A COLLECTION OF HOPI CEREMONIAL PIGMENTS. 



By Walter Hough, 

 Assistant Curator, Division of Ethnology. 



Some years ago Mr. A. M. Stephen made for Dr. Washington 

 Matthews, U. S. A., a collection of Hopi Indian ceremonial pigments, 

 with notes on their preparation, derivation, and uses. These valuable 

 notes from that most excellent observer were brought together by Dr. 

 Matthews and presented to the International Folk-Lore Congress held 

 at Chicago in 1893, and later were published under Mr. Stephen's 

 name in the report of the congress, which appeared in 1898.^ 



Through the liberality of Dr. Matthews, the series of paints, com- 

 prising al)out twenty-tive specimens, is now in the national collection. 

 Determinations of the paints have been made by Mr. Wirt Tassin, 

 assistant curator of the division of minerals. With the addition of 

 the pigments secured from the Hopi, many y^ars ago, by Maj. J. W. 

 Powell and James Stevenson, together with those gathered among the 

 Navajo by Dr. Matthews, this unique collection becomes of great 

 importance and interest. 



The Hopi are assiduous collectors. A catalogue of the substances 

 brought to their pueblos from long distances would awaken surprise, 

 and the diverse materials gleaned from a region so unpromising in 

 appearance would increase the wonder. Every house is a museum of 

 the environment, with specimens from the mineral, animal, and vegetal 

 kingdoms, and every Hopi is a repository of knowledge as to the 

 places where materials may be secured. Time and distance are little 

 thought of when it comes to procuring the materials desired. For this 

 reason the pigments and dyes, when compared with those employed by 

 other American Indian tribes, are remarkable for their number as 

 well as for the diversity of their origin. The colors range over the 

 whole spectrum and furnish a number of shades and tints, as anj'one 

 may observe on looking through the large collections of Hopi objects 



'The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, 

 Chicago, July, 1893. Archives International Folk-Lore Association, I, pp. 200-265. 

 Chicago, 1898. 



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