A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth | Page 6

thus made ready for use. The seeds or
other substances to be parched are placed inside of it, together with a
quantity of glowing wood-coals. The operator, quickly squatting,
grasps the tray at opposite edges, and, by a rapid spiral motion up and
down, succeeds in keeping the coals and seeds constantly shifting
places and turning over as they dance after one another around and
around the tray, meanwhile blowing or puffing, the embers with every
breath to keep them free from ashes and glowing at their hottest.
That this clay lining should grow hard from continual heating, and in
some instances separate from its matrix of osiers, is apparent. The clay
form thus detached would itself be a perfect roasting-vessel.
POTTERY SUGGESTED BY CLAY-LINED BASKETRY.
This would suggest the agency of gradual heat in rendering clay fit for
use in cookery and preferable to any previous makeshift. The modern
Zuñi name for a parching-pan, which is a shallow bowl of black-ware,
is _thlé mon ne_, the name for a basket-tray being _thlä´ lin ne_. The
latter name signifies a shallow vessel of twigs, or _thlá we_; the former
etymologically interpreted, although of earthenware, is a hemispherical
vessel of the same kind and material. All this would indicate that the
_thlä´ lin ne_, coated with clay for roasting, had given birth to the _thlé
mon ne_, or parching-pan of earthenware. (See Fig. 502.)
[Illustration: FIG. 502.--Zuñi earthenware roasting tray.]
Among the Havasupaí, still surviving as a sort of bucket, is the
basket-pot or boiling-basket, for use with hot stones, which form I have
also found in some of the cave deposits throughout the ancient Zuñi
country. These vessels (see Fig. 503) were bottle-shaped and provided
near the rims of their rather narrow mouths with a sort of cord or
strap-handle, attached to two loops or eyes (Fig. 503 _a_) woven into
the basket, to facilitate handling when the vessel was filled with hot
water. In the manufacture of one of these vessels, which are good
examples of the helix or spirally-coiled type of basket, the beginning

was made at the center of the bottom. A small wisp of fine, flexible
grass stems or osiers softened in water was first spirally wrapped a little
at one end with a flat, limber splint of tough wood, usually willow (see
Fig. 504). This wrapped portion was then wound upon itself; the outer
coil thus formed (see Fig. 505) being firmly fastened as it progressed to
the one already made by passing the splint wrapping of the wisp each
time it was wound around the latter through some strands of the
contiguous inner coil, with the aid of a bodkin. (See Fig. 506.) The
bottom was rounded upward and the sides were made by coiling the
wisp higher and higher, first outward, to produce the bulge of the vessel,
then inward, to form the tapering upper part and neck, into which, the
two little twigs or splint loop-eyes were firmly woven. (See again Fig.
503 a.)
[Illustration: FIG. 503.--Havasupaí boiling-basket.]
[Illustration: FIG. 504. FIG. 505. FIG. 506. Sketches illustrating
manufacture of spirally-coiled basketry.]
[Illustration: FIG. 507.--Typical basket decoration.]
[Illustration: FIG. 508.--Typical basket decoration.]
[Illustration: FIG. 509.--Typical basket decoration.]
These and especially kindred forms of basket-vessels were often quite
elaborately ornamented, either by the insertion at proper points of dyed
wrapping-splints, singly, in pairs, or in sets, or by the alternate painting
of pairs, sets, or series of stitches. Thus were produced angular devices,
like serrated bands, diagonal or zigzag lines, chevrons, even terraces
and frets. (See Figs. 507, 508, 509.) There can be no doubt that these
styles and ways of decoration were developed, along with the weaving
of baskets, simply by elaborating on suggestions of the lines and
figures unavoidably produced in wicker-work of any kind when strands
of different colors happened to be employed together. Even slight
discolorations in occasional splints would result in such suggestions,
for the stitches would here show, there disappear. The probability of
this view of the accidental origin of basket-ornamentation may be

enhanced by a consideration of the etymology of a few Zuñi decorative
terms, more of which might be given did space admit. A terraced
lozenge (see Figs. 510, 511), instead of being named after the abstract
word _a wi thlui ap í pä tchi na_, which signifies a double terrace or
two terraces joined together at the base, is designated _shu k'u tu li a
tsi´ nan_, from shu e, splints or fibers; _k'u tsu_, a double fold, space,
or stitch (see Figs. 512, 513); li a, an interpolation referring to form;
and _tsi´ nan_, mark; in other words, the "double splint-stitch-form
mark." Likewise, a pattern, composed principally of a series of
diagonal or oblique parallel lines en masse (see Fig. 514), is called
_shu´ k'ish pa