FEWKES] THE RUIN, SIKYATKI 265 
We may judge of the character of the symbols and designs on 
pottery from the San Juan and from the ruins of Wukoki on the 
Black Falls of Little Colorado. It is characterized by an abun- 
dance of geometric figures and an almost total absence of life forms 
or painted figures of men and animals. The pottery is thin, well 
made, and sometimes colored red, but the majority of specimens are 
gray or black-and-white ware not especially different from a wide- 
spread type occurring pretty generally throughout the Southwest. 
Coiled and incised ware is more abundant than smooth painted, but 
these are not as varied in form as later examples. There is no evi- 
dence available that there was any very great difference between the 
Hopi pottery decorations of the first epoch and that of contemporary 
time in the Southwest. When the Snake clans arrived at Walpi 
they found the village of Bear people living on the terrace at the 
base of the East Mesa, possessed of a symbolism like that. of Sikyatki. 
The combined clans, Bear and Snake, were later joined by the Horn 
and Flute, and it is not unlikely that some of the likenesses between 
the pottery symbols of the settlement on the terrace below Walpi 
and Sikyatki may have developed about this time.? 
The designs on the ceramics of the Snake clans are best illus- 
trated by the prehistoric pottery from ruins and cliff-dwellings in 
Utah and along the San Juan area, where geometrical patterns 
far outnumber those representing life forms. This does not deny 
that many of the pieces of pottery from this region are finely made, 
equal in technique perhaps to some of the Sikyatki, but the geo- 
metric designs on San Juan pottery and that from Sikyatki are 
radically different. This difference conforms with tradition that 
the Snake clans left their homes at Tokonabi, in the San Juan 
region, and came to Hopi after the foundation of Sikyatki, which 
had probably developed its beautiful ceramic art before Walpi was 
settled. There is no evidence that the potters of the Snake clan 
ever introduced any modification in the symbolic decoration of 
pottery by the women of Sikyatki. 
Sympots InrrRopUCED BY THE SNAKE PEOPLE 
The designs on pottery taken from prehistoric ruins of pueblos 
or villages once inhabited by the Snake clans claim the archeologist’s 
especial attention. These clans were the most important early addi- 
tions to the Hopi villages and no doubt influenced early Hopi 
symbolism. There is little trace in early pottery that can be rec- 
ognized as peculiar to the Snake. The Snake clans formerly lived 
at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and neighboring ruins. 
1Since the author's work at Sikyatki, excavations have been made by the Field Colum- 
bian Museum at this ruin, but nothing bearing on the relations of symbols has been pub- 
lished so far as known to the writer. 
