ANCIENT PUEBLOS OF UPPER GILA REGION. 115 



much worn and were probably cast away by the worshipers. The 

 textiles of which only fragments remained were parts of costume also 

 cast away. J. H. Cosper, who lives near Bear Creek, informs me that 

 about 1904 a school-teacher removed from the cave a cotton towel, as 

 he describes it, Avhich was probably a woman's apron. 



POTTERY FIGURINES. 



There occur in the ruins of the Gila-Salt region and also other 

 ancient Pueblo localities, small, rude, pottery figurines of animals, 

 and these are in sufficient number to give rise to the belief that they 

 are not mere children's toys or crude efforts of the small potter. The 

 difficulty of explaining their intent is much increased by the absence 

 of such objects in graves, shrines, caves (except Tularosa, an in- 

 habited cave), ceremonial rooms, etc., and their prevalence in the 

 filled-in areas around open-air villages. They represent several 

 species of animals, are usually perforated longitudinally, and are gen- 

 erally in a fragmentary condition. None shows traces of pigment, 

 but some of them (fig. 261), are marked with incisions indicating the 

 pelage of the animal. The perforation would indicate that they were 

 strung and were perhaps worn as a fetish. Other suggestions are 

 that they were in part attachments to vessels as handles, a feature 

 somewhat common in the western part of the Pueblo region, or they 

 were designed as offerings for the increase of animals like those used 

 by the Hopi in the Soyaluna ceremony and by the Acoma at the feast 

 of St. Stephen, etc. 



A list of these objects follows : 



Figure 260, Cat. No. 246527. Tularosa Cave, New Mexico. 



Figure 261, Cat. No. 245962. Luna, New Mexico. 



Figure 262, Cat. No. 245966. Luna. 



Figiu^e 263, Cat. No. 245967. Luna. 



Figure 264, Cat. No. 231906. Spur Ranch. 



Figure 265, Cat. No. 231908. Luna. 



Figure 266, Cat. No. 232007. Luna. 



Figure 267, Cat. No. 232006. Cienaga ruin, Spur Ranch, Luna, 

 New Mexico. 



Figure 268, Cat. No. 231907. Spur Ranch. 



Figures 269, 270, Cat. No. 231929 a and 5. Spur Ranch. 



Figure 271, Cat. No. 231820. Spur Ranch. 



Figure 272, Cat. No. 232006. Luna. 



Figure 273, Cat. No. 231929. Spur Ranch. 



Figure 274, Cat. No. 231930. Luna, and 



Figure 275, Cat. No. 245968. Luna. 



