ABORIGINAL DECORATIVE ART — KREEQER 543 



Elaboration of mythological, religious, and symbolic lore into de- 

 sign pattern is characteristic of the Southwest. Representations are 

 geometrical; motives are usually magical or symbolic. Designs on 

 shields of rawhide, on cloth, woven basketry, and on pottery, are no 

 less common than are images principally in the form of dolls cut 

 from wood. Feather designs are associated with religious practices 

 and are not purely decorative. Paintings in clay and on sand are 

 I'lso associated with ceremonialism. A borrowing from the cere- 

 monial art of the Plains may be seen in a Pueblo painting represent- 

 ing a buflfalo stretched out on a tanned doeskin. (Cat. No. 11317, 

 U.S.N.M.) It was collected by W. F. Arny, governor of New Mexico 

 in 1877. The art pattern is geometrical, being identical with a 

 Comanche painting (Cat. No. 6975, U.S.N.M.) of a buffalo applied 

 in the same geometrical pattern with lozenge-shaped head, diverging 

 horns and a border design of triangles. The painting is in glue 

 applied with a stick which rubs the glue into the skin, and when it 

 hardens brings the design in relief. The painting is really an altar 

 piece representing a prayer for more buffalo. 



Pueblo potter)/. — The repeated invention of pottery making in 

 America is no longer open to question. There are, to be sure, cer- 

 tain universally diffused steps whereby the earthenware vessels are 

 brought to a finished state, similar throughout the entire area of 

 pottery manufacture in aboriginal America. Coiling of clay ribbons 

 instead of gouging out of the solid mass of clay, for instance, is the 

 prevailing method, and has been the prevailing method of pottery 

 production throughout the Americas. For that matter coiling has 

 l)een the prevalent method everywhere among primitive peoples with 

 but few exceptions. 



In the country of the Pueblo Indians, in Arizona and in New Mex- 

 ico, the clay is collected from suitable beds and carried to the village. 

 It is there worked by the potter into a powder, impurities removed 

 and tempering materials such as crushed potsherds or crushed frag- 

 ments of mineralized rock added to the powdered clay. The mass 

 is then thoroughly mixed and pulverized, and water is added. 



The bottom of the vessel is molded on a solid substance used as a 

 foundation. This may be a basket fragment, or a fragment of mod- 

 ern crockery. Next are added to the rim of the base a coil or ribbon 

 of clay, fashioned by rubbing between the open palms of the potter. 

 Successive coils are fitted one above the other and are joined with the 

 aid of wet fingers and improvised tools consisting of curved gourd 

 fragments each cut to suit the particular curve of the walls desired 

 in the vessel to be shaped. The drying process serves also as a test 

 of the quality of the paste, as it will not crack while being dried if 

 tempering is adequate. Next the ves.sel walls are moistened and 

 scraped with bits of sharp stone to remove irregularities, and to 



