Fig. 354.—Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.—1/2.
It is manifestly useless to seek for their antecedents within the limits of the ceramic art. A few are of such a shape as to suggest the skin vessels so often used by primitive peoples, and their origin in this manner would be entirely consistent with the laws of art growth. One variety is shaped somewhat like a shoe or moccasin. Another takes the form of a bird. In regard to their origin it would indeed be a marvel if they should be found to represent an intermediate step between the skin vessels of primitive peoples and the conventional pitcher of civilization, as corresponding shapes are thought to do in Eastern countries.
Fig. 355.—Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.—1/3.
Within the Pueblo province these vessels are widely but not very generally distributed, so far as specimens at hand show. I have already described two examples, Figs. 255 and 256, from Saint George, Utah, which are of the simplest type, having three nodes with no suggestion of life form.
Fig. 356.—Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.—1/2.
In Fig. 354 we have a small, well-finished cup of white ware, from Tusayan, similar in outline to the Saint George specimens. One of the three somewhat pointed nodes is considerably more prominent than the others. The handle is unique, being modeled apparently after the curved neck of a gourd, the pointed tip touching but not uniting with the body of the vessel. This vessel is handsomely decorated with two bands of scrolls. That upon the neck is of a usual form consisting of three sets of linked scrolls with zigzag or stepped connecting fillets. The scrolls of the lower bands interlock upon the three nodes and are connected by broad Z-shaped stems also stepped or notched. This specimen is from the Keam collection.
Another smaller vessel, still more unique in character, is illustrated in Fig. 355. One of the nodes is very much prolonged, giving, with the upright neck, a form rudely suggestive of a bird. The ornament, like the last, consists of two bands. The upper is of diamond-shaped figures in white upon a black ground, and the lower of a cleverly managed meander, which is made to conform neatly to the eccentricities of the body. The hooks encircle the nodes as in the preceding case.
A smaller specimen is given in Fig. 356. The node next the handle being prolonged resembles the tail of a bird, while the other nodes, which would occupy the place of the two prominences of the breast, are barely suggested. The decoration is extremely simple.