238 DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY [BTH. ANN. 33 
This type of feather sometimes forms a part of a bird’s tail, but 
it does not occur in the wings, although, as above stated, it occurs 
under a wing or on the body or the head of a bird, a localization 
that leads to the belief that the device was designed to represent a 
breast feather, such as the Hopi now use in their prayers. In ancient 
Hopi symbolism it is often attached to circles representing the sun 
and represents a tail feather. 
In plate 76, a, three feathers are represented with pointed tips and 
without interior markings. It is one of the simplest drawings of the - 
type mentioned. 
This figure illustrates a well-known type of feather symbol. It 
has many variations, all clearly differentiated from the form last 
described, from which it differs in its elongate form and pointed tip. 
What may be regarded as a subtype of this is marked with diagonal 
bands drawn either at right angles at one edge or extending across 
the figure and terminating at right angles to the opposite edge. 
Feather symbols of this type, which have not been identified with 
any particular bird, are constantly found in birds’ tails and wings. 
The next design (pl. 76, 6) is similar in outline, but the three 
feathers are painted solid black and are separated by spaces. This 
conventional form of feather is common on wings and tails of birds. 
The group of symbols shown in plate 76, c, has pointed tips, like 
the others described, but part of the shaft is painted, while the other 
is plain, the line of demarcation between which is drawn diagonally. 
This form occurs on the tails rather than on the wings of birds. 
The tips of the feathers in plate 76, d, are connected by a black 
band and are divided by short vertical lines. <A distinguishing fea- 
ture of this symbol is the oblique marking of each feather on the 
right side, by which the feathers are narrowed at the base. A solid 
semicircular figure with a double notch ornaments the upper edge. 
The few known examples of this type of feather symbol are from 
the tails of unknown birds. 
The next form of feather, shown in e, differs from the last in that 
the shaft is spotted and the proximal end is cut diagonally in a some- 
what different way.t| The tips are slit as in the figure last described. 
The width of the feathers shown in / is uniform throughout. The 
distal ends are tipped with black; the proximal ends are each orna- 
mented with a black triangle. Midway of the length of the feathers 
are four continuous parallel horizontal lines. 
The two feathers shown in g have in one instance a black and in 
the other a white tip separated from the rest of the shaft by an 
oblique line. The essential difference between this form of pointed 
1Compare feathers, pl. 90, wf. 
