y rounded
below, and always without an attached ring of clay on which to stand
to prevent rocking. Their rims are seldom flaring, but sometimes have
a slight constriction, and while the rims of the majority are
perfectly circular, oblong variations are not wanting. Many of the
bowls are of saucer shape, with almost vertical sides and flat bases;
several are double, with rounded or flat base.

The surface, inside and out, is polished to a fine gloss, and when
exteriorly decorated, the design is generally limited to one side just
below the rim, which is often ornamented with double or triple
parallel lines, drawn in equidistant, quaternary, and other forms.
Most of the bowls show signs of former use, either wear on the inner
surface or on the base where they rested on the floor in former
feasts.

These mortuary vessels were discovered generally at one side of the
chest or neck of the person whose remains they were intended to
accompany, and a single specimen was found inverted over the head of
the deceased. The number of vessels in each grave was not constant,
and as many as ten were found with one skeleton, while in other graves
only one or two were found. In one instance a nest of six of these
basins, one inside another, was exhumed. While many of these mortuary
offerings were broken and others chipped, there were still a large
number as perfect as when made. Some of the bowls had been mended
before burial, as holes drilled on each side of a crack clearly
indicate. Fragments of various vessels, which evidently had been
broken before they were thrown into the graves, were common.

There is a general similarity in the artistic decoration of bowls
found in the same grave, as if they were made by the same potter; and
persons of distinction, as shown by other mortuary objects, were, as a
rule, more honored than some of their kindred in the character and
number of pottery objects deposited with their remains. There were
also a number of skeletons without ceramic offerings of any kind.

In one or two interments two or more small jars were found placed
inside of a food bowl, and in many instances votive offerings, like
turquois, beads, stones, and arrowpoints, had been deposited with the
dead. The bowls likewise contained, in some instances, prayer-sticks
and other objects, which will later be described.

One of the most interesting modifications in the form of the rim of
one of these food bowls is shown in plate CXX, _e_