University of Virginia Library

OBJECTS OF WOOD OR FIBER

Prayer sticks.—"The most important and valuable gift to the gods
is the prayer stick" (Bunzel, 1932a, p. 499). To quote Parsons (1939,
p. 270):

Prayer sticks are usually of willow and made from living wood.
Dead wood is never utilized because prayer sticks are regarded as
animate beings, as messengers. They vary in length and complexity
of dress to meet the fixed requirements of the rite with which each
kind is associated. They are specially made and are expended within
a few hours or, at most, within a few days of manufacture. For these
reasons one does not expect to find prayer sticks about a Pueblo
village, historic or prehistoric.

The sections of peeled willow shown on plate 78, figs. w and x, and
on plate 38, fig. l, might be leftovers from prayer-stick making. One
end of the shorter specimen was rubbed smooth; the other three
were left as severed, ringed about with a flint knife and then broken.

Each ritual has its own special kind of prayer stick. No two are
precisely alike, but all or nearly all require feathers—feathers from
designated parts of certain birds. Turkey feathers, and preferably

wild turkey, are utilized most frequently, yet I venture to guess that
every other bird native to the Southwest except, possibly, three
carrion-feeders—the crow, raven, and turkey buzzard—is likewise
called upon.

So great was the demand for turkey feathers for prayer-stick making
at Zuñi in the autumn of 1939 that I was repeatedly implored
during a 2-hour visit the week before Thanksgiving to mail a quantity
from the butcher shops of Gallup—"any kind of turkey feather."

Parrot and macaw feathers likewise were urgently needed. The
truly handsome bird I gave the Macaw clan in 1924 was still alive,
but it had been pretty thoroughly plucked. Brought from an inner
room to be photographed, it protested bitterly and fluffed its ragged
coat in an effort to multiply its scant protection (pl. 75).

The bird had been presented because, without conscious selection
on our part, most of the Zuñi we took to Chaco Canyon were Macaw,
and they told me a live macaw had not been seen in Zuñi within
memory of their oldest men. The feathers they annually needed for
prayer sticks and other purposes had been purchased from Santo
Domingo where two macaws were privately owned. After plucking
feathers, my informants said, the owners professed to control the new
growth by rubbing over the empty follicles "paint" of the desired
color.[1]

The Macaw group has long been numerically important at Zuñi.
It was strong, too, at Pueblo Bonito. This is evidenced by the fact
that we recovered no less than 10 articulated skeletons and a number
of miscellaneous bones. Eight of the ten are Ara macao; the other
two, A. militaris. Three had been buried in Room 306, one lay on the
floor in the southwest alcove of Room 309, four were found under
the wreckage in Room 249, and two were exposed during the cutting
of our stratigraphic section through the east refuse mound. In addition,
three articulated skeletons were unearthed during our explorations
in Pueblo del Arroyo.

Room 249, originally one with 248, had been separated from the
latter by a rude partition and then divided by a flimsy floor introduced
at a height of 7 feet. The uppermost of the two chambers so formed,
4 feet high and entered solely from the dwelling above, had but a
single wall opening—a 11½-x-9-inch ventilator, close under the beams,
which sloped up and outward to vent at the level of the terrace surrounding
Kiva E. That ventilator, and the ceiling hatch when open,
supplied such light as reached the upper chamber. From the latter a
floor hatchway was the only means by which light and air filtered
down into the lower chamber. And yet the lower chamber was designed
and utilized as a cage for live macaws. Their excrement lay
upon the floor and upon the remains of an adobe-surfaced shelf, 40
inches wide, which had extended across the east end of the room at a
height of 3 feet 8 inches. Shelf, introduced floor, and the original
first-story ceiling had all crashed down into the lower chamber with
collapse of the second-story walls. Under this ruin, on or near the
floor, lay four articulated skeletons of Ara macao and the skull of a
fifth. One of the skeletons, in situ, is shown on plate 76, lower.

That these tropical birds had been confined some time in their dark,
ill-ventilated quarters, into which no ray of sunlight could possibly
penetrate, is evidenced by the fact that their breast bones were deformed,
the sternal keel being bent to one side, as in figure b, plate 76,
upper. From remains conspicuous among the room's debris, we know
these captives were fed pinyon nuts, squash seeds, and roasted cornon-the-cob.
This fare could scarcely cause the deformity mentioned,
but utter lack of sunlight might.

We recovered two other articulated bird skeletons—that of a redtailed
hawk, found on the floor at the south end of Room 264 (pl.
76, middle) and that of a thick-billed parrot, buried in Room 308. The
skull of a second parrot of this same species was exposed by our east
refuse-mound trench.

Since the known range of the thick-billed parrot—the pine belt in
the mountains of middle and northern Mexico[2] —is nearer than that

of the macaws, one would naturally suppose that parrots were held
captive at Pueblo Bonito more frequently than their larger cousins.
But our data indicate the contrary. Or perhaps the ceremonial importance
of macaw feathers outweighed the accessibility of parrot
feathers. At any rate, we have record of only six parrots from the
ruin—the two above mentioned and four skeletons, unidentified as to
species, found by Pepper in Rooms 71 and 78. In contrast, the Hyde
Expeditions and the National Geographic Expeditions together recovered
24 macaw skeletons, in addition to many detached bones. Of
these skeletons, 16 are Ara militaris, the green macaw which lives in
the highlands of Mexico from southern Sonora to northern Oaxaca,
while 8 are A. macao, the gorgeous red, blue, and yellow species which
ranges the hot tropical lowlands from southern Tamaulipas, on the
east coast of Mexico, southward through Central America to Bolivia
and Brazil.

Casual search of the archeological literature reveals no reference to
parrot or macaw remains from a southwestern ruin earlier than Pueblo
III. Tentatively, therefore, we may assume that Mexican buyers of
Pueblo turquoise and buffalo hides introduced parrot and macaw
feathers as a medium of exchange somewhere around the middle of
the eleventh century. To this dead plumage live birds were soon
added; we may picture them, protesting from cages on the backs of
merchants trotting the long trails across mountain and desert, just as
today we may hear other macaws complain from similar cages on
trails in southern Mexico and Guatemala.

There was nothing novel in trade between Mexican tribes and those
of the Southwest. It began in Basket Maker times or earlier; the
shortest, most feasible routes were well known. Over these footpaths,
native guides led various Spanish expeditions sent to the northwest
frontier of New Galicia in search, first, of the mythical island of the
Amazons and, later, of the fabulous "Seven Cities of Cíbola." It was
the tale of an Indian trader's son—one who had accompanied his
father into the back country to barter feathers for semiprecious stones
—that spurred the notorious Nuño de Guzman in 1530 to his conquests
northward along the Pacific coast. Six years later Cabeza de Vaca,
safe after incredible adventures, told of having seen in Indian villages
on the Río Sonora many turquoises which had been obtained, in
exchange for skins and feathers of parrots, from populous pueblos
farther north. As traders, the Opatas of Sonora were thoroughly
familiar with the Pueblo country; they probably supplied, directly or
indirectly, the thick-billed parrots and the macaws whose remains we
uncovered at Pueblo Bonito.

Including those mentioned above, the following species have been
identified among the bird bones gathered from Bonitian rubbish heaps:

• Redhead duck (Nyroca americana)

• Red-tailed hawk (Buteo borealis)

• Swainson's hawk (Buteo swainsoni)

• Ferruginous rough-legged hawk (Buteo regalis)

• Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)

• Prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus)

• Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

• Sandhill crane (Grus mexicana)

• Macaw (Ara macao; A. militaris)

• Thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha)

• Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)

• Magpie (Pica pica hudsonia)

• Raven (Corvus corax)

Presumably these were killed or kept captive for their feathers alone,
since the Pueblos have always shunned winged creatures as a source
of food.

The only preservable feathers unearthed during our explorations
were four, from Old Bonitian Room 298 (fig. 70). They had been
tied together; the proximal half of the vane, and a sliver of quill, had
been cut away from both sides. The four are too altered and faded
for positive identification but appear to be wing feathers of the blue
macaw.

As might be expected, bones of the wild turkey were most numerous
among our avian remains—expected, because the Pueblos had tamed
this native American bird long previously. Turkey pens are frequently
associated with cliff dwellings of the ninth century and later. Spanish
writers of the Conquest period repeatedly mention flocks of turkeys
about the Pueblo villages. At that time turkey feathers were utilized
both for domestic and religious purposes. Today, when feather robes
are no longer made, turkey feathers are still indispensable as prayer
offerings.

Second numerically among the bird bones from Pueblo Bonito are
those of the golden eagle. The Hopi, according to Fewkes (1900a),
regard eagle feathers next in ceremonial importance to turkey feathers,
recognize eagle nests as clan property, take young eagles from the
nest, "purify" them by head washing, and kill them by pressure on
the sternum.

It is said that in former times the Hopi hunter tied a rabbit on top
of a brush-covered pit, concealed himself within, and seized the eagle
by a leg as it dropped upon the prey. Bonitian hunters practiced a
variation of this method by luring the bird within range and then

felling it with a club. We know this because a number of eagle and
hawk sterna in our collection have keels dented by a single sharp blow
struck more or less at right angles (figs. a and c, pl.
76, upper). Since these injuries had healed, it is manifest
the priests of Pueblo Bonito kept the birds captive
for a time, as Zuñi and Hopi priests do, and thus
assured themselves of a ready supply of feathers.

Perhaps the first recorded reference to Pueblo
prayer sticks is that of Castañeda, who observed at
a spring near Acoma a cross-shaped offering "and
many little sticks decorated with feathers around it,
and numerous withered flowers . . ." (Winship,
1896, p. 544). At Acoma today, as in 1540, "all important
occasions must be preceded by, or accompanied
with, the making and depositing of prayer
sticks. . . . They are made before all masked dances,
the solstice ceremonies, at birth, and at death, for all
important ceremonial occasions are intimately concerned
with the supernatural world, and prayer sticks
are the most formal and satisfactory means of establishing
the desired rapport with the spirits" (White,
1932, p. 69).

Prayer feathers are downy feathers, bunched or
tied individually to a string. They are offerings or
gifts to the spirits in return for an expected favorable
response to a prayer. Currently they are more widely
made and more frequently used even than prayer
sticks (Parsons, 1939, pp. 285-291). Being light and
fragile as down, prayer feathers naturally could not
survive long under ordinary conditions. We found
none in the ruins of Pueblo Bonito but, knowing at
least some of the birds captured there, we may be
sure prayer feathers were also made and deposited.

"Ceremonial sticks" is the term under which Pepper
described certain long wooden artifacts he recovered
in surprising numbers. About 375 were
standing in the northwest corner of Room 32, nearly
buried by accumulated sand. All were specially carved
at one end and gradually tapering at the opposite.

Fig. 70.—Feathers
from Room
298.

According to the nature of their specialization, Pepper (1920, p. 143)
divided them into four classes:

• 1. With two knobs, the upper one sometimes perforated.

• 2. End shaped like a bear claw.

---

268





• 3. Broad, spatulate end.

• 4. Wedge-shaped, sometimes bound with buckskin and cord.

A cord was attached to the carved end of 14 specimens; pairs of small
curved sticks were tied to three. In Room 33, adjoining, about 30
more ceremonial sticks were exposed, five of them having been thrust
for safekeeping between ceiling poles (Pepper, 1909, p. 197).

Fig. 71.—Fragment
of a "ceremonial
stick."

Only the first two types are represented among
the 16 fragments unearthed during the Society's
investigations. The six illustrated by figures a-f,
plate 38, belong to type I, although a, less likely b,
apparently lacked the lower knob. Specimen e is of
special interest since it was not only hollow but
tightly fitted inside with a wooden tube whose
beveled end projects beyond the broken lower edge
of the shaft. The spool-like knob on this fragment
is the lowermost of the two that identify type I. It
is present on five of our specimens; grooved
around on four of them. The flattish end knob,
preserved in four instances, is pierced by a semilunar
hole in three cases. Only one fragment bears
visible traces of paint—green at the tip, black between
knobs (fig. 71).

Of our eight fragments in this group, five came
from a Late Bonitian storeroom. No. 202; one
each from Old Bonitian storerooms 298 and 299;
one, figure d, plate 38, from a floor repository in
Kiva N. Unfortunately, this latter fragment is all
we salvaged from a dozen or more specimens
standing in the hole. Several had knobs at or near
one end; the opposite end was rounded or somewhat tapered. Of
those measured, the longest was 15 inches but my notes fail to state
whether or not it was complete. The repository, 11 inches in diameter
by 23 inches deep, was plastered with adobe and floored with 2 inches
of shale. In the plaster of the north side, one of the sticks had left its
partial imprint.

A comparable storage place in Kiva R was lined with masonry. It
measured, inside, 8½ by 11½ inches by 29 inches deep and abutted the
face of an older bench immediately below the north bench recess.
Although empty, the vault had been closed by a fitted slab, countersunk
to floor level.

Three nearly complete examples of type-II ceremonial sticks are
shown on plate 71, figure l, and plate 72, figures e and f, and five

fragments are represented in figure 72, a-e. Each was made from a
forked shoot by cutting away one branch and flattening the other on
the inside so that it could be bent over. None of the eight has been
identified, but five look like greasewood and two may be cottonwood
or willow.

Sticks crooked at one end find repeated place on modern Pueblo
altars. They may lack the length and the "bear claw" hook of ours
from Pueblo Bonito, but they at least suggest the function of the
latter. Of 31 sticks surrounding the Antelope Fraternity's Snake
Dance altar, 15 are about one-fourth inch in diameter by 18 inches
long, bent at one end, and painted black. They represent deceased
members of the fraternity (Fewkes, 1894, p. 23). So, too, with crooks
on the altar of the Marau Society.

Voth (1901, p. 76) says: "The crook is in Hopi ceremoniology the
symbol of life in its various stages." Parsons (1939, p. 163) is more
explicit: "Crooks represent the wise old men bent with age; the long
prayer sticks, the younger unbent members." At Acoma a crook is
offered the traveler on the eve of his departure on a long journey, or
one that seems long in the experience of his relatives (ibid., p. 307).

As a sort of standard, a large crook with feathers and an ear of corn
attached is carried in certain Zuñi and Hopi ceremonies (Parsons,
1939, pp. 325, 328). Participants in races connected with a women's
ceremony at Walpi touch with the palm of their hand a crook held
upright by one of the priests (Fewkes and Owens, 1892, pp. 123, 126).
Pautiwa, chief of the Kachina gods, distributes at the Zuñi winter
solstice crooks of appointment to those who are to take a leading part
in the principal ceremonies (Bunzel, 1932b, p. 909). It is thus obvious
that crooks have a varied significance in the several pueblos but are
always symbolic.

Our eight examples of type-II sticks were recovered in three separate
rooms. Half came from two Late Bonitian storerooms, 203 and
304; half from Old Bonitian Room 320. On the floor in the southeast
corner of this burial chamber lay specimen l, plate 71; elsewhere in
the same room we found the three fragments, figures a, b, and e,
figure 72. The largest of the three is all we saved of a ceremonial
stick under the outstretched but displaced right hand of Skeleton 2
(pl. 91, upper). Fragments of like crooks were observed in the adjoining
burial room, 326.

At Zuñi, perhaps also in other Pueblo villages, new homes are
dedicated with an offering of prayer sticks and turquoise buried in the
walls. It is an old custom, inherited from the past. Quite by accident
we happened upon such an offering, including shell and turquoise,

Fig. 72.—Fragments of ceremonial staves (a-e) and three staff attachments.

where the partition separating Rooms 89 and 98 abuts the north wall
of Room 90.

Horizontal cavities a few inches square and long enough to hold
ceremonial sticks of the types under discussion were provided at time
of construction over at least three of the first-floor ventilators in the
rear wall of third-period Bonito—that wall which abuts the outer
northeast corner of Room 267 and extends thence northwest to Room
299 and southeast to 175.

Another such repository, perhaps, was indicated when the Bracedup-cliff
back of Pueblo Bonito collapsed January 22, 1941, and partially
destroyed several walls in the northeast section of the ruin.
Among the wreckage of Room 293 Custodian Lewis T. McKinney
found a type-I ceremonial stick 42½ inches long, and another inch,
more or less, missing from the tip. The carved portion of this staff,
shown in photographs kindly furnished by the National Park Service,
is like that on our painted fragment (fig. 71) except that the end knob
is more oval and its separation from the "handle" more sharply indicated.
Also, the handle is considerably longer and the disk's periphery
is shallowly concave rather than medially grooved. I do not know
whether this fine example was encased in a prepared repository or
embedded directly in the stonework.

At Mummy Cave Tower, Canyon del Muerto, Morris found our
two types paired in the corner masonry and overlapping slightly as
they extended from bottom to top of the three-story wall—"each unit
consisting of a crook and a relatively sturdy member with carved end,
to which were attached two tiny bow-shaped pieces." The two types
were also paired for placement beneath each protruding ceiling timber
of the second and third stories (Morris, 1941, p. 228).

We have no clue to the significance of the paired, bow-shaped pieces.
Pepper (1920, p. 144) reported like pairs bound with yucca cord to
three of his type-I sticks from Room 32. Those we unearthed were all
found singly. The three illustrated as figure 72, f, are from Room 202;
two others came from the adjoining storeroom, 203.

In the cases cited, it is quite evident that the "ceremonial sticks"
were ritually employed. The two types were paired in Mummy Cave
Tower and, like prayer sticks, placed under beams symbolically to
strengthen the ceiling. Other pairs were embedded in corner masonry
to bind the walls together. But the 400-odd from Rooms 32-33 obviously
were among the paraphernalia of some society, stored against
recurrent need.

Pepper's two types were widely distributed throughout the prehistoric
Southwest. Nordenskiöld (1893, pl. 42) shows seven fragments

of type I from Long House, on the Mesa Verde, and Morris
(1919b, pl. 44, f) figures one from nearby Johnson Canyon. Hough
(1914) reports both types among the amazing variety of prayer offerings
he unearthed in Bear Creek Cave, on Blue River. And Fewkes
(1898, pls. 174, 175) reproduces a number of quite comparable fragments
from Sikyatki, a Hopi village destroyed presumably in the
fifteenth century.

Only from Pueblo Bonito do we have Pepper's third and fourth
types of ceremonial stick. But neither here nor elsewhere do we find
the slightest hint as to the manner of their use. Culin's suggestion
(1907, p. 648) that all four types might have been employed for
throwing yoke-shaped billets in a game may be dismissed; so, too,
Cushing's implausible explanations as reported by Pepper (1905a,
pp. 116-117; 1920, p. 145).

Altar-stick tassels (?).—On the floor of Room 299B were a number
of what might have been tasseled attachments for altar sticks. With
them were a few dressed willows from the ceiling, corncobs, and
fragments of abraded boards, all covered by blown sand and masonry
fallen from the third story.

Of the dozen fragmentary examples saved, five are shown on plate
77. Each consists of a principal cord, coiled counterclockwise, apparently
in every instance, and crowded with short, pendent threads. The
main or belt cord may be either yucca or cotton but the fringe strands
are always yucca and from 1¾ to 2¾ inches long.

Each pendent element was made from a few yucca fibers 10 to 14
inches long, tied in the middle with a simple overhand knot, doubled
back from the knot and loosely twisted into a 2-ply string that, in turn,
was doubled over the belt cord and thrust through its own loop (fig.
73) or held in place by a running wrap stitch. The first method was
employed on three-fourths of the fragments. On all but one (fig. a,
pl. 77), the end loops lie on the outer, or visible, side of the coil.

In the second technique each 2-ply string was merely folded in the
middle and hung over the belt cord. The resultant paired strands in
one example are secured by a simple forward-two-back-one wrapped
stitch, while three others employ a more complex tie. We may also
note, in passing, that the latter three use a 2-ply main cord of yucca
fiber and an Apocynum (?) binder, while the former, now lacking its
belt cord, relies upon a cotton string for the wrapping element.

The drawing in figure 74 illustrates our most complete specimen.
Here the main cord is of loosely twisted cotton, single-ply, about 34
inches long, and diminishing in diameter for the last few inches. The
individual fringe strands, nine per inch, are attached by self-looping,

Fig. 73.—Technique of tassel tying.

Fig. 74.—An altar-stick tassel (?).

with the loops visible. Eight counterclockwise coils are bound together
by three or four cotton cords twined spokewise from the center and,
between, by irregularly spaced single stitches that tie two adjoining
coils only.

In this particular example the hole at the center is about threefourths
of an inch in diameter while for two others it is ⅞ and 1⅛,
respectively. Here the fringe strands vary from 1¾ to 2¼ inches in
length; on other specimens they may measure from 2 to 3 inches.

Whether the fringe strings be looped over the belt cord or hung
astraddle, their two ends are seldom of equal length. Always the
longer is that with the knot; the shorter invariably appears frayed.
Rarely is the knot tightly drawn. It lies at, or very near, the end of
the strand, and its sole purpose, apparently, was to hold the fibers
together for twisting. A few threads are double-knotted; many have
no knot at all.

The thought that these fringed coils might possibly have been attached
to standing altar sticks was suggested by the central hole. This
varies from three-fourths inch in diameter to 1⅛ inches on the three
specimens measurable. Among our type-I "ceremonial stick" fragments
are two with lower-knob grooves three-fourths and seveneighths
of an inch in diameter, respectively. The fringed cords, therefore,
could have been coiled about such a groove and stitched in place.
On the other hand, the hole in one specimen (c on pl. 77) is bisected
by a tightly twisted 2-ply yucca thread thrust through the several coils
and with both ends left free.

I know of but one specimen even remotely resembling these fringed,
coiled cords, and that is the "feather ornament" figured by Guernsey
from a Pueblo I cave dwelling on the lower Chinle. In this instance,
however, the looped ends of the doubled threads are tightly drawn
together in a sort of hub from which the free ends radiate. Some of
the knots still hold downy feathers (Guernsey, 1931, p. 94, pl. 49, e).

From Old Bonitian storeroom 298 we recovered fragments of other
fringed artifacts. The pendent elements on these, however, are enlarged
by at least two kinds of wrapped stitches (pl. 83, A). Furthermore,
the individual strands were doubled over the belt cord and
secured in place by twined threads.

In a related but still different specimen (U.S.N.M. No. 335340) the
bundle is composed of four or five dozen threads (apparently very fine
yucca fiber), each knotted in the middle and twisted into a 2-ply string
as in the case of the so-called tassels described above. Here, however,
there is a more complex arrangement.

Twenty-one knotted threads were gathered up and bound with

Apocynum (?) a little over half an inch from the end. Then a couple
of dozen more threads were separated into two approximately equal
lots and tied to either side of the initial bundle half an inch above the
first wrapping. A third and lesser addition was made in the same way
and followed by a fourth wrapping of Apocynum (?) fiber. The end
knots are the simple, overhand kind, sometimes doubled, and without
a trace of feather or other substance.

Altar (?) fragments.—The thin, painted pieces of wood shown on
plate 78, upper, may be from broken altar screens or tablets. Fragment
m, one-fourth inch thick and beveled toward its notched edge,

is slightly rounded at both ends as though split from a 4-inch tablet
or one shouldered 4 inches from the top. Of the remaining scraps, the
thickest measures just a shade over one-eighth inch. All are more or
less decayed, shrunken, and warped. All are painted green except b, k,
and l, which are crossed by diagonal blue lines. Paint still adheres to
both sides of all except e, h, and i. This latter, somewhat footlike,
probably is wrongly oriented on the plate since the grain of the wood
lies horizontally instead of vertically as in the others.

The green paint on both sides of a ends at the darker band near the
broken lower end. This is also true of j where that portion below the
middle of the small knothole likewise remains unpainted.

In figure 75 we illustrate two fragments bearing black designs on
the front while the rear is blackened all over. Both are three-sixteenths
inch thick with the curved edge rounded and the bottom square-cut.

The carved fragment, figure 76, is one-eighth inch thick longitudinally
through the body and half that at either edge. Our artist has
drawn the head and lower neck lighter to indicate faded orange paint.
The opposite side of the head likewise was painted orange. Pinholes

Fig. 76.—Painted
wood fragment.

for lashings are shown at the shoulders. Between
and below these, patches of green paint are represented.
It may formerly have covered the entire
body.

Some of these shaped and painted scraps could be
remnants of dance headdresses as readily as of altar
screens. All came from Late Bonitian rooms or
rubbish in the eastern half of the village.

Wooden cylinders.—When he first saw the roundended
object represented by figure 77, a, my old
Zuñi camp man pronounced it a "watermelon" such
as he plants each spring to insure a good melon crop.
Despite variation in length and diameter, the four
shown on plate 78, figures n-q, indubitably belong
in the same class. These five were all recovered
from Late Bonitian rubbish while that illustrated
by figure 77, b, which differs from the others both in
its proportions and in the character of its markings,
came from Old Bonitian debris.

The other pieces photographed may not be wholly
comparable, but they too were recovered from
household sweepings. Figure r, plate 78, is of juniper
and from near the outside of a very large tree.
The piece was dressed to cylindrical form with the
grain running lengthwise; its ends were cut at an
angle of about 30 degrees then smoothed with sandstone.
In figure t a single lightly incised line spirals
up clockwise as though the section had been rolled
once under the cutting edge of a flint knife. The
lower end of x has been cut around and then broken
off. None in the lot bears any trace of paint.

Cedar-bark torches (?).—Plate 79, A, illustrate
11 of the 13 cedar-bark bundles found side by side
on the middle floor of Room 226. At first sight they looked like a mat
or hatchway cover but with no trace of cords binding the units together.
On the other hand, our Zuñi workmen immediately identified
the bundles as "torches used in the Fire Ceremony to carry fire from
one room to another." Except the three longest, all are raveled at one

Plate 78.—a-m, Painted fragments of wooden tablets or altar screens; n-x, incised cylinders
and other objects of wood.

Plate 79

A, Cedar-bark rolls identified by Zuñi men as torches.

B, Cedar-bark bundles, probably used in ceiling construction.

A, Animal-like carving from Sinklezin, a ruin on the south cliff, opposite Pueblo Bonito.

(Photograph by O. C. Havens, 1925.)

Plate 80

B, Stone carving from Ruin No. 8. (Photograph by O. C. Havens, 1923.)

Plate 81.—Sandal-shaped tablets made of fine-grained sandstone.

Fig. 77.—Incised objects of wood.

end, but none is charred. Each was wrapped at intervals with fine
yucca-fiber string. If prepared as torches they were never used.

Pepper (1920, p. 36) reports a cedar-bark torch, burned at one end,
from Room 2.

For certain Pueblo ceremonies fires are lighted with cedar-bark
rolls not unlike ours (White, 1932, p. 95; Titiev, 1937, p. 251, ftnt.
11; Parsons, 1939, pp. 749, 766). In other ceremonies comparable
rolls are employed for lighting cigarettes or cloud blowers—rather
formidable matches, it would seem, for cornhusk cigarettes.

There can be no connection between the foregoing and bundles of
loosely wrapped, unshredded cedar bark such as those shown on plate
79, B. These two were recovered in the narrow passageway designated
as Room 250; 20 or more had been discarded in the abandoned room
next on the south, No. 247. All were somewhat flattened but varied in
length, width, and thickness. None was burned or even appreciably

smoke-stained. Hence, it is our guess these particular bundles served
as substitutes for split-cedar shakes in ceiling construction or repairs.

Rattlesnake effigy.—Among dry rubbish overlying blown sand in
the east half of Room 226 was a rattlesnake effigy fashioned from a
flattened cottonwood root (fig. 78). The root itself, irregularly constricted
as it grew, clearly suggested a snake to the finder, for the only
modification required was at the extremities: a little whittling to
point the tail, a rounded nose, and side notches to delimit the head.
Black paint covers the back and, over it, white to suggest markings
characteristic of the desert rattler. White paint is present also on the
underside of head and tail.

Hough (1914, p. 129) figures part of a snake effigy, likewise made
from a crooked root, from a cave near the head of Eagle Creek, Ariz.
Carvings or paintings of snakes appear on several Zuñi altars (Stevenson,
1904). In the first quarter of the seventeenth century, Fray
Estevan de Perea wrote of wooden pens in which the Zuñi kept rattlesnakes
for arrow poisoning—rattlesnakes that hissed and leaped
"menacing as the fierce Bull in the arena" (Bloom, 1933, p. 228). And
Hodge (1924) has described the snake pens he unearthed at Hawikuh.
Thus, among the Zuñi as among the Aztecs, rattlesnakes had a part
both in warfare and in religion.

Painted gourd rind.—The fragment illustrated as figure 79 is one
of two from the rubbish fill of Room 255. The painted design is light
green with a brown border on a red (light vertical hatching) base.
These fragments may be from a dance rattle.