These consist of pestles and mortars for grinding pigments; circular mortars, in which certain articles of food are bruised or ground; metates, or stones used for grinding wheat and corn; axes, hatchets, celts, mauls, scrapers &c.
The cutting, splitting, pounding, perforating, and scraping implements are generally derived from schists, basaltic, trachytic, and porphyritic rocks, and those for grinding and crushing foods are more or less composed of coarse lava and compact sandstones. Quite a number of the metate rubbing stones and a large number of the axes are composed of a very hard, heavy, and curiously mottled rock, a specimen of which was submitted to Dr. George W. Hawes, Curator of Mineralogy to the National Museum, for examination, and of which he says:
“This rock, which was so extensively employed by the Pueblo Indians for the manufacture of various utensils, has proved to be composed largely of quartz, intermingled with which is a fine, fibrous, radiated substance, the optical properties of which demonstrate it to be fibrolite. In addition, the rock is filled with minute crystals of octahedral form which are composed of magnetite, and scattered through the rock are minute yellow crystals of rutile. The red coloration which these specimens possess is due to thin films of hematite. The rock is therefore fibrolite schist, and from a lithological standpoint it is very interesting. The fibrolite imparts the toughness to the rock, which, I should judge, would increase its value for the purposes to which the Indians applied it.”
The axes, hatchets, mauls, and other implements used for cutting, splitting, or piercing are generally more or less imperfect, worn, chipped, or otherwise injured. This condition is to be accounted for by the fact that they are all of ancient manufacture; an implement of this kind being rarely, if ever, made by the Indians at the present day. They are usually of a hard volcanic rock, not employed by the present inhabitants in the manufacture of implements. They have in most cases been collected from the ruins of the Mesa and Cliff dwellers, by whose ancestors they were probably made. I was unable to learn of a single instance in which one of these had been made by the modern Indians. In nearly all cases the edges, once sharp and used for cutting, splitting, or piercing, are much worn and blunt from use in pounding or other purposes than that for which they were originally intended. On more than one occasion I have observed a woman using the edge of a handsome stone axe in pulverizing volcanic rock to mix with clay for making pottery. Nearly all the edged stone implements are thus injured. Those showing the greatest perfection were either too small to utilize in this manner or had but recently been discovered when we obtained them.
The grinders and mortars are frequently found composed of softer
rock, either ferruginous sandstone or gritty clays. For a more complete knowledge of these stone implements we must depend on a comparative study of large collections from different localities, and such information as the circumstances attending their discovery may impart, rather than upon their present condition or the uses for which they are now employed.
Metates or grain-grinders, pestles and rubbing stones belong to the milling industry among the Indians. The metates are generally quite large and heavy, and could not well be transported with the limited means at the command of Indians. They are therefore well adapted to the uses of village Indians, who remain permanently in a place and prosecute agricultural pursuits. They are generally of rectangular shape, and from 10 to 20 inches in length by 6 to 12 in width, and are composed of various kinds of rock, the harder, coarse-grained kinds being preferable, though in some instances sandstone is employed; the most desirable stone is porous lava. These stones are sometimes carried with families of the Pueblos moving short distances to the valleys of streams in which they have farms in cultivation. In the permanent villages they are arranged in small rectangular bins (see Fig. [508]), each about 20 inches wide and deep, the whole series ranging from 5 to 10 feet in length, according to the number of bins or divisions. The walls are usually of sandstone. In each compartment one of these metates or grinding stones is firmly set at a proper angle to make it convenient to the kneeling female grinder. In this arrangement of the slabs those of different degrees of texture are so placed as to produce an increased degree of fineness to the meal or flour as it is passed from one to the other. But a small number of these slabs were collected on account of their great weight. Accompanying these metates are long, slim, flat stones, which are rubbed up and down the slabs, thus crushing the grain. These hand-stones are worn longitudinally into various shapes; some have two flat sides, while the third side remains oval. The same variety exists in regard to the texture of these rubbing-stones, as in the concave grinders.
The pueblo of Zuñi, from which the most important portion of the collection was obtained, is situated in New Mexico, near the western border, about two hundred miles southwest from Santa Fé.
At the time of Coronado’s visit to this country the pueblo was located at what is now known as “Old Zuñi,” on the summit of a high mesa. The modern Zuñi is situated upon a knoll in the valley of the Zuñi River, about two miles from the site of the old town. Certain writers have regarded Zuñi, or rather “Old Zuñi,” as one of the “Seven Cities of Cibola.” The evidences found at and around both the old and present Zuñi are certainly not sufficient to warrant this view, and further and more careful investigations are necessary.
Zuñi, although lying on the line of travel of military expeditions, emigrant trains, and trade between the Pacific coast and the Rio Grande, the foreigners visiting them have seldom remained long in their village;