FEWKES] ANCIENT AND MODERN POTTERY COMPARED 659 
In the decoration of ancient pottery I find no trace of figures of 
the clown-priests, or tewkuwympkiya, who are so prominent in modern 
Tusayan katcina celebrations. These personages, especially the Tat- 
cukti, often called by a corruption of the Zuni name Koyimse (Koyo- 
miishi), are very common on modern bowls, especially at the extremi- 
ties of ladles or smaller objects of pottery. 
Many handles of ladles made at Hano in late times are modeled in 
the form of the Paiakyamu,! a glutton priesthood peculiar to that 
Tanoan pueblo. From the data at hand we may legitimately conclude 
that the conception of the clown-priest is modern in Tusayan, so far as 
the ornamentation of pottery is concerned. 
The large collections of so-called modern Hopi pottery in our museums 
is modified Tanoan ware, made in Tusayan. Most of the component 
specimens were made by Hano potters, who painted upon them figures 
of katcinas, a cult which they and their kindred introduced. 
Several of the food bowls had evidently cracked during their firing 
or while in use, and had been mended before they were buried in the 
graves. This repairing was accomplished either by filling the crack 
with gum or by boring a hole on each side of the fracture for tying. 
In one specimen of black-and-white ware a perfectly round hole was 
made in the bottom, as if purposely to destroy the usefulness of the 
bowl before burial. This hole had been covered inside with a rounded 
disk of old pottery, neatly ground on the edge. It was not observed 
that any considerable number of mortuary pottery objects were 
“killed” before burial, although a large number were chipped on the 
edges. It is a great wonder that any of these fragile objects were 
found entire, the stones and soil covering the corpse evidently having 
been thrown into the grave without regard to care. 
The majority of the ancient symbols are incomprehensible to the 
present Hopi priests whom I have been able to consult, although they 
are ready to suggest many interpretations, sometimes widely divergent. 
The only reasonable method that can be pursued in determining the 
meaning of the conventional signs with which the modern Tusayan 
Indians are unfamiliar seems, therefore, to be a comparative one. This 
method I have attempted to follow so far as possible. 
There is a closer similarity between the symbolism of the Sikyatki 
pottery and that of the Awatobi ware than there is between the 
ceramics of either of these two pueblos and that of Walpi, and the 
same likewise may be said of the other Tusayan ruins so far as known. 
It is desirable, however, that excavations be made at the site of Old 
Walpi in order to determine, if possible, how widely different the 
ceramics of that village are from the towns whose ruins were studied 
in 1895. There are certain practical difficulties in regard to work at 
Old Walpi, one of the greatest of which is its proximity to modern 
1These priests wear a close-fitting skullcap, with two long, banded horns made of leather, to the end 
of which corn husks are tied. For an extended description see Journal of American Ethnology and 
Archeology, vol. 1, No. 1, page 11. 
