630 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 [ETH ANN. 17 
textile fragment made of feathers was found in one of the burial vases, 
but no feather garments or even fragments of the same were unearthed 
at Awatobi. 
A woven rope of agave fiber and many charred strings of the same 
material were found in a niche in the wall of a house in the eastern 
section, and from the same room there was taken a string, over a yard 
long, made of human hair. It was suggested to me by one of the Hopi 
that this string was part of the coiffure of an Awatobi maid, and that 
it was probably used to tie up her hair in whorls above the ears, as is 
still the Hopi custom. 
The whole number of specimens of textile fabrics found at Awatobi 
was small, and their character disappointing for study, for the condi- 
tions of burial in the soil are not so good for their preservation as in the 
dry caves or cliff houses, from which beautifully preserved cloth, made 
at a contemporary period, has been taken. 
PRAYER-STICKS—PIGMENTS 
Among the most significant mortuary objects used by the ancient 
Tusayan people may be mentioned the so-called prayer-sticks or pahos. 
These were found in several graves, placed on the breast, in the hand, 
or at the side of the person interred, and have a variety of form, as 
shown in the accompanying illustrations (plates CLXXIy, CLXxv). As 
I shall discuss the forms and meaning of prayer-sticks in my account 
of Sikyatki, where a much larger number were found, I will simply 
mention a few of the more striking varieties from Awatobi. 
One of the most instructive of these objects is flat in shape, painted 
green, and decorated with figures of a dragon-fly. As this insect is a 
symbol of rain, its occurrence on mortuary objects is in harmony with 
the Hopi conception of the dead which will later be explained. 
Pahos, in the form of flat slats with a notched extension at one end 
were common, but generally were poorly preserved. The prayer-sticks 
from the shrine in the middle of the rooms in the plaza of the eastern 
section crumbled into fragments when exposed to the air, but they were 
apparently small, painted green, and decorated with black spots. On 
several of the prayer-sticks the impressions of the string and feathers 
that were formerly attached are still readily seen. It is probable that 
the solution of a carbonate of copper, with which the green pahos were 
so colored, contributed to the preservation of the wood of which they 
had been manufactured. 
The only pigments detected on the prayer-sticks are black, red, and 
green, and traces of red are found also on the inner surface of a stone 
implement from a grave at the base of the mesa. All the pigments used 
by the modern Tusayan Indians were found in the intramural burial 
already described. My Hopi workmen urged me to give them small frag- 
ments of these paints, regarding them efficacious in their ceremonials. 
