732 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 [ETH. ANN. 17 
degrees of fineness, and vary from simple triangular slabs of fine sand- 
stone to very coarse lava. The specimen figured has depressions on 
the sides to facilitate handling.! 
Perhaps the most significant of all the worked stones found in the 
Sikyatki cemeteries were the flat slabs the edges of which near the 
surface of the soil marked the presence of the graves. These slabs 
may be termed headstones, but they have a far different meaning from 
those that bear the name of the deceased with which we are most 
familiar, for when they have any marking on their faces, it is not a 
totem of the dead, but a symbol of the rain-cloud, which is connected 
with ancestor worship. 
One of the best of these mortuary slabs has its edge cut in such a 
way as to give it a terraced outline, and on one face a similar terrace 
is drawn in black pigment. These figures are symbols of rain-clouds, 
and the interpretation of the use of this design in graves is as follows: 
The dead, according to current Tusayan thought, become rain-cloud 
gods, or powerful intercessors with those deities which cause or send 
the rains. Hence, the religious society to which the deceased belonged, 
and the members of the clan who survive, place in the mortuary bowls, 
or in the left hand of their friend, the paho or prayer emblem for rain; 
hence, also, in prayers at interment they address the breath body of 
the dead as a katcina, or rain god. These katcinas, as divinized ances- 
tors, are supposed to return to the villages and receive prayers for rain. 
In strict accord with this conception the rain-cloud symbol is placed, in 
some instances, on the slab of rock in the graves of the dead at Sik- 
yatki. It proves to me that the cult of ancestor worship, and the con- 
ception that the dead have power to bring needed rain, were recognized 
in Sikyatki when the pueblo was in its prime. One of these slabs is 
perforated by a small hole, an important fact, but one for which I have 
only a fanciful explanation, namely, to allow the escape of the breath 
body. Elsewhere I have found many instances of perforated mortuary 
stone slabs, which will be considered in a report of my excavations in 
1896. 
OBSIDIAN 
Many fragments of obsidian, varying in size, are found strewn over 
the surface of the majority of ancient ruins in Tusayan, and the quan- 
tity of this material on some mounds indicates its abundance in those 
early habitations. This material must have been highly prized for 
knives, arrowpoints, and weapons of various kinds, as several of the 
graves contained large fragments of it, some more or less chipped, 
others in naturalforms. The fact of its being deemed worthy of deposit 
in the graves of the Sikyatkians would indicate that it was greatly 
esteemed. I know of no natural deposit of obsidian near Sikyatki or 
1These objects were eagerly sought by the Hopi women who visited the camps at Awatobi and 
Sikyatki. 
