Fig. 519 A. (S. 1–7.) Two are of steatite, and one of limestone. They were found in eastern Kentucky. From the collection of B. H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.
There are no special conclusions to be reached with reference to mortars and pestles. An inspection, in any public museum, of collections from the Northwest Coast, Pacific Coast, and New England will acquaint the readers with the fact that both the mortar and the pestle were sometimes highly ornamented and worked into fanciful forms. Fig. 516, a remarkable metate from Professor Barr’s collection, is an illustration of the point I have in mind. Metates of this character are common in Mexico and Central America. Those who have studied symbolism see evidences of phallic worship in many of the pestles from California and the Northwest. The range in all tools and receptacles needed in the Indian’s domestic science, is considerable, and covers the entire field from the rough pebble to the effigy pestle, or the metate, almost table-like in character.
CHAPTER XXVIII
OBJECTS OF SHELL
Fig. 520. (S. 1–1.) Shell hoe from the village-site at Fort Ancient, Ohio.
Aboriginal man used shell and bone for a variety of purposes. He frequently made of these substances the same forms that he did in flint or stone, and if one were classifying under use, one would include, under arrow-points, not only those of flint, but of bone and shell as well. The same is true of the beads and of flat ornaments, which may be of shell, or bone, quite as often as of stone. But since we have begun to classify these objects according to material, it is necessary to place under the above head many artifacts that would naturally fall into another subdivision, were we to ignore materials.
Fig. 521. (S. 1–4.) Collection of B. Beasley, Montgomery, Alabama.
Generally throughout North America shells were made use of for ornamentation. Shell beads are as widely distributed as chipped implements and more generally found throughout the United States than pottery. In fact, in most cemeteries, mounds, and cliff-houses where human burials occur, are strings of beads of various kinds and sizes. I might enumerate all the shells found in both fresh water and salt, and made use of by the natives in America, but this is hardly required. However, were I writing more extendedly upon shell objects, it would be necessary to give all the names. These are purposely omitted.
The classification of shell objects is as follows:—