FEWKES] THE RUIN, SIKYATEKI 227 
ages to the tail, but suggests that they may have been intended for 
feathers. Figure 25 a, d, is identified as a turtle. 
Figure 26 was evidently designed to represent several tadpoles 
swimming across a bow! between rows of rain clouds, the whole in- 
closed in a circle to which are attached five stars at approximately 
equal intervals. The form of the 
rain clouds reminds one of con- 
ventional tail feathers. There are 
six of these rain-cloud figures on 
one side of the field of decoration 
and five on the other. The tad- 
poles shown in figure 27 occur on 
the inside of the ladle. 
Winecep Ficures 
The term “winged figures” is 
here employed to designate all 
flying creatures, as birds, insects, 
and bats, even though they belong 
zoologically to different groups of animals. Among the prehistoric 
Hopi, insects and birds were designated by similar symbols and when 
highly conventionalized sometimes merge into one another. It was 
the custom of Sikyatki potters to give more attention to specific than 
generic characters of flying creatures, distinguishing different kinds 
of birds by the form of their feathers. The 
symbol of a turkey, an eagle, or a hawk 
feather was distinct from that of an owl, 
and each kind of a bird had its own special 
symbolic marking, espe- 
cially indicated’ in the 
different kinds of feath- 
ers. Thus it occurs that 
Sikyatki bird designs, 
instead of being realis- 
tically represented, are 
often so highly conven- 
tionalized that the genus 
can not be identified. 
The flight of birds, like the movement of serpents, is regarded as 
mysterious, and anything mysterious or uncanny has always pro- 
foundly affected the mind of primitive man. The chief visible char- 
acteristics connected with the flight of a bird are wings and feathers, 
and the kind of feathers of a particular bird led to their association 
with the supposed magic power of the bird itself among both the 
ancient and modern Hopi. Different kinds of feathers have different. 
Fic. 25.—Turtle. 
