Among insects the spider is perhaps best calculated to attract the
attention of the savage. The tarantula is in many respects a very
extraordinary creature, and is endowed with powers of the most deadly
nature, which naturally places it along with the rattlesnake in the
category of creatures possessing supernatural attributes. Its curiously
constructed house with the hinged door and smoothly plastered chamber
must ever elicit the admiration of the beholder. But the spider, which
spins a web and projects in mid-air a gossamer structure of marvelous
symmetry and beauty, and builds an ambush from which to spring upon his
prey, was probably one of the first instructors of adolescent man, and
must have seemed to him a very deity. It is not strange, therefore, that
the spider appears in the myths of the savages. With the great Shoshone
family, according to Professor Powell, the spider was the first weaver,
and taught that important art to the fathers. The Cherokees, in their
legend of the origin of fire, "represent a portion of it as having been
brought with them and sacredly guarded. Others say that after crossing
wide waters they sent back for it to the Man of Fire from whom a little
was conveyed over by a spider in his web."[144]
The spider occurs but rarely in aboriginal American art, occasionally it
seems, however, to have reached the dignity of religious consideration
and to have been adopted as a totemic device. Had a single example only
been found we would not be warranted in giving it a place among
religious symbols. Four examples have come to my notice; these are all
engraved on shell gorgets and are illustrated in Plate LXI. Two are from
Illinois, one from Missouri, and the other from Tennessee.[145] The
example shown in Fig. 1 was obtained by Mr. Croswell from a mound near
New Madrid, Mo. It is described as a circular ornament, three inches in
diameter, that had, apparently, been cut from a _Busycon_. Mr. Croswell
says that "the convex face was entirely plain, but the concave side
bears the figure of a tarantula, or large spider, very skillfully
engraved, the body being formed by a circle inclosing a cross, showing
beyond doubt its sacred and symbolic character. This ornament, when
found, lay on the breast-bone of a skeleton, with the concave or
ornamented side uppermost. Two holes in the upper part were evidently
intended for the thong or string by which it had been suspended from the
neck. A circumstance that renders this relic still more interesting is
the fact that two other shell ornaments, bearing precisely similar
devices, have recently been found in Illinois within seven miles of this
city, thus proving that the figures were not a mere fanciful invention,
but had some symbolic meaning."[146]
The disk thus briefly described by Mr. Croswell is so much like the
example shown in Fig. 3 that I shall not describe it further, but shall
refer to its peculiarities in the descriptions of others that follow.
The handsome gorget illustrated in Fig. 3 was obtained from a mound in
Saint Clair County, Illinois, seven miles from the city of Saint Louis.
It was found upon the breast of a skeleton, and was very much discolored
and quite fragile from decay, but no part of the design, which is
engraved upon the concave side, has been obliterated. Near the margin
and parallel with it three lines have been engraved. The spider is drawn
with considerable fidelity to nature and covers nearly the entire disk,
the legs, mandibles, and abdomen reaching to the outer marginal line. As
in the specimen described above, the thorax is placed in the center of
the disk, and is represented by a circle; within this a cross has been
engraved, the ends of which have been enlarged on one side, producing a
form much used in heraldry, but one very rarely met with in aboriginal
American art. The head is somewhat heart-shaped and is armed with palpi
and mandibles, the latter being ornamented with a zigzag line and
prolonged to the marginal lines of the disk. The eyes are represented by
two small circles with central dots. The legs are correctly placed in
four pairs upon the thorax, and are very graphically drawn. The abdomen
is large and heart-shaped, and is ornamented with a number of lines and
dots, which represent the natural markings of the spider. The
perforations for suspension are placed near the posterior extremity of
the abdomen. It will be observed that this is also the case with the
three other specimens. Having described this specimen somewhat
carefully, it will be unnecessary to give a detailed description of the
very similar specimen shown in Fig. 2. The latter was found in a stone
grave in Saint Clair County, Illinois, and does not differ in any
essential feature from either of the other specimens, one of which was
found near by, and the other about one hundred miles farther south.
In reference to the cross it has been suggested that it may have been
derived from the well-defined cross found upon the backs of some species
of the genus _Atta_, but there appears to be good reason for believing
otherwise. The cross here shown has a very highly conventionalized
character, quite out of keeping with the realistic drawing of the
insect, and, what is still more decisive, it is identical with forms
found upon many other objects. The conclusion is that the cross here, as
elsewhere, has a purely symbolic character. Spider gorgets are also
mentioned by A. J. Conant in the Kansas City Review, Vol. I, page 400,
and in his work on the Commonwealth of Missouri, page 96, but no details
are given. It is probable that the objects referred to by Mr. Conant are
the same as those more definitely placed by Prof. Hilder.
The specimen shown in Fig. 4 was obtained from a mound on Fain's Island,
Tennessee. The disk is somewhat more convex on the front than is
indicated in the engraving. It is two and a half inches in diameter, and
is quite thin and fragile, although the surface has not suffered much
from decay. The margin is ornamented with twenty-four very neatly made
notches or scallops. Immediately inside the border on the convex side
are two incised circles, on the outer of which two small perforations
for suspension have been made; inside of these, and less than half an
inch from the margin, is a circle of seventeen sub-triangular
perforations, the inner angle of each being much rounded. Inside of this
again is another incised circle, about one and one-fourth inches in
diameter, which incloses the highly conventionalized figure of an insect
resembling a spider. In a general way--in the number and arrangement of
the parts--this figure corresponds pretty closely to the very realistic
spiders of the three other disks; in detail however, it is quite unlike
them. It is much more highly conventionalized--the natural markings of
the body being nearly all omitted, and the legs being without joints and
square at the tips. The cross does not appear on the body, but its place
is taken by a large conical perforation, made entirely from the convex
side. The central segment of the body is round, as in the other cases;
to this the four pairs of legs are attached. Without reference to the
other specimens, it would be difficult to distinguish the anterior from
the posterior extremity, and even with this aid we cannot be quite
certain. The larger extremity is somewhat triangular in outline and is
ornamented with two cross lines and two eyes. Were it not for the fact
that these eyes resemble so closely those found in the other specimens I
should call this the posterior extremity, as the opposite end terminates
in a pair of well-shaped mandibles, the triangular space between them
being cut quite through the disk. The section of the body between this
and the central circle also resembles the head, which suggests the
conclusion either that the eyes are misplaced or that, as drawn, they
are only intended to represent the bright spots of the insect's body.
The rarity of these spider gorgets makes it seem rather remarkable that
specimens should occur in localities so widely separated as Fain's
Island and Saint Louis, but the races inhabiting this entire region, are
known to have had many arts in common, and besides this it is not
impossible that the same tribe or clan may, at different times, have
occupied both of these localities. The marked differences in the design
and execution of these specimens, however, indicate a pretty wide
distinction in the time or art of the makers.
[Illustration: PL. LXI--SPIDER GORGETS.
1. From a mound, Missouri.
2. From a stone-grave, Illinois.
3. From a mound, Illinois.
4. From a mound, Tennessee.
(1/1)]