

oubhihg.] DECORATIVE SYMBOLISM. 513 



from wo ha na by a reversal of reasoning', which view does uot affect 

 the argument in question. It is probable that the me' he ton was at first 

 left open at the apex (Fig. 549, a) instead of at the top (Fig. 549, &) ; but, 

 being found liable to leak when furnished with the aperture so low, this 

 was closed. A surviving superstition inclines me to this view. When 

 a ZuBi woman has completed the me' he ton nearly to the apex, by the 

 coiliug-process, and before she has inserted the nozzle (Fig. 549, b), she 

 prepares a little wedge of clay, and, as she closes the apex with it, she 

 turns her eyes away. If you ask her why she does this, she will tell 

 you that it is a'k ta ni (fearful) to look at the vessel while closing it at this 



- ..IMi 



Fig. 518. Fn; 549. 



Conical canteen compared with human mammary gland. 



point; that, if she look at it during this operation, she will be liable to 

 become barren ; or that, if children be born to her, they will die during 

 infancy; or that she maybe stricken with blindness; or those who 

 drink from the vessel will be afflicted with disease and wasting away! 

 My impression is that, reasoning from analogy (which with these people 

 means actual relationship or connection, it will be remembered), the 

 Zuni woman supposes that by closing the apex of this artificial mamma 

 she closes the exit way for the " source of life ; " further, that the woman 

 who closes this exit-way knowingly (in her own sight, that is) volun- 

 tarily closes the exit- way for the source of life in her own mammae; 

 further still, that for this reason the privilege of bearing infants may 

 be taken away from her, or at any rate (experience showing the fallacy 

 of this philosophy) she deserves the loss of the sense (sight) which 

 enabled her to '■'•knowingly'" close the exit-way of the source of life. 



By that tenacity of conservative reasoning which is a marked mental 

 characteristic of the sedentary Pueblo, other types of the canteen, of 

 later origin, not only retained the name-root of this primeval form, but 

 also its attributed functions. For example, the me' wi lei lik ton ne 

 (See Fig. 550) is named thus from me we, mammaries, i 1(1 Vile tol e', joined 

 together by a neck, and to'm me. 

 4 eth 33 



