9() INDIANS OK THK SOITHWEST 



Decohatixi: Ai{t 



I^ocorative art is chieHy displayed in freehand paint- 

 in*:; on the surface of pottery vessels. Tlie ji;eonietrical 

 })atterns are well devised and well executed. Both 

 (lowers and animals are reproduced \iewed as flat with 

 no attempt at perspective, but real talent or genius in 

 drawing; is never di,splayed. Apparently the older art 

 gave way under J^ur()|)ean influences to new forms which 

 for some reason have not reached the perfection of the 

 old seen in the black and white ware from the Tularosa 

 ruins and the excellently colored vessels from the Little 

 Colorado. Since we know certain of the villages in the 

 latter region were deserted at an early date, we are 

 justified in concluding that this art reached its flower 

 near the beginning of the historic period. 



Symbolic art, while found upon pottery, is particu- 

 larly developed in ceremonial painting and carving. 

 Not only are such cloud symbols as that seen on the 

 cover of this book common, in which semicircles stand 

 for clouds, zigzag arrows for lightning, and vertical 

 lines for rain, but many other conventions are employed. 

 The prayer bowls and the wooden headdresses worn in 

 dances often have their tops fashioned in terraces 

 which represent both mesas and mountain peaks and 

 stand in general for the earth. In the dry or sand 

 paintings, described in another section, excellent flat 

 representations of animals are produced. 



It is difficult in a sentence or a paragraph to gi\'e the 



