654 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 (ETH. ANN. 17 
These mortuary vessels were discovered generally at one side of the 
chest or neck of the person whose remains they were intended to accom- 
pany, and a single specimen was found inverted over the head of the 
deceased. The number of vessels in each grave was not constant, and 
as many as ten were found with one skeleton, while in other graves only 
one or two were found. In one instance a nest of six of these basins, one 
inside another, was exhumed. While many of these mortuary offerings 
were broken and others chipped, there were still a large number as per- 
fect as when made. Some of the bowls had been mended before burial, 
as holes drilled on each side of a crack clearly indicate. Fragments of 
arious vessels, which evidently had been broken before they were 
thrown into the graves, were common. 
There is a general similarity in the artistic decoration of bowls found 
in the same grave, as if they were made by the same potter; and persons 
of distinction, as shown by other mortuary objects, were, as a rule, more 
honored than some of their kindred in the character and number of 
pottery objects deposited with their remains. There were also a 
number of skeletons without cerainic offerings of any kind. 
In one or two interments two or more small jars were found placed 
inside of a food bowl, and in many instances votive offerings, like tur- 
quois, beads, stones, and arrowpoints, had been deposited with the 
dead. The bowls likewise contained, in some instances, prayer-sticks 
and other objects, which will later be described. 
One of the most interesting modifications in the form of the rim of 
one of these food bowls is shown in plate Cxx, e, which illustrates a 
variation from the circular shape, forming a kind of handle or support 
for the thumb in lifting the vessel. The utility of this projection in 
handling a bowl of hot food is apparent. This form of vessel is very 
rare, it being the only one of its kind in the collection. 
A considerable number of cups were found at Sikyatki; these vary 
in size and shape from a flat-bottom saucer like specimen to a mug- 
shape variety, always with a single handle (plate cxxv). Many of 
these resemble small bowls with rounded sides, but there are others in 
which the sides are vertical, and still others the sides of which incline 
at an angle to the flattened base. 
The handles of these cups are generally smooth, and in one instance 
adorned with a figure in relief. The rims of these dippers are never 
flaring, either inward or outward. Asa rule they are decorated on the 
exterior; indeed there is only one instance of interior decoration. The 
handles of the dippers are generally attached at both ends, but some- 
times the handle is free at the end near the body of the utensil and 
attached at the tip. These handles are usually flat, but sometimes 
they are round, and often are decorated. Traces of imitations of the 
braiding of two coils of clay are seen in a single specimen.! 
1Tbe excavations at Homolobi in 1896 revealed two beautiful cups with braided handles and one 
where the clay strands are twisted. 
