The Institution of Pottery

THE INSTITUTION OF POTTERY ⁵

In the beginning Itc'tinaku considered how the people should live. She said to herself, "My old father and my old mother must go down to the people and be Clay (mitsi) Old Woman and Clay Old Man." ¹⁶ In Shipap she made the old man and woman into Clay Old Woman and Clay Old Man. The old woman began to mix the clay with sand and soften it with water. When she had finished she made it into a ball and wrapped it in a white manta. She began to coil a pot with her clay, and Clay Old Man danced beside her singing while she worked. All the people gathered in the village and watched her all day long. When she had made her pots so high (about eighteen inches) and the old man was singing and dancing beside her, he kicked it with his foot and it broke in many pieces. The old woman picked up his stick and chased him all around the plaza. She overtook him in the middle of the kiva. They made friends again and she took the broken pot and rolled it into a ball again. The old man took the pot and gave a piece of it to everybody in the village. They each took it and made pottery as Clay Old Woman had made it. This was the time they learned to make pottery. Clay Old Man told them never to forget to make pottery. In those days they only indented it with the marks of their fingers. Ever since when we do not make pottery these two masked dancers come with the dance to remind us of the clay they gave to the people. They tell us not to forget our grinding stones and always to grind our own corn flour.

Footnotes

12:5 Informant 2. Notes, p. 208.

12:16 Clay Old Woman and Clay Old Man have masks with white faces and red eyes. Notes, p. 208. The old woman has straggly hair cut in the old round fashion and wears a white manta and white shawl. The old man wears buckskin so that no hair shows and he carries a heavy load of clay in his basket on his back. The stick with which the old woman chased him is also part of his costume.