e can doubt, but these fabrics, if they were buried
with the dead, had long since decayed. Specimens of strings and ropes
of yucca, which were comparatively abundant at Awatobi, were not found
at Sikyatki; yet their absence by no means proves that they were not
used, for the marks of the strings used to bind feathers to the
mortuary pahos, on the green paint with which the wood was covered,
may still be readily seen.

The insight into ancient beliefs and practices afforded by the
numerous objects found at Sikyatki is very instructive, and while it
shows the antiquity of some of the modern symbols, it betrays a still
more important group of conventionalized figures, the meaning of which
may always remain in doubt. This is particularly true of the
decoration on many specimens of the large collection of highly
ornamented pottery found in the Sikyatki cemeteries.

If we consider the typical designs on modern Hopi pottery and compare
them with the ancient, as illustrated by the collections from Awatobi
and Sikyatki, it is noted, in the first place, how different they are,
and secondly, how much better executed the ancient objects are than
the modern. Nor is it always clear how the modern symbols are derived
from the ancient, so widely do they depart from them in all their
essential characters.

POTTERY

CHARACTERISTICS--MORTUARY POTTERY

The pottery exhumed from the burial places of Sikyatki falls in the
divisions known as--

I--Coiled and indented ware.
II--Smooth undecorated ware.
III--Polished decorated ware.
_a_. Yellow.
_b_. Red.
_c_. Black-and-white.

By far the largest number of ancient pottery objects from this
locality belong to the yellow-ware group in the above classification.
This is the characteristic pottery of Tusayan, although coiled and
indented ware is well represented in the collection. The few pieces of
red ware are different from that found in the ruins of the Little
Colorado, while the black-and-white pottery closely resembles the
archaic ware of northern cliff houses. Although the Sikyatki pottery
bears resemblance to that of Awatobi, it can be distinguished from it
without difficulty. The paste of both is of the finest character and
was most carefully prepared. Some of the ancient specimens are much
superior to those at present made, and are acknowledged by the finest
potters of East Mesa to be beyond their power of ceramic production.
The coloration