42 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



This bowl is eleven inches in diameter, five inches in depth. The fig- 

 ure is a remarkable one, having features of several animals, but none 

 of these are more pronounced than its insectiform characters, among 

 which may be mentioned the antennae, three legs on one side (evi- 

 dently three pairs of legs, for that in the back is simply introduced in 

 violation of perspective), and an extended segmented abdomen 

 attached to the thorax and terminating in a recurved tip. The char- 

 acter of the appendages to the thorax, or the wings, leaves no doubt 

 that a flying animal was intended, and the legs and head being like an 

 orthopterous insect, it may be provisionally identified as a " grass- 

 hopper." * 



While the general form of head, thorax, and body appear from an 

 inspection of the figure, it may be well to call attention to certain 

 special features that illustrate primitive methods of drawing. The 

 most striking of these is seen in the abnormal position of the leg. 

 which arises from the thorax on the back in the rear of the so-called 

 wings. This abnormal position was introduced by the artist to show 

 the existence and form of the legs on the right side ; the appendage 

 corresponds with one of the three on the left side, which have the 

 proper position but are much smaller. A similar delineation of organs 

 out of place not seen or turned away from the observer was common 

 among the prehistoric artists of the Pueblo region and is paralleled 

 by the representation of two eyes on one side of the head already men- 

 tioned. The two " wings," each ending in white circles with dots or 

 crosses, are supposed, on the theory that this is a grasshopper, to rep- 

 resent wing covers or elytra, which of course the prehistoric people 

 of the Mimbres did not differentiate from folded wings. It is pos- 

 sible that wing cover and wing may be represented on one side and 

 that corresponding organs on the right side of the body are omitted. 

 The thorax is covered with regularly arranged rows of dots formed 

 by parallel lines crossing at an angle, forming purely arbitrary deco- 

 ration representing the geometric designs on the bodies of other 

 animals. 



FROGS AND BIRDS 



One of the few bowls obtained on which animals of two species 

 were depicted on the same vessel was excavated by the author at Old- 

 town. This remarkably fine specimen (pi. 7, fig. i) has figures of 



1 Possibly depicted on a food bowl because grasshoppers were eaten by the 

 prehistoric people of the Mimbres. 



