Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections Obtained from the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona in 187 | Page 4

very largely of vessels and other
articles of pottery, yet it embraces almost every object necessary to
illustrate the domestic life and art of the tribes from whom the largest
number of the specimens were obtained. It includes, in addition to
pottery, implements of war and hunting, articles used in domestic
manufactures, articles of clothing and personal adornment, basketry,
trappings for horses, images, toys, stone implements, musical
instruments, and those used in games and religious ceremonies, woven
fabrics, foods prepared and unprepared, paints for decorating pottery
and other objects, earths of which their pottery is manufactured,
mineral pigments, medicines, vegetable dyestuffs, &c. But the chief
value of the collection is undoubtedly the great variety of vessels and
other articles of pottery which it contains. In this respect it is perhaps
the most complete that has been made from the pueblos. Quite a
number of articles of this group may perhaps be properly classed as
"ancient," and were obtained more or less uninjured; but by far the
larger portion are of modern manufacture.
ARTICLES OF STONE.
These consist of pestles and mortars for grinding pigments; circular
mortars, in which certain articles of food are bruised or ground; metates,
or stones used for grinding wheat and corn; axes, hatchets, celts, mauls,
scrapers &c.
The cutting, splitting, pounding, perforating, and scraping implements
are generally derived from schists, basaltic, trachytic, and porphyritic
rocks, and those for grinding and crushing foods are more or less
composed of coarse lava and compact sandstones. Quite a number of

the metate rubbing stones and a large number of the axes are composed
of a very hard, heavy, and curiously mottled rock, a specimen of which
was submitted to Dr. George W. Hawes, Curator of Mineralogy to the
National Museum, for examination, and of which he says:
"This rock, which was so extensively employed by the Pueblo Indians
for the manufacture of various utensils, has proved to be composed
largely of quartz, intermingled with which is a fine, fibrous, radiated
substance, the optical properties of which demonstrate it to be fibrolite.
In addition, the rock is filled with minute crystals of octahedral form
which are composed of magnetite, and scattered through the rock are
minute yellow crystals of rutile. The red coloration which these
specimens possess is due to thin films of hematite. The rock is
therefore fibrolite schist, and from a lithological standpoint it is very
interesting. The fibrolite imparts the toughness to the rock, which, I
should judge, would increase its value for the purposes to which the
Indians applied it."
The axes, hatchets, mauls, and other implements used for cutting,
splitting, or piercing are generally more or less imperfect, worn,
chipped, or otherwise injured. This condition is to be accounted for by
the fact that they are all of ancient manufacture; an implement of this
kind being rarely, if ever, made by the Indians at the present day. They
are usually of a hard volcanic rock, not employed by the present
inhabitants in the manufacture of implements. They have in most cases
been collected from the ruins of the Mesa and Cliff dwellers, by whose
ancestors they were probably made. I was unable to learn of a single
instance in which one of these had been made by the modern Indians.
In nearly all cases the edges, once sharp and used for cutting, splitting,
or piercing, are much worn and blunt from use in pounding or other
purposes than that for which they were originally intended. On more
than one occasion I have observed a woman using the edge of a
handsome stone axe in pulverizing volcanic rock to mix with clay for
making pottery. Nearly all the edged stone implements are thus injured.
Those showing the greatest perfection were either too small to utilize in
this manner or had but recently been discovered when we obtained
them.

The grinders and mortars are frequently found composed of softer rock,
either ferruginous sandstone or gritty clays. For a more complete
knowledge of these stone implements we must depend on a
comparative study of large collections from different localities, and
such information as the circumstances attending their discovery may
impart, rather than upon their present condition or the uses for which
they are now employed.
Metates or grain-grinders, pestles and rubbing stones belong to the
milling industry among the Indians. The metates are generally quite
large and heavy, and could not well be transported with the limited
means at the command of Indians. They are therefore well adapted to
the uses of village Indians, who remain permanently in a place and
prosecute agricultural pursuits. They are generally of rectangular shape,
and from 10 to 20 inches in length by 6 to 12 in width, and are
composed of various kinds of rock, the harder, coarse-grained kinds
being preferable, though in