz crystals were 



here used as among the Hopi fraternities for reflecting the sun's rays 

 into the charm liquid employed in certain ceremonies. 



An interesting specimen is a piece of trans- 

 lucent milky chalcedony worked into circular 

 shape by pecking and chipping, ground down 

 and polished on one surface which reflects with 

 reasonable accuracy. (Fig. 48.) This was prob- 

 ably not a mirror for personal use, but was no 

 doubt employed in ceremonies for throwing sun- 

 light into the charmed medicine liquid, an office 

 for which the facets of crystals are often found 

 useful. The specimen was found in a large cere- 

 monial chamber. (Cat. No. 231869, U.S.N.M.; diameter, 2^ inches; 

 thickness, IJ inches; Spur Eanch, Luna, New Mexico.) 



Fig. 48. — Chalcedony 

 mirror from Spur 

 Ranch. 



ceremonial mortars and tablets. 



These objects are made from tufa and are oftener round th&n 

 square and necessarily, from the soft character of the material, would 

 be of little use for active work. They are decorated with ceremonial 

 colors on the exterior and are usually found in situations referring 

 them to employment in ceremonies, more likely as receptacles for 

 objects connected with the ritual than as mortars, their shape having 

 given them this designation. 



