ART. 5 



EXCAVATION AND EEPAIR OF BETATAKIN JUDD 



71 



LEATHER OBJECTS 



Animals slain on the chase furnished flesh for hungry aborigines, 

 bones from which their needed tools could be fashioned, hides suit- 

 able for clothing and other purposes. Implements of bone from 

 Betatakin have already been listed; we are now briefly to consider 

 the only two scraps of leather in our 1917 collection. 



Figure 27 is part of a bag, made by 

 sewing together with sinew two round- 

 bottomed pieces of tanned hide. In 

 their present condition these resist ab- 

 solute identification. They closely re- 

 semble buckskin and yet are too thin. 

 Perhaps mountain sheep hide was uti- 

 lized. Whether or no, the bag when 

 in use was approximately 2^ inches 

 (0.063 m.) in diameter. Rodents have 

 gnawed away the upper portion. 



Figure 28 represents a trimmed bit 

 of buckskin so well tanned that even to- 

 day it is as soft and pliable as a piece of 

 chamois. It was perforated at each end 

 for sewing; a fragment of cotton cord 

 occupies a hole on one margin. Traces 

 of white paint adhere to both sides. 



In these concluding paragraphs the 

 reader is again reminded that this 

 abridged description is not intended to 

 convey more than a. summary of the 

 work of excavation and repair under- 

 taken in the early spring of 1917. 

 Other students of southwestern arche- 

 ology have found need for certain 

 architectural notes at our command and 

 have urged their publicaiton. But it is to be emphasized that our 

 observations pertain only to the shell of Betatakin ; not to the kernel 

 within. Even though the privilege were properly ours we lack the 

 essential data from which to write the story of this fascinating ruin. 



The place of Betatakin in Pueblo history is well known. It was 

 one of the last occupied cliff dwellings ; its former inhabitants moved 

 southwardly in late prehistoric times to unite with other clans, and 

 these, in turn, migrated under pressure of nomadic tribes shortly 

 before advent of the Spaniards in 1540. But Fewkes has drawn too 

 short a trail from Betatakin to the modern Hopi villages; has ac- 

 cepted too literally, I am sure, the traditions of his Hopi friends. 

 Future exploration and painstaking attention to details should 

 shortly identify those sites at which the Betatakin folk successively 

 lingered after they abandoned Segi Canyon. 



Figure 28. — Painted buckskin 



