FEWKES] SYMBOLIC DECORATION OF LITTLE COLORADO POTTERY 69 



ill Mexico relief decoi'Htion becomes the essential feature. In its 

 earliest developnieut the head is raised in relief, while arms and legs 

 are indicated bj- ridges, as in a figure from the Nantacks, considered 

 later in this article. In the (xila valley, clay reliefs of the liuman 

 figure on a jar or vase were attempted — a thing unknown in ancient 

 Tusayan. 



Slipper-shaped Vessels 



Several rough-ware jars in the form of slippers were found in the 

 ruins excavated in 181)0. From tlie fact' that many of tliese were 

 blackened with soot, it is conjectured that they were formerly 

 used for cooking vessels, and it is probable that they were made in 

 that peculiar form in order that they might be used like Dutch ovens 

 and coals of fire miglit more readily be heaped over them. ^lany of 

 these slipper-shaped jars had one or more handles placed on the necks 

 or prolongations of the rims. 



These jai-s were always made of rougn ware, and \vere never 

 painted, as is the case with similarly formed vessels from the Gila 

 river and its northern ti-iliutaries. They vary in length from a few 

 inches to a foot or a foot and a lialf. 



DECORATIVE DESIfiXS 

 General Character 



The great value of collections of pottery from the Southwest, espe- 

 cially from the ruins in Arizona, is to be found in the symbolic deco- 

 ration and its interpretation. The collections in 18!m; were especially 

 instructive on account of the new localities from which they were 

 made and of the new sj'mbols depicted. As is universally the case, 

 avian figures are the most common and the most elaborately con- 

 ventionalized. -There are one or two instructive reptilian designs. 



A study of the decoration on the jjottery of the Ilomolobi, t'hevlon, 

 and Chaves pass ruins shows that the proportion of geometrical to 

 animal designs is much larger than at the Sikj-atkl or Shnmopovi. 

 In the few instances where aninuils and liuman beings are depicted 

 the execution of the designs is ruder. This preponderance of geomet- 

 rical over animal figures recalls conditions characteristic of white and 

 black ware ornamentation. The predominance of animal pictographs 

 on pueblo pottery in ancient times appears especially characteristic 

 of Tusayan. 



The most novel results obtained from a study of the collections of 

 pottery were contributions to a knowledge of ancient pictography." 



Even a superficial comparison of the pictography of the Little Colo- 

 rado pottery with that of the Sikyatki ware shows how inferior the 



" The majority of forms of ancient Tusayan ware are well known to archeologists through 

 the Keam collection, some of the more striking specimens of which have been figured by Mr 

 Holmes in previous reports of the Bureau of Ethnology. 



