Class Third.—ATTAJEGUNA.[71]
[71] From the Algonquin Jeegun, an instrument, an implement, or any artificial contrivance, or invention.
Under this class are grouped a great variety of implements and instruments of utility, war, hunting and diversion. The material is chiefly stone. Without plates, however, it is impossible to give that exactitude to the description of this numerous class of antiquarian remains which is desired. But a single figure has been prepared—Attajeguna deoseowa. This relic of Indian art was pointed out to me by Mr. Wright, missionary on the Seneca reservation, near the city of Buffalo. It consists of a block of limestone, having two spherical basin-shaped depressions. It is the tradition of this people that in this ancient mortar, the female potters of olden time pounded the stone material with which they tempered the clay for the ancient akeek or cooking vessel. The original stone had been broken. From the portion of which the annexed is a figure, the entire mass must have been one of considerable weight.
American Antiquities.—Plate VII.
Class Fourth.—OPOAGUNA.
The class of antique pipes. Smoking pipes, constitute a branch of Indian art, which called forth their ingenuity by carvings of various forms of steatite, serpentine, indurated clay, limestone, sandstone and other bodies. A very favorite material was the red sedimentary compact deposit, found on the high dividing ridge between the Missouri and Mississippi, called the Coteau du Prairie. Pipes were also made from clay, tempered with some siliceous or felspathique material, similar to that used in their ancient earthenware.
Opoaguna Algonquin.—Fig. 1. Am. Ant. Plate VIII.
The composition of this pipe is a compact brown clay, tempered with a fine siliceous matter, and dried in the sun, not baked in a potter’s oven. The exterior is stained black, and bears a certain gloss, not a glazing. The bowl has been formed by hand, and is rude. The principal point of skill is evinced in the twist ornamenting the exterior of the bowl. Locality, Genesee river valley.