Waiyautitsa of Zuñi, New Mexico
The figure is a conventionalization showing how the girls let the bang fall over the face in the dance; the painted flat board headdress worn by them in the harvest dance, and the tablet they carry in each hand. The jar, out of which the figure grows, is a typical Zuñi water jar. The bowl at top is a sacred meal bowl. The side borders are from altar paintings, showing animal spirits. Prayer sticks.
Zuñi Pictures
Background and borders, a paraphrase of the ceremonial blanket, of Hopi weave. At bottom, the box with notched stick on top, used in the sword-swallowing ceremony. Over it, the war-god image. The sticks with turkey feathers are the “swords” that are swallowed. Zuñi masks.
Havasupai Days
View in Cataract Cañon. Bow and skin quivers. Cooking bowls of earthenware. Horn ladles. A carrying-basket.
Earth-tongue, a Mohave
View of the Needles, on Colorado River. Above, Spiders, Scorpion, Ant, Serpent. The two Ravens. Below, bow, arrows, war clubs, pottery utensils.
The Chief Singer of the Tepecano
The landscape pictures the belief in the omnipresence of the sacred serpent in nature’s manifestations: the storm cloud, rain, springs, rivers, wind. The hawk is a sacred bird. The ornament is typical of a rich variety of patterns; those used here are largely rain or water symbols. Ears of corn, and under the shield, the conventional representation of the steel for striking fire.