THE CLIFF VILLAGES OF THE RED ROCK COUNTRY. 585 



the discovery of this picture at Sikyatki, four centuries or more old, we 

 are prepared to ask our Navaho students whether they can show an 

 equal antiquity of this conception among the people they study, and 

 to suggest the inquiry whether the Navahoes derived their idea from 

 the Pueblos. 



It is not without some deep-seated meaning that of all organs of the 

 body, the Tusayan people of the ancient settlement at Sikyatki chose 

 the human hand for decorative purposes. We know that oriental people 

 do the same, and I have seen old Tusayan ware decorated with a human 

 hand, but never such beautiful representations as that which occurs on 

 the food vessels from Sikyatki. A figure of one of the best of these 

 will serve to show the care with which this member was used for decora- 

 tive purposes, but I must confess my inability to decipher the strange 

 appendage which it shares with other decorative elements of very dif- 

 ferent character. 



Mammalian animals are sparingly used as decorative forms, but 

 among others may be mentioned the antelope, mountain lion, mountain 

 sheep, and rabbit. Especially instructive is the figure of a puma drawn 

 on the middle of the inside of a food vessel. The figure of a mountain 

 sheep is one of the best in the collection. There seems hardly a doubt 

 that these animal forms refer to mythic conceptions which are paralleled 

 in the beliefs of the inhabited pueblos today. 



Serpents and bizarre reptilians figure conspicuously in decorative 

 animal pictography from Sikyatki, and betray in one or two instances 

 the antiquity of a cult which, is strong at Walpi today. Prominent 

 among these is the great Plumed-head Serpent, the effigies and cere- 

 monials pertaining to which at Walpi I have elsewhere described 

 in detail. The serpent depicted on one of the food vessels is so close in 

 its symbolism to this mythic being of Tusayan folklore that it is prob- 

 able ophiolatry of a kindred sort was practiced in the ancient pueblo 

 of Sikyatki where it was found. 



One of the most bizarre figures of reptiles in Sikyatkian ceramic 

 paleography adorns the inside of a reddish-colored food basin of rather 

 coarse construction. This figure reminds one of the horned toad, but 

 mythic rather than realistic elements preponderate in its delineation. 

 The most striking anatomical feature is without doubt the serrated dor- 

 sal fin, but like the Plumed Serpent it bears on the head horns and 

 feather appendages. There are two or more mythological reptilian 

 personages recognized in the modern Tusayan olympus to which this 

 picture may be referred, and it is not unlike the mythic lizard, who 

 guards the traditional entrance to the under world, called the sipapu. 



A fragment of pottery from Awatobi was found to have a head iden- 

 tical with that of this lizard from Sikyatki, showing that the cult was 

 recognized in this neighboring village. 



Of problematical reptilian forms, none are more conventional and 

 highly symbolic than the decoration of another food basin. Here we 



