The distinctive feature of [figure 306] is the square, with rectangular designs appended to diagonally opposite angles and small triangles at intermediate corners. These designs have a distant resemblance to figures later referred to as highly conventionalized birds, although they may be merely simple geometrical patterns which have lost their symbolic meaning.
Fig. 308—Crook, feathers, and parallel lines
[Figure 307] shows a complicated design, introducing at least two elements in addition to rectangles and triangles. One of these is a curved crook etched on a black ground. In no other exterior decoration have curved lines been found except in the form of circles, and it is worthy of note how large a proportion of the figures are drawn in straight lines. The circular figures with three parallel lines extending from them are found so constantly in exterior decorations, and are so strikingly like some of the figures elsewhere discussed, that I have ventured a suggestion in regard to their meaning. I believe they represent feathers, because the tail-feathers of certain birds are symbolized in that manner, and their number corresponds with those generally depicted in the highly conventionalized tails of birds. With this thought in mind, it may be interesting to compare the two projections, one on each side of the three tail-feathers of this figure, with the extremity of the body of a bird shown in [plate cxli], e. On the supposition that a bird figure was intended in this design, it is interesting also to note the rectangular decorations of the body and the association with stars made of three blocks in several bird figures, as already described. It is instructive also to note the fact that the figure of a maid represented in [plate cxxix], a, has two of the round designs with appended parallel lines hanging to her garment, and four parallel marks drawn from her blanket. It is still customary in Hopi ceremonials to tie feathers to the garments of those who personate certain mythic beings, and it is possible that such was also the custom at Sikyatki. If so, it affords additional evidence that the parallel lines are representations of feathers.
Fig. 309—Crooks and feathers
