324 



POTTERY OF THE ANCIENT PUEBLOS. 



bauds, a principal and a subordinate, separated by parallel lines and 

 taking the relation to each other always noticed in the two belts of de- 

 signs painted upon the exterior of vases. Two of the sections are 

 alike. The others differ from these and from each other. 



One figure, consisting of three linked volutes, is defined in white by 

 painting around it a black ground. The artist in painting this vessel 

 has probably not thought of achieving anything beyond the filling up 

 neatly of the four spaces, and has followed the usual practice of bor- 

 rowing his motives from other objects; yet it will not be wise to con- 

 clude that these figures are really meaningless combinations of lines- 

 The persistency and individuality of certain motives makes it almost 

 certain that they are not the result of aimless elaboration, and that the 

 potter understood their significance. They are too purely geometric, 

 however, to furnish any clew to us through internal evidence. We 

 have no resource beyond the analogies of historic art. Modern tribes 

 use the current meander to symbolize water, and a leading motive in 

 many of these designs — the linked scroll running through a field of 

 senate lines — is wonderfully like some forms of the Aztec symbol for 

 water, as may be seen by reference to the Mexican codices. 



Another very excellent example of these bowls is presented in Fig. 

 292. It is small and shallow, measuring six and a half inches in diam- 



Fig. 292.— Bowl: Province of Tusayan. — J. 



eter and two and a half in depth. The material is somewhat soft and 

 chalky. The walls are thick and the surface is well finished. The 

 painted design is cruciform, like the preceding, but is much more simple 

 and satisfactory. It is interesting to note the changes rung upon the 

 few simple motives employed in these designs. Again apparently each 

 of the four parts is a fragment of a double border, cut up and fitted 

 into the concave surface. The bauds with oblique, dotted, or stepped 

 lines, Fig. 293, are repetitious of the neck belt of a bottle-shaped vase 



