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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



tablet bearing a large opening plays an important part (see fig. 15, 

 introduced here for comparison) . The tablet is ornamented with cloud 

 terraces cut into the wood and outlined in color. In the center is a 

 circular hole 9 or 10 inches in diameter through which the head of 

 the fetish, Ko'Joowisi (plumed serpent), is passed at specified times 

 during the ceremony. The serpent efiigy is about 8 inches in diameter. 

 The tablet is either carried or used in a vertical stationary position. 

 It is not improbable that the stone slab found by us, is precursory 

 to the wooden tablet in use today and that both are a manifestation of 



Fig. 15. — Wooden tablet used in a modern Zuni ceremony. Introduced for 

 comparison with figure 14. After pi. XIV, 23rd Ann. Rep., Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol., 1901-02. 



a ceremony that has survived for 600 or more years. While the 

 wooden tablet is the larger, the opening in both is almost identical in 

 size. Applying the present Hopi interpretation of symbols, the black 

 triangles on the ancient specimen are rain-clouds and the zig-zag 

 patterns are symbolical of lightning. The modern tablet, however, 

 does not have the latter symbols and the rain-cloud symbols are in 

 forms of terraces, which is the common method of representation 

 today. The change from stone to wood in the material of the slab 

 would naturally be accompanied by certain modifying features, such 

 as the increase in size and the cutout terraces of the present-day piece. 



