In the dreamed Mastamhó myth of the origin of culture (AR 11:1, 1948, see 7:76, p. 63), the culture hero calls some of the principal vessel forms by two sets of names, the first being recondite, twisted, or punning. The list is:
| to bring water in | (u)más-toyám[2] | hápurui |
| to cook in | umás-te-to'óro | táskyena |
| to cook in | umás-te-hamóka[3] | tšuváva |
| spoon, ladle | umás-uyúla | kam'óta |
| food platter | han'amé | kakápa |
| bowl | umás-iáða | táskyena |
| parching dish | umás-eyavkwa-havík[4] | katéla |
| arrow weed stirrer | umás-kasára | so'óna |
It will be noted that handled jugs and handled cups are lacking from this list, though so are canteens and round platters.
Small-and-flaring-necked spheroid jars, holding a gallon or more, are found in the region, and in 1900 I secured two Mohave examples which were destroyed in 1906 with the Academy of Sciences building. They served to store seeds, and seem often to have been hidden in caves and out-of-the-way spots by Shoshonean desert tribes. I secured one near Needles in 1908, now no. 13875 in the Museum of Anthropology, but it belonged to a Chemehuevi woman who was born in Chemehuevi Valley and was in 1908 living in Mohave Valley, married to a Mohave who was himself half-Chemehuevi. She had made the jar many years before: in fact, it was the first and last pottery vessel she attempted, she said. The ware is definitely paler than Mohave pottery: a sort of half-yellow. It bears on its upper half a red pattern, but this is fainter than most Mohave patterns, and most resembles occasional fishnet patterns on the under sides or backs of Mohave bowls, platters, or spoons. It has 42 vertical (radiating) lines and 7 horizontal (encircling) lines, resulting in 252 hollow quadrilaterals. The vessel also has two mends or strengthenings with lumps of black gum. The overall height, 225 mm., is 75 per cent of the maximum body diameter, 300 mm., which comes at about 100 mm., or less than halfway up. The mouth and neck diameters are 69 and 58 mm., or 23 per cent and 19 per cent of the body diameter.
POTTERY OBJECTS OTHER THAN VESSELS
Two figures idly modeled, or serving as toys—made for sale, it was said—were found in a household: a lizard and a hummingbird, plate 7,j,k, nos. 1726, 1727. They seem at least partly baked, but have since been washed with yellow ocher, which would turn to red on baking. The bird also has a white-painted beak and spots.
I saw pottery human figures and dolls, both with and without hair of shredded cottonwood bark, cradles, etc., offered for sale by Mohave women to tourists on the station platform—Needles was a scheduled 25-minute meal stop for most trains. I did not purchase any of these, nor any small platters or handled jugs or cups, which were sometimes also offered. This was perhaps a mistake; but I was eager to impress on the Indians generally that my interest was in native, nontourist objects. While material was occasionally brought to me in town, this was uncommon, and I secured most of it from Mohave houses, especially native-style ones across the river in Arizona. Typically, the bows and arrows hawked by a few old men at the trains for twenty-five cents were not the plain long Mohave willow bows, but red- and blue-painted miniature willow imitations of the Chemehuevi retroflex horn or composite bow.
Pipes, short and tubular, are made of pottery. Plate 7,l (no. 4264), was made for a boy, and was unfinished, remaining unbaked. Plate 7,m (no. 13870), is a fragment, 62 mm. long, about 11 through the mouth end, 19 at the break, buff-colored, with gray (overfired) paste at the fracture. I secured at least one other pipe, no. 1719, which cannot at present be found in the Museum.
Pot rests, put under the large tšuváva cookpots, were made of clay, as shown in plate 7,n,o.