The ancient Sikyatki people were accustomed to deposit in their mortuary vessels fragments of minerals or ground oxides and carbonates, of different colors, used as paints. It thus appears evident that these substances were highly prized in ancient as in modern times, and it may be mentioned that the present native priests regard the pigments found in the graves as so particularly efficacious in coloring their ceremonial paraphernalia that they begged me to give them fragments for that purpose. The green color, which was the most common, is an impure carbonate of copper, the same as that with which pahos are painted for ceremonial use today. Several shallow, saucer-like vessels contained yellow ocher, and others sesquioxide of iron, which afforded both the ancients and the moderns the red pigment called _cuta_, an especial favorite of the warrior societies. The inner surface of some of the bowls is stained with the pigments which they had formerly contained, and it was not uncommon to find several small paint pots deposited in a single grave. The white used was an impure kaolin, which was found both in masses and in powdered form, and there were unearthed several disks of this material which had been cut into definite shape as if for a special purpose. [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXIX ARROWSHAFT SMOOTHERS, SELENITE, AND SYMBOLIC CORN FROM SIKYATKI] One of these disks or circular plates (figure 356) was found on the head of a skeleton. The rim is rounded, and the opposite faces are concave, with a perforation in the middle. Other forms of this worked kaolin are spherical, oblong, or lamellar, sometimes more or less decorated on the outer surface, as shown in plate CLXXII, _e_. Another, shown in _f_, of the same plate, is cylindrical, and other fragments of irregular shapes were found. A pigment made of micaceous hematite was found in one of the Sikyatki paint jars. This material is still used as coloring matter by the Tusayan Indians, by whom it is called _yayala_, and is highly prized by the members of the warrior societies. [Illustration: FIG. 356--Kaolin disk (natural size)] STONE OBJECTS Almost every grave at Sikyatki contained stone objects which were found either in the bowls or in the soil in the immediate neighborhood of the skeletons. Some of these implements are pecked or chipped, others are smooth--pebbles apparently chosen for their botryoidal shape, polished surface, or fancied resemblance to some animal or other form.