Professor Boyle speaks of the bar-amulet after treating of bird-stones, but he does not class them as the same kind of ceremonials.
Frank Hamilton Cushing illustrated bird-stones and flat tablets, and he thought the bird-stones were tied on flat tablets and these worn on the head. I inclined to that opinion when I published “The Bird-Stone Ceremonial,” but now I do not believe this, for the reason that most bird-stones could not be conveniently tied to flat tablets.
Fig. 417. (S. 1–1.) Phillips Academy collection.
That they are found in regions where there are many mounds used to be stated, but this is hardly correct. They have never been found in a mound, and I do not know of an instance where they have been found in graves. They occur more in northern Ohio, Canada, and New York State than elsewhere except Michigan and Wisconsin. I firmly believe that they were not made and used by mound-building tribes but antedate the mound-building period. As to the exact purpose of these things I leave others to judge.
ANIMAL AND HUMAN EFFIGIES
There are many crude effigies, many grotesque sculptures found in this country. There are also stones that are in the border-lands between highly developed problematical forms and effigies. Fig. 413 presents a group of these from the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The upper row appears to be whale effigies. In the lower row are small stone bowls or paint-cups.
Fig. 418. (S. 1–2.) shows four peculiar stones from the Salt River Valley, Arizona. The one in the lower left-hand corner illustrates an armadillo; in the upper right-hand corner, an owl. The others are unknown effigies. These Arizona specimens are all of volcanic tufa, and are typical of the region. Large numbers were found by Mr. Cushing during his explorations of the ruins of the Salt River Valley, and something like a hundred were dug up by me for Mr. Peabody when I visited the region. The purpose of these is unknown.
