At a depth of fifteen feet, we were about to suspend our labors,
supposing from the nature and uniformly dark color of the earth,
that we had reached the surface of the alluvium, when a sign of the
inevitable wood and bark layer was seen in a crevice. An excavation,
five or six feet, into the wall, revealed the skeleton of a man laid
at length, having an extra coverlid of wooden material. Eighteen large
oblong beads, an ax of polished green stone, eleven arrow points, and
five implements of bone (to be described) were deposited on the
left side; and a few small beads, an ornamental shell pin, two small
hatchets, and a sharp-pointed flint knife or lance, eight inches long,
having a neck or projection at the base, suitable for a handle, or for
insertion in a shaft, on the right side. The earth behind the skull
being removed, three enormous conch shells presented their open
mouths. One of my assistants started back as if the ghost of the
departed had come to claim the treasure preserved, in accordance with
superstitious notions, for its journey to the "happy lands." The alarm
seemed to be a warning, for at the moment the embankment, overloaded
on one side, caved in, nearly burying three workmen, myself, and a
spectator. Our tools being at the bottom of the heap, and the wall on
the other side, shaken by the falling earth, giving tokens of a change
of base, our prospects of a ready deliverance were not very hopeful.
The bystanders, however, went to work with their hands, and we were
soon relieved, not without casualty, the spectator having the worst of
it. Struggling to extricate himself, instead of abiding his time, he
dragged one leg out of the pile shorter than the other.
The occurrence of marine shells in a burial depository, especially of
the varieties pyrula and oliva, four or five hundred miles from the
Gulf and that portion of the Southern coast where the mollusks exist,
bears upon the question of migration and tribal intercourse, and
the commercial value of these articles. Obtained from a distance and
regarded as precious commodities, they were used in exchange, for the
material of ornaments, and for choice utensils. Only two or three of
these shells have been found in a perfect condition, but defective
ones are frequent, with fragments, "cuttings," and various trinkets
made out of them--such as ornamental pins, needles, crosses, buttons,
amulets, engraved plates, and beads. From one of the specimens
recovered from the mound sepulchre, the spire and columella had been
removed, leaving a hollow utensil. It would have been suitable for
a water vessel, but for a hole in the bottom, which had furnished a
button-shaped ornament, or piece of money, which was found with the
relic, and exactly corresponded to the orifice. The twirled end of the
shell, however, had been improved for a handle by shallow cavities,
one on the inside slanting from the middle longitudinal line, and one
crossing that line at right angles on the convex side, so as to be
fitted to the thumb and fore finger of the left hand, suggesting a use
of the implement as a shield, or a mask held before the face. Adair
speaks of large shells in use by the Indians of his time (1735),
suspended about the neck for shields, and regarded as badges of
priestly dignity.
A trench was dug on the east side of the mound, nearly corresponding
in dimensions to the one on the west side, making the length of the
whole excavation, including the central cavity, thirty-two feet.
In the last opening, eight skeletons were exhumed; the mode of burial
was the same throughout. The only article of value recovered was a
curiously wrought pipe of stone, having a "figure head" representing
the human face, which I have put down in a list of "articles stolen,"
and which the thief can describe better than the writer. After filling
up all the gaps, and levelling the surface to suit the taste of the
proprietor, we closed our labors on the mound in the Bent.
Of the skulls collected, it is sufficient to say that they belong to
the "short heads," the length and breadth having a comparative medium
proportion, a common form of cranium in the mounds of Tennessee.
Of stone implements I specify an ax of serpentine, ten inches long,
two thick, and four broad, having plain sides and a straight edge
ground down on both of the flat faces; hatchets ("tomahawks") of
green stone, flint, and diorite, from five to eight inches long, with
rounded faces and sides, contracted to an edge at one end, and to a
flat heel at the other; a wedge of black slate, seven inches long and
half an inch thick, of a square finish on the faces and sides and at
the heel, which was diminished two inches, as compared with the length
of the edge; hatchets with a serrated edge at each end, plane on both
sides, convex on one face and flat on the other.
With one skeleton was deposited a "set of tools," eight in number, of
the species of rock before mentioned, varying in length from two to
eight inches. Their peculiarity consists in a variety of shapes--no
two being precisely alike--and in their fitness to various uses,
such as carving, hacking, paring, and grooving. The smallest of them,
having a square finish, was held by the thumb and two fingers, and is
suitable for cutting lines and figures in wood and shells. Specimens
of this art were furnished from the mound. The largest number might
serve for hatchets, chisels, and gouges. One had been ground in the
form of a cylinder five inches long and an inch thick, and then cut
an inch on two sides to an edge, and worked into a handle with a round
bead, from the center of the elliptical faces. It might be used for
chipping wood and stone. One answered the purpose of a cold chisel;
another was somewhat similar, but had a hollow face reduced to a
curved edge for grooving. These polished instruments, wrought with
much care, seemed intended for use by the hand rather than for
insertion in a handle or socket, or attachment to a shaft by means
of a strap or withe. Only one was perforated. The drilling through
granite, quartz, and diorite, without the use of metal, was a severe
labor, even for savage patience. A long knife of silex, with a wrought
handle, lance heads, leaf shaped, of the same material, of beautiful
workmanship, arrow points of fine finish, furnished, with others
before mentioned, an assortment of arms. Several flint points, though
only an inch long, were curved like a cimeter, and used probably as
flaying instruments. True disks, of various mineral substances, from
an inch to five inches in diameter, having convex faces, complete the
list of stone implements. Those of bone comprise several like hollow
chisels, sharpened at one end, and pierced through one face, near the
other extremity, so as to be fastened to a handle; these were used
for dressing skins. One was formed like a poniard, with a worked hilt.
With these may be connected arrow heads and sharp pointed weapons of
the worked antlers of the stag, and tusks of the wild boar.
Of ornaments, I noticed pins used for dressing the hair, made of the
columns of large sea shells. The head is generally round, sometimes
oval, from an eighth to a half of an inch in diameter, retaining the
diagonal groove of the pillar from which it is made. The stems vary
in length from one to six inches. It would be tedious even to classify
ornamental beads and buttons of shell work, such as are usually found
in the mounds. These trinkets are perforated, and, in addition to
their being articles of dress, were used probably as "wampum," the
currency of the recent Indians.
A miscellaneous collection includes a hematite stone, wrought in
the shape of a cup weighing half a pound; when rubbed or ground it
furnished the war paint of the savages; also the extremity of a copper
tube, two inches long; needles in bone and shell, from an inch to
six inches long, with grooves round the head, to serve the purpose of
eyes; and plates of mica. The use of mica plates, which are found of
large size in some of the Western mounds, has excited some inquiry.
Of a certain thickness, they make good mirrors. Beside their use
for ornamental purposes, they were probably looking-glasses of the
beauties of the stone age. There was also found a pipe of soap stone,
having a stem five inches long, and a bowl with a broad brim, like a
Quaker's hat.
Of earthenware, there was an endless variety of fragments of the usual
black, grey, or red compressed clay, mixed with pulverized shells or
stones. One kind I have never seen described. The sherds had a red
coating on both sides, an eighth of an inch in thickness, evidently
not a paint or a glaze. The red coloring might have come from the
pottery being burnt in the open air, instead of baked in a furnace,
were not the layer of uniform thickness and of homogeneous paste,
unlike the material of the vessel, which was a gray mixture of clay
and particles of shells.
I give the above memoranda to the general fund of information,
touching a subject that invites inquiry on account of its novelty and
ethnological importance. Every examination of the monumental remains
of the ancient Americans brings to light some new feature in structure
or type of rudimental art. And since archaeology has become a science,
investigators, for half a century, may be looking about for facts to
complete the system auspiciously introduced by the antiquarians of
Northern Europe, and advanced in our own country by the researches
of Caleb Atwater (_Archaeologia Americana_) and by those of the
Smithsonian contributors to knowledge, especially Squier and Davis.
RAMBLER.
* * * * *
A SMALL WATER WHEEL.--There is in the town of Meriden, Conn., a
Leffel double turbine wheel, running under 240 feet fall and driving
a manufactory. It uses only about one-half of a square inch of water,
and runs at the marvelous speed of 3,000 revolutions per minute, or 50
revolutions per second, which is by far the most rapid rate of motion
ever imparted to a water wheel. This is, also, beyond comparison the
greatest fall applied to the propulsion of a wheel in America. The
wheel at Meriden is of the most diminutive size, scarcely exceeding in
dimensions the old-fashioned "turnip" watches which our grandfathers
used to carry in their capacious vest pockets. The complete success of
this wheel has attracted much attention and affords further evidence
of the wide range of adaptability of the Leffel turbine.
* * * * *
[For the Scientific American.]