S^^Tfx^n^^^^ll ETHNOZOOLOGY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 67 



certain occasions. Miss B. W. Freiie-Marreco has seen them, but 

 has not identified them. 



A kind of large, thick, flat shell, evidently a bivalve, is called 

 tsauamy,. Not even all of the older people at San Ildefonso know 

 this shell or its name. Our informants were not sure with regard to 

 its C()l(ir. 



A kind of wliite, fiat shell about 6 inches across is called tsse-t'a-, 

 'white flat' (tsx', white; t'a-, flat and roundish). The fsse't'a- was 

 sometimes worn on the breast of Tewa men. It was also cut up and 

 made into beads. 



A kind of large spiral univalve from which beads were formerly 

 made is called po'tsunii. 



A sort of shell described as white, cylindrical, 2 inches or more 

 long and about a quarter of an inch in diameter, is called fsse'wije. 

 These shells, which were highly valued, were strung and worn as 

 necklaces. Now only bone imitations of these shells are to be found 

 at the Tewa pueblos, but these are also called isse'wije. The name 

 fss^'wije sounds like 'white two' (fsse-, white; wije, two), but this 

 makes no sense. 



Hodge gives Kwdtsei-tdoa as a Shell Bead clan of San Ildefonso. 

 Kwa^a tsse''i^ Iowa means 'white bead clan' (kwa'a, bead made of 

 any substance, not necessarily shell; fs3e-, white; towd, person, 



people). 



The Loaver Invertebrates 



Very little is known of the lower forms of invertebrate life of 

 northern New Mexico, and from an ethnological point of view such 

 forms are mostly unimportant. "V\Tiile some of the pathological Pro- 

 tozoa must have had an important bearing on the health of the ancient 

 peoples of this region, just as they affect the present population, as 

 active agents in the spread of disease, yet such minute objects could 

 not have been known to people who had no microscopes. It is not 

 likely that any of the other phyla below the MoUusca are well repre- 

 sented here, if they occur at all, except the worms and their allies, 

 and very little work appears to have been done with respect to them. 

 Verrill ^ reported two unnamed varieties of leech, one at Taos and 

 one at San Ildefonso. We collected no specimens and so obtained 

 neither Indian names for nor Indian lore concerning them. 



I \'errill, A. E., Report upon the Collections of Fresh Water Leeches Made in Portions of Nevada, Utah, 

 Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona During the Years 1872, 1873, and 1874, U. S. Geog. Explor. & Surv. 

 If. ofWOth Merid., Final Report, v, p. 965, 1875. 



