Copper bells are said to be used in the secret ceremonials of the modern Tusayan villages, and in certain of the ceremonial foot races metal bells of great age and antique pattern are sometimes tied about the waists of the runners. Small copper hawk bells,[93] found in southern Arizonian ruins, are identical in form and make with those used by the ancient Nahuatl people. So far as the study of the antiquities 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 Castañeda, 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 The historical references which can be mentioned to prove that the Tusayan people, when they were first visited, knew how to spin and weave are numerous, and need not be quoted here.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.