a, bowl, 4293; diameter 151 mm., height 76 mm. Design: inside, raccoon hand; outside, fish bone, atcí isáka.[5] This is from Tokwaθa's wife.
b, broken bowl, 4282; d. 157, h. 85. Design; raccoon hand.
c. large bowl or platter, 1745, of type called suyíre, d. 330, h. 125. Weight, 44 oz. The flanges to hold mesquite bark binding in place are unusually prominent.
This is the largest and second heaviest round vessel in the collection; but it is low, 38 per cent of the diameter—at the minimum for bowls, maximum for platters. It is not strictly a bowl, because there is no neck constriction: the vessel curves in unbroken convexity up to the rim. On the other hand it is not a typical platter because it has flanges and is bound like a bowl. There are 11 of these flanges, 25 to 35 mm. long, projecting 5 to 8 mm., and spaced quite irregularly, with 120, 95, 90, 55, 85, 65, 115, 95, 75, 120, 75 mm. between their centers.
The bowls a and b are grouped together because of their raccoon-hand designs; compare also plate 4,p. Bowl a looks unused and may have been made for sale; b has been used and is probably from the same house, though almost certainly not painted by the same person.
The large platter-bowl c has its painted design built up around four big rhomboids or hexagons, nearly rounded into pointed ovoids with triple solid tips; between which similarly pointed triangles project toward the center from the rim.
The oval platters d and e, nos. 1738, 4294, are the convex backs or under sides of plate 3,i,j. The former looks used, the latter new and perhaps for sale. The tortoises on the under (6,e) and tortoise carapace on the upper (3,j) side of the same piece seem an exaggeration from normal Mohave style. In my field catalogue I entered d as "dish-like spoon"; and e, two years later, simply as "oval spoon," which is confirmed by the notation: kam'óta kapeta, viz., "tortoise spoon."
The two katéla or parchers, f and g, having adjacent numbers, 13787 and 13788, are probably out of one household—a conservative one, inasmuch as they were secured in 1908. They differ slightly in proportions, yet are closely similar. Piece f, the longer and flatter, has its ends brought into a semblance of the abbreviated quail beaks and eyes found on some spoons—class A2. The rims of both f and g are transversely flat and wiped or pinched over inward to extra thickness, then scored regularly with a fingernail or stick; in g the outer edge has also been lightly punch-marked.[6]
The canteen in its net, h, no. 13793, has evidently seen use. This was the kind taken on journeys. There is a faded design of three vertical figures in double outline. Each of these consists of three near-rhomboids set on top of one another, with the joints between them open, so that the three of them appear as a single figure. Within each of the figures and between them there are dots 4-6 mm. in diameter. The bottom of the vessel is unpainted.
The plain duck seed-bin or canteen i, no. 4297, would be practical for use sitting in the sand in the house or under the ramada shade. It contained melon seeds when I purchased it.
PLATE 7: SPOON BACKS, TOYS, PIPES, POT RESTS
a, back of spoon 13803 shown in pl. 4,h; l. 225 mm.
b, back of 13809 shown in pl. 4,m; l. 207.
c, back of 1749 shown in pl. 4,o; l. 113.
d, back of 13810 shown in pl. 4,n; l. 156.
e, back of 1736 shown in pl. 4,e; l. 123.
f, back of 1747 shown in pl. 4,k; l. 186.
g, back of 1731 shown in pl. 4,b; l. 201.
h, back of 13802 shown in pl. 4,c; l. 182.
i, back of 13808; l. 226; front not shown.
j, lizard figure, 1726; max. l. 110. Probably a toy or amusement; not used ritually.
k, hummingbird figure, 1727; l., beak to tail, 54.
l, clay pipe, 4264, boy's, unbaked, unfinished; l. 55.
m, clay pipe, 13870; broken, 62 mm. remaining.
n,o, clay pot rests, 4283b, 4283c; h. 92, 85.
The convex backs of spoons a-i are not the only painted ones, but show the more ambitious attempts, if this adjective is applicable to rudeness of their degree. The prevalent painting is lengthwise striping, though crosswise (i), and both ways (d), occur. The lengthwise stripes may be plain lengthwise lines (b,g); heavy stripes with light (e) or with rows of dots (f); flanked by multiple zigzags and forming the fish backbone design (c,h); negative effect (e). Piece a is irregularly interesting: three diagonally curved lines sweep across the convex back, and are subdivided by transverse lines into about a dozen triangles and quadrilaterals of unlike shapes; nine of these contain a polygonal spot or daub.