40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 41 



there is an indentation on opposite borders. The use of these objects 

 is unknown ; they may have been axes or planting implements. 



Stone objects of precisely the same type are highly prized by the 

 Hopi and play important parts in their ceremonials. A number of 

 these objects are arranged about the sand picture of the Antelope 

 altar in the Snake dance at Walpi." 



Similar specimens are attached by the Hopi to their most sacred 

 palladium, called the tiponi, or badge of office of the chief of a priest- 



FiG. 12. Stone ax with handle. 



hood. The tiponi of the Antelope society has one of these projecting 

 from its top. The meaning of this association may be even greater 

 than at first would be suspected, for according to legends the Snake 

 family, which is the guardian of the fetishes used in the snake cere- 

 monies, originally lived at Tokonabi, near Navaho mountain, at the 

 mouth of the San Juan river. The culture of the ancient inhabitants 

 of the ruins at that place was not very different from that of the 

 people of the Mesa Verde. 



Grinding Stones 



Both pestles and hand stones used in grinding maize were exca- 

 vated, the latter in considerable numbers. There were found also 

 many stone slabs having rounded depressions, or pits, on opposite 

 sides, evidently similar to those now used by the Hopi in grinding the 

 paints for their ceremonials. In some places peckings or grooves in 

 the surfaces of the rocks show where these grinding stones were used, 

 and perhaps flattened to the desired plane. These grinding places are 

 found in the plazas, on the sides of the cave back of the village, and 

 elsewhere. A number of these grooves in a lower ledge of rock at the 

 spring indicate that this was a favorite spot for shaping the hand 

 grinders, possibly for grinding corn or other seeds. 



The hand stones are of several types: (1) Polygonal, having cor- 

 ners somewhat worn, but fiat on both sides, and having grooves on 

 opposite edges to insure a firm hold for the hand; (2) convex on one 



" Snake Ceremonials at Walpl, in Journal of American Archceology and Ethnology, iv, 

 1894. 



