Fig. 416 shows a number of spindle-whorls to which reference has been made elsewhere. These are made of clay, hard baked. In the lower centre is a stone idol found in a large ruin at Mesa, Arizona. It is made of hard redstone. There is a little depression in the top of the head half an inch in depth. Near the top is a curious animal effigy with eight legs. This is made of fine-grained lava and has a depression in the centre about one and one half inches in diameter.
Fig. 423. (S. 1–1.) From a mound near South Carrollton, Kentucky. Presented to the Phillips Academy Museum, by F. G. Hilman, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Fig. 417 illustrates two effigies, full size, of black onyx, each typifying a bird. These are very finely carved and were found in southern Arizona in a ruin, by the expedition sent there by Mr. R. S. Peabody, 1897–98.
The human form was frequently indicated in stone by the Indians. These sculptures range from very crude delineations, which I have not shown, to the first steps in more ambitious work, such as is exhibited in Fig. 422. This stone head was found near Elmira, New York, by Mr. Ward E. Bryan. The original was seven or eight inches in length. It is cut out of fine-grained sandstone. On the back are curious lines and dots as shown in the figure. The face shown is much cruder than that in Fig. 423. That face is of the peculiar type known as “Mound-Builder.” I have referred to this resemblance elsewhere. Inspection of Fig. 499 in the pipe series, found by Professor Mills at Adena, in the Scioto Valley, Ohio, and of the idol, Fig. 426, and some of the effigy pottery, will acquaint readers with this curious, strongly marked, Mound-Builder type of feature. Other examples are to be seen in books treating of American archæology.
Fig. 424. (S. 1–4.) An idol and three flutes. B. H. Young’s collection.
The long flute at the top is made of slate. The head is an imitation of a serpent’s head. It has five holes regularly spaced. It is evident that a small block of wood was placed in the mouth to lessen the wind space.
The central one is of stone, open at both ends, with four holes.
The smallest one, of bone, is open at both ends.
On each of these instruments from seven to nine different sounds can be made.
The idol was found in Tennessee, near the Kentucky line. It is made of dark steatite, and is unique in representing the full human form.
The idol presented in Fig. 426 is a remarkable effigy. Not a few of these have been found near the Etowah Group of mounds in Georgia. All such idols have either been found in graves or on the sites of Southern villages, where population was considerable. I never knew of them being found in a mound, although there may have been such discoveries.
Fig. 425. (S. 1–3.) B. H. Young’s collection. Wooden image found many years ago in Bell County, Kentucky, near Middlesboro, in a cave by a turkey-hunter. It is made of yellow pine, and is of form similar to the stone effigies found in Kentucky. The ears are pierced for ear-rings, and the wrists grooved for bracelets.