The following remarks are extracted from the unpublished “Catalogue of the Relics of the Ancient Builders of the Southwest Tablelands,” by Mr. Thomas V. Keam:
“The Maltese cross is the emblem of a virgin; still so recognized by the Mokis. It is a conventional development of a more common emblem of maidenhood, the form in which the maidens wear their hair arranged as a disk of three or four inches in diameter upon each side of the head. This discoidal arrangement of their hair is typical of the emblem of fructification, worn by the maiden in the Muingwa festival. Sometimes the hair, instead of being worn in the complete discoid form, is dressed from two curved twigs, and presents the form of two semi-circles upon each side of the head. The partition of these is sometimes horizontal and sometimes vertical. A combination of both of these styles presents the form from which the Maltese cross was conventionalized. The brim decorations are of ornamental locks of hair which a maiden trains to grow upon the sides of the forehead.”
This strongly marked form of Maltese cross, the origin of which is above explained, appears frequently in the pottery, and also in the petroglyphs of the Moki.
Regarding the apparent subject matter of pictographs an obvious distinction may be made between hunting and land scenes such as would be familiar to interior tribes and those showing fishing and water transportation common to seaboard and lacustrine peoples. Similar and more perspicuous modes of discrimination are available. The general scope of known history, traditions, and myths may also serve in identification.
Knowledge of the priscan homes and of the migrations of tribes necessary to ascertain their former habitat in connection with the probable age of rock-etchings or paintings is manifestly desirable.