BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXVI
DOUBLE-LOBE VASES FROM SIKYATKI
The symbolism of Püükoñhoya at the present day consists of parallel marks on the face or body, and when personated by a man the figure is always represented as carrying weapons of war, such as a bow and arrows. Images of the same hero are used in ceremonies, and are sometimes found as household gods or penates, which are fed as if human beings. A fragment of pottery represented in the accompanying illustration ([figure 263]), shows enough of the head of a personage to indicate that Püükoñhoya was intended, for it bears on the cheek the two parallel marks symbolic of that deity, while in his hands he holds a bow and a jointed arrow as if shooting an unknown animal. All of these features are in harmony with the identification of the figure with that of the cultus-hero mentioned, and seem to indicate the truth of the current legend that as a mythologic conception he is of great antiquity in Tusayan.
Fig. 263—War god shooting an animal. (Fragment of food bowl.)
In this connection it may be instructive to call attention to two figures on a food bowl collected by Mr H. R. Voth from a ruin near Oraibi. It represents a man and a woman, the former with two horns, a crescent on the forehead, and holding in his outstretched hand a staff. The woman has a curious gorget, similar to some which I have found in ruins near Tusayan, and a belt like those still worn by Pueblo Indians. This smaller figure likewise has a crescent on its face and three strange appendages on each side of the head.
Another food basin in Mr Voth's collection is also instructive, and is different in its decoration from any which I have found. The character of the ware is ancient, but the figure is decidedly modern. If, however, it should prove to be an ancient vessel it would carry back to the time of its manufacture the existence of the katcina cult in Tusayan, no actual proof of the existence of which, at a time when Sikyatki was in its prime, has yet been discovered.
The three figures represent Hahaiwüqti, Hewüqti, and Natacka exactly as these supernatural beings are now personated at Walpi in the Powamû, as described and figured in a former memoir.[133]