The modern Hopi often use as seats in their kivas cubical blocks of stone with depressions in two opposite sides which serve as handholds by which they are carried from place to place. Two of these stones, about a cubic foot in size, were taken out of the chamber which I have supposed to be the Awatobi kiva. In modern Tusayan these seats are commonly made of soft sandstone, and are so few in number that we can hardly regard them as common. They are often used to support the uprights of altars when they are erected, and I have seen priests grind pigments in the depressions. Incidentally, 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.