132 



BULLETIN" 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



.■c 



ancient Blue River tribes of the shades of the various ores and earths 

 employed for paint, and it appears that there was studied endeavor 

 in many cases to combine colors in decoration 

 to produce an aesthetic effect. These efforts in 

 natural colors were doubtless pleasing to the 

 eye of the Indian, and for the same reason may 

 be approvingly viewed by the artist of to-day. 

 Necessarily the vast majority of the works of 

 the Indian artist illustrating his taste and skill 

 as a designer and decorator have perished, but 

 enough remains to prove his ability in the lines 

 and to show the care with which he had se- 

 lected the greatest range of colors which his 

 environment would furnish. 



'■"■"■ ■ ■ 



Fig. 346. — Genament of 



votive offering from 

 Bear Creek Cave. 



MORTUARY. 



Several burials had been made in Tularosa 

 Cave, but most of these were anciently dis- 

 turbed and only parts of bodies could be found. 

 One burial, in the upper layers near the front 

 of the cave, was removed by John Averitt, a 

 forest ranger, and came into the possession of 

 W. J. Andrus, of Hackensack, New Jersey. 

 On the dried trunk of a body from the cave 

 was a feather jacket tied with hair cord and 

 a loin band consisting of a bundle of cords 

 dyed purple. (See fig. 150.) 

 During the exploration of the cave by the Museum-Gates expedi- 

 tion in 1905, the desiccated body of an infant was found buried deep 

 in the debris near the bottom of the cave. 

 (PI. 27, Cat. No. 923, Gates collection.) The 

 body lay on a rush mat, and over it was laid 

 another rush mat doubled, and the whole 

 burial inclosed in dry grass. A bracelet of 

 olivella shell beads encircled the right wrist. 

 The objects connected with 

 the burial are shown in de- 

 tail on plate 28, figure 1, 



anteloioe skin ; figure 2, double mat ; figure 3, body 



of infant doubled up into a small compass ; figure 



4, woven object whose use is not conjectured; and 



FIG.348.-ORNAMENTOF ^g^^^^ ^, ^ well-madc cradle mat of rush. The 



VOTIVE offering FROM spcclmen figure 4 is of gray hair of dog or 



Bear Creek Cave. mountain goat close woven on yucca cord. It is 



tubular, and a broad loop is woven at one end in which is rove a 



cord of buffalo hair knotted on either side to prevent it slipping 



Fig. 347. — Ornament of 



VOTIVE offering FROM 



' Bear Creek Cave. 



