A very large number of pictures of the horned snake from localities all over the Southwest might be mentioned, but a few examples are adequate to show how widespread the conception was in ancient times. They occur among the Tewa, Keres, Zuñi, Hopi and other Pueblos and vary greatly in details, but in all instances preserve the essential symbolic feature—a horn on the head and a serpentine body.
The horned serpent is known to the Hopi as the plumed serpent, and when represented by them has a bundle of hawk feathers as well as a horn attached to the head. Effigies of this being, also with horn and feathers, are used in several ceremonies, as the Winter Solstice,[46] and a dramatic festival[47] which occurs yearly in March. Wooden representations of the same horned snake are carried as insignia by a warrior society called the Kwakwantu,[48] in the New Fire Ceremony. The priests of the Tewan pueblo, Hano, among the Hopi also have effigies of the horned snake, the worship of which their ancestors brought to Arizona from New Mexico. These effigies are yearly made of clay and form conspicuous objects on the December altars of that pueblo.
Fig. 28.—Serpent. Osborn Ruin. (Osborn collection. E. D. O. Jr. del.)
The head shown in [figure 28] has a horn curving forward almost identical with that on the head of a horned serpent on a bowl from Casas Grandes in the Heye collection. Its gracefully sinuous body is decorated with alternating geometric figures, curves and straight lines.[49] Accompanying the figure of a serpent is a well-drawn picture of a turtle which is decorated on the carapace with a rectangular area on which is painted a geometric figure recalling that on bodies of birds and some other animals.
FISHES
One of the bowls ([fig. 30]) from the Oldtown ruin has two fishes depicted on opposite sides of the inner surface. These fishes resemble trout and are of different colors, black and reddish brown figures painted on a white ground. They are represented as hanging from two parallel lines surrounding the rim of the bowl. These fishes are so well drawn that there is no doubt what animal was intended to be here represented. On the interior of another bowl excavated by the author at Oldtown there is a picture of a fish which recalls the two just mentioned.[50] It may be mentioned that fishes are not represented in the beautiful specimens of pottery from Sikyatki,[51] possibly for the simple reason that there are no streams containing fish in the neighborhood of Hopi ruins. In the Mimbres, however, fish are still found and were no doubt formerly abundant and well known to the prehistoric inhabitants,[52] being looked upon by them as water symbols in much the same way as the frog is at present regarded by Zuñi and Hopi.
Fig. 30.—Fish. Oldtown Ruin. Diam. 9″.
Another fish figured on a bowl from Oldtown, is unfortunately broken near the tail. The accompanying decoration has apparently another figure behind this fish, but its complete form is obscured by the perforation made in killing the vessel.