256 DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY [BTH. ANN. 33 
The strictly geometrical figures so frequently found on pottery 
from Silkyatki recall the linear decorations almost universal in an- 
cient southwestern ware. 
No one who has carefully compared specimens of decorated pot- 
tery from Sikyatki with examples from any other southwestern re- 
gion could fail to be impressed with the differences in some of the 
geometrical designs from the two localities. Such designs on the 
Sikyatki ware are almost always rectangular, rarely curved. As 
compared with pottery from cliff-dwellings there is a paucity or 
entire absence of terraced designs in the ancient Hopi ware, while 
zigzags representing lightning are comparatively rare. The char- 
acteristic geometrical decorations on Sikyatki pottery are found on 
the outside of the food bowls, in which respect they are notably dif- 
ferent from those of other ceramic areas. Designs on Sikyatki pot- 
tery show few survivals of preexisting materials or evolution from 
transfer of those on textiles of any kind. Such as do exist are so 
masked that they shed little light on current theories of art evolution. 
The designs on ancient Hopi pottery are in the main mythological, 
hence their true interpretation involves a knowledge of the religious 
ideas and especially of such psychological elements as sympathetic 
magic, so prevalent among the Hopi of to-day. The idea that by 
the use of symbols man could influence supernatural beings was no 
doubt latent in the mind of the potter and explains the character 
of the symbols in many instances. The fact that the bowls on which 
these designs are painted were found with the dead, and contained 
food for the departed, implies a cult of the dead, or at least a belief 
in a future life. 
Rarn Crioups 
The most constant geometric designs on Pueblo pottery are those 
representing the rain cloud, and from analogy we would expect to 
find the rain-cloud figures conspicuously on ancient Hopi pottery. 
We look in vain on Sikyatki ware for the familiar semicircular 
symbols of rain clouds so constant among the modern Hopi; nor do 
we find the rectangular terraced form which is equally common. 
These modifications were probably lately introduced into Hopiland 
by those colonists of alien clans who came after the destruction of 
Sikyatki, and consequently are not to be expected on its pottery. 
Their place was taken by other characteristite forms closely allied 
to rectangular terraced figures from which hang parallel lines, rep- 
resenting falling rain in modern symbolism.t. The typical Sikyatki 
rain-cloud symbol is terraced without rain symbols and finds its 
nearest relative on pottery derived from the eastern pueblo region. 
1Introduced into the Hopi pueblos by colonists from the Rio Grande; its most con- 
spicuous variant can be seen on the tablets worn in a masked dance called Humis (Jemez) 
Kachina. 
