gion.[28]

One of the most interesting of the pictographs pecked in the rock is a
figure which, variously modified, is a common decoration on
cliff-dweller pottery from the Verde valley region to the ruins of the
San Juan and its tributaries. This figure has the form of two
concentric spirals, the ends of which do not join. As this design
assumes many modifications, it may be well to consider a few forms
which it assumes on the pottery of the cliff people and on that of
their descendants, the Pueblos.

The so-called black-and-white ware, or white pottery decorated with
black lines, which is so characteristic of the ceramics of the
cliff-dwellers, is sometimes, as we shall see, found in ruins like
Awatobi and Sikyatki; but it is so rare, as compared with other
varieties, that it may be regarded as intrusive.

One of the simplest forms of the broken-line motive is a Greek fret,
in which there is a break in the component square figures or where the
line is noncontinuous. In the simplest form, which appears prominently
on modern pottery, but which is rare or wanting on true
black-and-white ware, we have two crescentic figures, the concavities
of which face in different directions, but the horns overlap. This is
a symbol which the participants in the dance called the Humiskatcina
still paint with pigments on their breasts, and which is used on
shields and various religious paraphernalia.

A study of any large collection of decorated Pueblo ware, ancient or
modern, will show many modifications of this broken line, a number of
which I shall discuss more in detail when pottery ornamentation is
considered. A design so distinctive and so widespread as this must
certainly have a symbolic interpretation. The concentric spirals with
a broken line, the Hopi say, are symbols of the whirlpool, and it is
interesting to find in the beautiful plates of Chavero's _Antigueedades
Mexicanas_ that the water in the lagoon surrounding the ancient Aztec
capital was indicated by the Nahuatl Indians with similar symbols.

OBJECTS FOUND AT PALATKI AND HONANKI

The isolation of these ruins and the impossibility of obtaining
workmen, combined with the brief visit which I was able to make to
them, rendered it impossible to collect very many specimens of ancient
handiwork. The few excavations which were made were limited almost
wholly to Honanki, and from their success I can readily predict a rich
harvest for anyone who may attempt systematic w