propitiating the deities. Still if we would pick the threads of religion
from the warp and woof of Hopi life there apparently would not be much
left. It must be recorded in the interests of truth, that Hopi men will
work at days labor and give satisfaction except when a ceremony is about
to take place at the pueblo, and duty to their religion interferes with
steady employment much as fiestas do in the easy-going countries to the
southward. Really the Hopi deserve great credit for their industry,
frugality, and provident habits, and one must commend them because they
do not shun work and because in fairness both men and women share in the
labor for the common good."

[Footnote 11: Hough, Walter, Op. cit, pp. 156-58.]




IV. POTTERY AND BASKET MAKING TRADITIONAL; ITS SYMBOLISM

* * * * *

The art of pottery-making is a traditional one; mothers teach their
daughters, even as their mothers taught them. There are no recipes for
exact proportions and mixtures, no thermometer for controlling
temperatures, no stencil or pattern set down upon paper for laying out
the designs. The perfection of the finished work depends upon the
potter's sense of rightness and the skill developed by practicing the
methods of her ancestors with such variation as her own originality and
ingenuity may suggest.

All the women of a pueblo community know how to make cooking vessels, at