272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 54. 



ings and forming part of the paraphernalia of altars were made.^ 

 The manufacture of these required little patience and skill. 



The Hopi fetiches of stone were commonly natural, such as con- 

 cretions or stones of suggestive shape or color. These were rarely and 

 then only slightly worked, perhaps in the way of a groove for the 

 cord or other chance modification, as the drawing of an eye, the ad- 

 dition of paint, etc., to identify the fetich. Beads of stone and 

 worked shell, while prized and regarded as indispensable for orna- 

 ments as a sign of wealth and of the favor of the gods, are not 

 made by the Hopi, but are secured in trade with the Zuni and the 

 Eio Grande tribes. Turquoise mosaic earrings, constructed by im- 

 bedding small plates of the stone in gum covering a rectangular 

 wooden tablet and finished by grinding and polishing, appear to be 

 still made by the Hopi in perpetuation of the ancient art (see pi. 27, 

 fig. 2). 



CLAY. 



The culture of the Hopi is inseparably connected with the fictile 

 art. Knowledge of the properties, uses and value of clay was thor- 

 ough and was displayed in the mixing and application of this sub- 

 stance to house building, as mortar in the setting up of stone walls 

 and as plaster for finishing walls, roofs and floors. The most striking 

 use of clay, however, was in pottery, whose high development and 

 wide employment in every avenue of social life marks a characteristic 

 and remarkable feature of Hopi art. The diversity of pottery forms 

 appears to have been in response to the limitations of the environ- 

 ment (see prefatory remarks on basketry) and the presence of excel- 

 lent clays. The explanation may not be as simple, since there is also 

 required a certain genius and adaptability in the people undergoing 

 development, these qualities differing widely among groups of men 

 placed in the same environment. There is also to be considered the 

 contact with older and more advanced tribes. It is instructive to 

 note here the comparatively negative effect of Pueblo culture and 

 semi-arid environment on the Navaho and Apache intrusions in the 

 Pueblo region. Those tribes which have sojourned in this environ- 

 ment for nearly 800 years have developed nothing resembling Pueblo 

 material culture and have absorbed little from contact with the 

 Pueblos and retain practically unchanged the characteristics of their 

 sub-Arctic culture. Thus they have never made pottery or erected 

 stone houses or taken the close affiliations of village life which mark 

 rhe culture of the Pueblos. 



The making of pottery among the Hopi is exclusively woman's 

 work and they carry on all the operations without other assistance. 

 1'he clays are found in small seams between the great beds of sand- 



1 See case of fetiches, north side. 



