tiquities of the ruins of Tusayan immediately about the inhabited
towns has gone, we have no record of the finding of copper bells of
any great age. It was, therefore, with considerable interest that I
exhumed from one of the rooms of the westernmost or oldest section of
Awatobi a clay bell (figure 261) made in exact imitation of one of the
copper bells that have been reported from several southern ruins
(plate CLXXIII, _a_). While it may be said that it would be more
decisive evidence of the prehistoric character of this object if
Awatobi had not been under Spanish influence for over a century,
still, from the position where it was dug up and its resemblance to
metal bells which are undoubtedly prehistoric, there seems to be
little reason to question its age. As with the imitation of marine
shells in clay, it is probable that in this bell we have a facsimile
of a metal bell with which the ancient Tusayan people were undoubtedly
familiar.[94]

[Illustration: FIG. 261--Clay Bell from Awatobi (natural size)]

TEXTILE FABRICS

In the very earliest accounts which we have of Tusayan the Hopi are
said to raise cotton and to weave it into mantles. These mantles, or
"towels" as they were styled by Espejo, were, according to Castaneda,
ornamented with embroidery, and had tassels at the corners. In early
times garments were made of the fiber of the maguey, and of feathers
and rabbit skins. Fabrics made of animal fiber are mentioned by Friar
Marcos de Niza, and he was told that the inhabitants of Totonteac
obtained the material from which they were made from animals as large
as the greyhounds which the father had with him. The historical
references which can be mentioned to prove that the Tusayan people,
when they were first visited, knew how to spin and weave are numerous,
and need not be quoted here. That the people of Awatobi made cotton
fabrics there is no doubt, for it is distinctly stated by early
visitors that they were acquainted with the art of weaving, and some
of the presents made to the first Spanish explorers were of native
cotton.

The archeological evidence supports the historical in this particular,
and several fragments of cloth were found in our excavations in the
western mounds of the village. These fragments were of cotton and
agave fiber, of cotton alone, and in one instance of the hair of some
unknown animal. No signs of the famous rabbit-skin blankets were seen,
and from the perishable nature of the m