Plant parts.
(Cottonwood) leaves: 3,d, 8,e
Of these, coyote teeth, yellow-hammer belly, butterfly, and (atalyka) leaf occur also as names of face paintings (Handbook, p. 732, fig. 61,b-e).
The Handbook (p. 738) mentions a few additional names for pottery designs: rain, rainbow (this also a face painting), melon markings.
Face paintings or tattoo.
tšitθôk: 3,d, 5,a. This seems to denote an element in what I have called the forked-and-angled pattern of plate 1. Also recorded as tšitgôk.
hotahpave, "halter": 2,f, 5,e. It seems to refer to paired crossing lines as part of hourglass figures. In Handbook (fig. 61,i-j) it appears as point-to-point chevrons on the cheeks.
ta-tsirqa-tsirqa: 1,d. In Handbook (fig. 61,k, l) it appears as sharp points under the eyes (cf. ibid., fig. 61,g, h, "ha-tsira-tsirk," a vertical line down from the eye).
ta-skilye-skilye: 5,d. Reference is to a column of horizontal points at the edge of one style of women's chin tattoo. (See Handbook, p. 521, fig. 46,q.)
iya-m-tšupe(r)t(a): 2,g. Iya is the mouth; tšupeta, to hold back or cover.
"Adjectivally" descriptive.
ta-hlame-hlame, "patches": 1,b, 4,d
kyauelkyau, "angled, zigzag": 4,g
kan'ú (?), "patterned": 2,b
It is evident that there is no deeper symbolic significance in the pattern names. They are like our crow's foot, horseshoe, pigtail, fleur-de-lys, diamond, spade, wavy, broken—metaphorically or directly descriptive. The Mohave in addition have available a number of striking and familiar types of designs with which women ornament their faces.
In their actual, though of course transient, face decoration, the Mohave, though not quite the artistic equals of the Seri, paint with far more care, neatness, and precision than they bestow on their pottery. It is significant that it is the patterns of pottery that are named after those painted on their cheeks, not the reverse.