518 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH. 



Iu this, both form and ornamentation are significant. (See Fig. 558.) 

 In explaining bow the form of this vessel is held to be symbolic I will 

 quote a passage from the "creation myth " as I rendered it in an article 

 on the origin of corn, belonging to a series on "Zufii Breadstuff," pub- 

 lished this year in the "Millstone" of Indianapolis, Indiana. "Is not 

 the bowl the emblem of the earth, our mother! For from her we draw 

 both food and drink, as a babe draws nourishment from the breast of 

 its mother ; and round, as is the rim of a bowl, so is the horizon, ter- 

 raced with mountains whence rise the clouds." This alludes to a med- 

 icine bowl, not to one of the handled kind, but I will apply it as far as it 

 goes to the latter. The two terraces on either side of the handle (Fig. 

 55S, a a) axe iu representation of the " ancient sacred place of the spaces," 

 the handle being the line of the sky, and sometimes painted with the 

 rainbow figure. Now the decorations are a trifle more complex. We 

 may readily perceive that they represent tadpoles (Fig. 558, b b), dragon- 

 flies (Fig. 558, c c), with also the frog or toad (Fig. 558) ; all this is of 



Fig. 558. — Zuni prayer-meal-bowl. 



easy interpretation. As the tadpole frequents the pools of spring time 

 he lias been adopted as the symbol of spring rains ; the dragon-fly Lovers 

 over pools iu summer, hence typifies the rains of summer; and the frog, 

 maturing in them later, symbolizes the rains of the later seasons; for 

 all these pools are due to rain fall. When, sometimes, the figure of the 

 sacred butterfly (see Fig. 55'J, a b) replaces that of the dragon-fly, or 

 alternates with it, it symbolizes the beneficence of summer; since, by a 

 reverse order of reasoning, the Zunis think that the butterflies and 

 migratory birds (see Fig. 5G0) bring the warm season from the "Land of 

 everlasting summer." 



Upon vessels of special function, like these we have just noticed, pe- 

 culiar figures may be regarded as emblematic; on other classes, no 

 matter how evidently conventional and expressive decorations may 

 seem, excepting always, totem ic designs, it is wise to use great caution 

 in their interpretation as intentional and not merely imitative. 



A general examination, even of the most modern of Pueblo pottery, 



