Page 97 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 89
pagan worship, in the manufacture of which he was
master of all expedients. As a worker in stone and
shell he still knows the arts of the ancient times,
but lacks the skill of his forebears. The turquoise
mosaics of old days so regularly and finely set on the
backs of sea shells, have given place to the uneven
scraps of turquoise set in confusion on bits of wood,
as on the woman's earrings. Many devices have gone
out entirely, and it is probable that no Hopi could
make an axe of hard stone like the old ones or chip
a finely proportioned arrow-head. The hand-stones
for grinding corn are still made, and a woman pecking
away at one with a stone hammer is not infrequently
seen and heard.
The Hopi were never metal-workers, because free
metals are scarce in the Southwest Their name for
silver, with which they became familiar in the shape
of coins, is shiba, "a little white cake." Gold they
regard with suspicion, since it resembles copper or
brass, with which they have been deceived at times by
unscrupulous persons. A few workers in silver have
produced some crude ornaments, but the Hopi gets
his buttons, belt ornaments, etc., from the adept Nava-
ho, silversmiths by trade, through whom also strings
of beads come from the pueblos of the Rio Grande.
The rocks all over the Southwest bear witness that
the Hopi can draw. In thousands of instances he
expressed his meaning in symbols or in compositions
representing the chase of the deer or mountain goat.