New Mexico, the land of the delight makers; the history of its ancient cliff dwellings and pueblos (1920) (14764317132)

Identifier: newmexicolandofd00jame (find matches)
Title: New Mexico, the land of the delight makers; the history of its ancient cliff dwellings and pueblos
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: James, George Wharton, 1858- (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, The Page company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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n that carried in her busy and artistic littlebrain the decorator goes to work. Her brush is made ofhair, or yucca fiber, and her colours ground with a mix-ture of yucca fruit syrup (to give them extra stickingqualities). The black pigment is mixed with water from boiledcleome serrulata, a flowering plant called by the Mexi-cans, waco. Many and various, strange and peculiar,striking and fantastic are the designs she conjures up.Some of them are purely geometrical — squares, paral-lelograms, circles, diamonds and the like; then there areflowers, trees, rocks, rain-clouds and other meteorologicalsymbols, birds, reptiles, animals, men and women, andoccasionally, the masked figures that represent their lesserdivinities. The ware is now ready to be fired. For this purposecakes of well-dried dung are gathered from the sheep andgoat pens. The pottery is placed on rocks to raise itslightly from the ground, and then the dung is built uparound and over it so as to form an oven. It is then set
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Arts and Industries of the Indians 193 on fire, and so manipulated that the heat increases grad-ually until it is intense, the process lasting about twohours. A small piece of wafer bread is placed in eachvessel, in order that, as it burns, the spiritual essence ofthe vessel may absorb the spiritual essence of the bread. The Zunis believe that if a pregnant woman gazes upona piece of pottery while it is being fired it will be marredwith a black spot. This is the explanation they give al-ways to any black blemish that appears during the firing. Among the pottery-makers of New Mexico perhapsthe Zunis rank highest, both as to the quality of theirware, its durability, and the striking characters of thedesigns. A common design is one that introduces thedeer, with a long tube reaching from the mouth to thestomach, making what, to the white critic, is a ratheramusing representation. It should also be noted that many of the designs, espe-cially upon the older pottery, are so highly convention