46 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS \'0L. 63 



just mentioned.' It may be mentioned that fishes are not represented 

 in the beautiful specimens of pottery from Sikyatki,' possibly for the 

 simple reason that there are no streams containing fish in the neigh- 

 borhood of Hopi ruins. In the Mimbres, however, fish are still found 

 and were no doubt formerly abundant and well known to the pre- 

 historic inhabitants,'' being looked upon by them as water symbols in 

 much the same way as the frog is at present regarded by Zufii and 

 Hopi. 



Another fish figured on a bowl from Oldtown, is unfortunately 

 broken near the tail. The accompanying decoration has apparently 

 another figure behind this fish, btit its complete form is obscured by 

 the perforation made in killing the vessel. 



The most proljlematical of all the life figures on the Mimbres pot- 

 tery is shown in plate 7, figure 2. This figure occurs on a black and 

 white food bowl, eleven inches in diameter, four and one-half inches 

 in depth. In support of the theory that the two figures here 

 depicted represent fishes, we have the pointed head without neck, the 

 operculum as a white crescentic design, two fins (pectoral. A^entral, 

 and anal), the median (adipose?) dorsal fin unpaired, and a long tail 

 bifurcated at the extremity. The resemblance of these figures to the 

 undoubted fishes on bowls previously mentioned is conclusive evi- 

 dence that they represent the same animal. 



GEOMETRICAL FIGURES 



The geometrical designs on Mimbres pottery are rectangular, 

 curved, and spiral, the first form being the most common. These 

 units are arranged in twos or fours, and although they consist often 

 of zigzag or stepped figures, the triangle and rectangle predominate. 

 I'he geometrical designs are rarely colored, but commonly filled in 

 with hachures and parallel lines. There are seldom decorations on 

 the outside of the Mimbres bowls, in which respect they dififer from 

 ancient Hopi (Sikyatki) vessels elsewhere figured.* Conversely, that 

 part of the interior of the bowl which surrounds the central design, 

 oftentimes elaborately ornamented in Mimbres pottery, is very simply 



^ The Mimbres formerly had many more fishes than at present, and Bart- 

 lett records that his men often brought in fine trout for his camp. These, 

 with turkeys, quail, deer and antelopes, led him to say that his " fare might 

 be called sumptuous in some respects" (o/>. cit., p. 236). 



" Fishes are sometimes represented on Keresan pottery. 



'^As elsewhere mentioned in this paper, one of the bird figures (fig. 25) has 

 a fish in its mouth. 



* 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Part 2, figs. 277-355. 



