FEWKES] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



43 



difficult to make out from the remaining fragment the mode of con- 

 struction of the object. 



Slabs 



Xordenskiold figures a wooden object of rectangular shape, slightly 

 concave on one side and more or less worn on the edges. Two similar 



Fig. 16. Wooden slab. 



wooden slabs (fig. 16) were found at Spruce-tree House. The objects 

 occasioned much speculation, as their meaning is unknown. It has 

 been suggested they are cradle-boards, a conjecture 

 which, in view of the fact that similar specimens are 

 sometimes found in child burials, is plausible. In this 

 interiDretation the holes which occur on the sides may 

 have served for attachment of blankets or hoops. These 

 boards, it may be said, are small even for the most 

 diminutive Indian baby. 



Another suggestion not without merit is that these 

 boards are priest's badges and were once carried in the 

 .hands suspended by strings tied to the holes in their 

 edges. 



Still another theory identifies them as parts of head 

 dresses called tablets, worn in what the Pueblos call a 

 tabllta dance. 



The upright portions of some of the Hopi altars have 

 similar Avooden slabs painted with svmbolic figures and 

 tied together, xVltars having slabs of the same descrip- 

 tion are used in ceremonials of certain Tewan clans liv- 

 ing in New Mexico. 



Spindles 



There were found at Spruce-tree House a complete 

 spindle with stick and whorl (fig. 17), and a whorl 

 without the spindle, both of which are practically iden- 

 tical in type with the spinning apparatus of the Hopi 

 Indians. When in use this spindle was made to re- 

 volve by rubbing it on the thigh with one hand, while 

 the other held the unspun cotton, the fiber being wound 

 Fig. 17. Spindle on 0116 end of the Spindle. This implement affords still 

 and whorl. rjj^Qtj-^gp indication that the arts of the people of Spruce- 

 tree House were similar to those still practised by the Pueblos. 



