FEWKEs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 75 



nisliing the best material for large scrapers. These implements were 

 evidently sharpened by rubbing on the stones of walls or on the face 

 of the cliff, as grooves, apparently made in this way, are there visible 

 in several places. Scratches made in shaping or sharpening bones, 

 repeatedly found on the masonry of Cliff Palace, are not peculiar, 

 resembling those referred to in the report on Spi*uce-tree House. A 

 small tube with a hole midway of its length doubtless served as a 

 whistle, similar instruments being still often used in Hopi ceremonies 

 to imitate the calls of birds. 



Sections of bones were found tied in pairs, and while it is not clear 

 that these were threaded on a cord and worn as necklaces or armlets, 

 as Nordenskiold suggests, they may have been tied side b}'' side, 

 forming a kind of breastplate not unlike that used by the Plains 

 tribes. In a room of Spruce-tree House, according to Nordenskiold, 

 eight similar pieces of bone were foifnd strung on a fine thong of 

 hide. 



Among other bone objects there is one, of unknown use, about 

 an inch long and one-fourth of an inch in diameter, nearly cylin- 

 drical in shape. A bone with a hole in one end, similar to those 

 figured by Nordenskiold, forms part of the collection. 



Turquoise Ear Pendants and other Objects 



The single specimen of turquoise found at Cliff Palace was prob- 

 ably an ear pendant, and a black jet bead was apparently used for the 

 same purpose. With the polished cylinder of hematite found one 

 can still paint the face or body a reddish color, as the Hopi do with 

 a similar object. From the sipapu of kiva D there was taken a 

 small deerskin bag, tied with yucca fiber and containing a material 

 resembling iron pyrites, evidently an offering of some kind to the 

 gods of the underworld. 



A button made of lignite, and beads of the same material, were 

 found in the refuse heap in front of the ruin after a heavy rain. The 

 former is broken, but it resembles that found at Spruce-tree House, 

 although it is not so finely made, and also one from Homolobi, a ruin 

 on the Little Colorado, near "Winslow, Arizona. 



^ Seeds 



The cobs and seeds of corn, squash and pumpkin seeds, beans, and 

 fragments of gourds give some idea of the vegetable products known 

 to the Cliff Palace people. Corn furnished the most important food 

 of the people, and its dried leaves, stalks, and tassels were abundant in 

 all parts of their refuse heaps. Naturally, in a cave Avhere many 

 small rodents have lived for years, it is rare to find seed corn above 

 ground that has not been appropriated by these animals, and in the 



