MESA VERDE PUEBLO FEWKES. 481 



CORN FETISHES. 



In previous reports on Cliff Palace and Oak-tree House the writer 

 called attention to certain half-oval stones found in Idvas that he 

 identified as idols or fetishes. They represent the magnified end of an 

 ear of corn, and resemble specimens made of clay or wood still used 

 in Hopi ceremonies, where they are called ksetukwi, corn hills ; they 

 are in reality idols of Muyinwu, the god or goddess of germination. 

 When wooden forms are used, symbols of corn of different colors are 

 painted on them, or when made of clay a mosaic composed of kernels 

 of different colored corn is regularly arranged on their surface. 

 They are placed by the Hopi on the floor of the kiva before the altar 

 and from time to time are sprinkled with prayer meal. Two stone 

 specimens were found in the ruin, both of which have the same gen- 

 eral form as that from Cliff Palace; one (fig. 6) is covered with a 

 white substance like meal; the other has, near its apex, two small 

 holes of about the diameter of a lead pencil. 



POTTERY. 



Ceramics as well as architecture presents important evidences 

 of racial culture and the acquisitions from the pueblo. Far View 

 House, are particularly significant. We have extensive collections 

 of pottery from cliff dwellings, but no specimens have been described 

 from the open-air ruins of the Mesa Verde. It is therefore a pleas- 

 ure to the writer to be able to add to our material the first collec- 

 tion from one of the Mummy Lake mounds^ that has ever been 

 deposited in the National Museum. 



This pottery is practically the same in form, color, and symbolism 

 as that from the cliff dwellings, and supports the evidence of the 

 architecture, that the ruin is prehistoric and comparatively old. It 

 belongs to those archaic generalized types, widely scattered over the 

 Southwest, which antedate specialized and more modern varieties. 

 We find a large proportion of indented, coiled, rough ware, white 

 with black decorations, and a few specimens of imported red with 

 black figures. The figures on the last mentioned are mainly geo- 

 metric, linear predominating, with curved designs but no life motifs, 

 human or animal. There were comparatively few whole vessels. 



ANIMAL REMAINS. 



Portions of animal skeletons were found in considerable numbers, 

 especially in room 26, which was evidently a dump place and filled 



lA considerable amount of " pot hunting " has been done In the cemeteries of this 

 group, in which many specimens of mortuary pottery have been found and later sold to 

 various museums. These are now labeled, " Mancos " or " Mesa Verde," and are useless 

 for a study of the differences in individual cliff houses or comparisons between Mesa Verde 

 pueblos and cliff dwellings. 



