Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744Fewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744
The pahos shown in _b_, _c_, and _d_, are likewise
ascribed to the same society, and differ from the first only in
length. They represent female sticks of double flute pahos. The length
of these prayer-sticks varies on different ceremonial days, and is
determined by the distance of the shrines for which they are intended.
The unit of measurement is the length of certain joints of the finger,
and the space between the tip of longest digit to certain creases in
the palm of the hand. The length of the ancient Sikyatki pahos,
ascribed to the Flute society, follows the same rule.
Plate CLXXIV, _e_, _f_, have the same ferules referred to in the
description above, but are of greater diameter. They are unlike any
modern paho except in this particular. In _g_ is depicted a still
larger prayer-stick, with two serrate incisions on each side of the
continuation of the flattened facet.
Specimens _h_ to _m_ are forms of pahos which I can not identify. They
are painted green, generally with black tips, round, flattened, and of
small size. Figure _n_ is a part of a paho which closely resembles
prayer-sticks found in the cliff houses of Mesa Verde and San Juan
valley of northern New Mexico.
Numerous specimens of a peculiar razor-shape paho were found, two of
which are shown in plate CLXXV, _o_, _s_. The paho shown in figure _d_
is flat on one side and rounded on the other, narrowing at one end,
where it was probably continued in a shaft, and a hole is punctured at
the opposite extremity, as if for suspension. It is barely possible
that this may have been a whizzer or bull-roarer, such as are used at
the present day to imitate the wind, and commonly carried by the
performer in a public dance who personifies the warrior. Figure _t_
differs from the ordinary flute paho in having five constrictions in
the upper part, and in being continued into a very long shank.
The best preserved of all the pahos from the Sikyatki graves are
represented in _u_ and _v_, both of which were found in the same
mortuary bowl. They are painted with a thick layer of green pigment,
and have shafts, which are blackened and placed in opposite directions
in the two figures. Their general form may be seen at a glance. The
lower surface of the object shown in _u_ is perfectly flat, and the
part represented at the upper end is evidently broken off. This is
likewise true of both extremities of the object shown in _v_; it is
also probable that it had originally a serrated end, comparable with
that shown in _c_. A similar terraced extremity survives in the corn
paho carried by the so-called Flute girls in the biennial celebrations
of the Flute ceremonies in the modern Tusayan pueblos.
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