ntally, it may be said that I
have never seen priests use chairs in any kiva celebration; nor do
they have boxes to sit upon. During the droning of the tedious songs
they have nothing under them except a folded blanket or sheepskin.

Excavations in the Awatobi rooms revealed several interesting shallow
mortars used for grinding pigments, but no one of these is comparable
in finish with that shown in the accompanying illustration (plate
CLXXII, _a_). This object is made of a hard stone in the form of a
perfect parallelopipedon with slightly rounded faces. The depression
is shallow, and when found there was a discoloration of pigment upon
its surface.

In almost every house that bore evidence of former occupancy,
beautifully made mullers and metates were exhumed. These were
ordinarily in place in the corner of the chamber, and were much worn,
as if by constant use. In one grave there was found a metate reversed
over a skeleton, probably that of a woman--although the bones were so
disintegrated that the determination of the sex of the individual was
impossible. Several of these metates were taken by Indian women, who
prized them so highly that they loaded the stones on burros and
carried them ten miles to Walpi, where they are now applied to the
same purpose for which they were used over two centuries ago.

On the surface of the mesa, beyond the extension of the ground plan of
the ruin, there are many depressions worn in the rocks where the
Awatobi women formerly whetted their grinding stones, doubtless in the
manner practiced by the modern villagers of Tusayan. These depressions
are especially numerous near the edge of the cliff, between the
eastern and western sections of the ruin.[90]

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXIV

BONE IMPLEMENTS FROM AWATOBI AND SIKYATKI]

BONE OBJECTS

A large and varied collection of bone implements was gathered at
Awatobi, and a few additional specimens were exhumed from Sikyatki. It
is worthy of note that, as a rule, bone implements are more common in
houses than in graves; and since the Awatobi excavations were
conducted mostly in living rooms, while those at Sikyatki were largely
in the cemeteries, the bone implements from the former pueblo far
outnumber those from the latter.

The collection consists of awls, bodkins, needles, whistles, and tubes
made of the bones of birds and quadrupeds. The two animals which
contributed more tha