the Mexican and Mayan cult of the Below and of the Earth-mother, are
actually found in use amongst Californian Indians at the present day.

A whole flood of light is thrown upon native symbolism, however, by the
information obtained from the Zuni Indians by Mr. F. H. Cushing. The
following passage, from their Creation myth, affords the most positive
confirmation of the foregoing conclusion, that the bowl or vase was the
native emblem of the earth-mother. The Zuni speaker said: "Is not the bowl
the emblem of the Earth, our Mother? For from her we draw both food and
drink, just as the babe draws nourishment from the breast of its mother.
And round, as is the rim of the bowl, so is the horizon...."(11)
Interesting as this explanation of the native symbolism undoubtedly is, it
becomes most important when its full significance is realized and we
recognize that originally earthenware bowls themselves were looked upon as
sacred emblems formed indeed out of the material of the earth itself. This
fact places the invention and manufacture of earthen vessels in an
entirely new light and enables us to conjecture and understand why, quite
apart from their utility, so much care and decoration were lavished upon
them and why, indeed, they were constantly buried with the dead. They
obviously served as sacred emblems of the earth-mother, to whose care the
dead body was confided, and originally the intention probably was to
propitiate her by the beauty of the sacred vessels, which, to be
symbolical of her bounty, necessarily contained food and drink.

Without pausing to discuss how easily this custom would have gradually
given birth to the belief that the food and drink thus offered were
intended for the use of the dead body itself, or its soul, I would point
out that, in the absence of clay vessels, a stone, rough or worked, would
have also served as an appropriate emblem of the earth-mother, being as it
were, of her own substance. It is well known that in ancient Mexico this
custom prevailed. There we also find that the bowl- or vase-shaped grave
was employed, with a deeply religious and symbolical meaning. This is
clearly revealed by a native drawing in the "Lyfe of the Indians,"
representing a native burial. The deceased, represented by his skull only,
has been placed in a deep hole, figured as a large inverted horse-shoe,
painted brown and covered with small "horse-shoe" marks. The same
religious symbolism which led to the adoption